Lately I have been learning more about people (the ones who drive me nuts and the ones who don't). I've caught myself judging people who I know or don't know at all. We all judge others, it's part of our sinful nature. But that doesn't mean its okay. I've been trying to figure out how to change the way I view people who aren't like me, who are "fake" (as we call it), or who I don't agree with. I also teach Sunday School to 7th grade girls and this topic of judging comes up almost every week. Girls judge HARD. We basically do it in our sleep, its terrible. Anyways, through prayer, studying, and reading Scripture, God eventually gave me a solution as to how to stop judging others. And it's simple...look at people through the eyes of Jesus.
We judge people because we are prideful and think we are better than them. We think our way is the best way and our lives are the perfect examples of how to live. So, when we come across someone who has different beliefs, interests, and sins, we judge them. Can you believe we do that? We put a label on someone because they sin differently than we do. Sin is sin, y'all. Your sin isn't better or worse than mine. Sin is all together evil and bad. So don't ignore someone, judge them, or view them badly because they fell into a different sin than you did.
Back to the point, we, as sinners, judge people because they are living their lives differently than we are. For example, I may judge a girl as being "fake" because she acts one way at church and another way everywhere else. Maybe she does, but that doesn't give me the right or authority to judge her. That's God's job, not mine. We are wasting our time and lives by judging others. It cause us to show hatred, exclusion, and hypocrisy to the world. That needs to change in my opinion. So, let's look at Jesus and how He handled every encounter with people who were different than him.
Jesus, the only human whose way truly was the best way and whose life really was the perfect example, had more compassion, kindness, and love towards others. He had every right to be prideful and shun others and make them feel useless and wrong, But he didn't. That's the important thing; Jesus could have responded to others however he wanted, he could have judged them right then and there. However, he responded with love and kindness and compassion. The verse in Matthew 9 says,
"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
King Jesus had compassion on sinners. He had compassion on people who didn't deserve it. And he does the same for us. Mathew 9 is full of stories of Jesus' miracles, and it shows how he healed people who were in need of compassion. There were people like the lepers that Jesus showed love to. Everyone else shunned them, shuttered at the sight of them, and left them on their own. But Jesus embraced them, without a second thought. He viewed the 'different' and dirty and sinful people as people who were in need of love and compassion. Like the verse says, He viewed them as helpless sheep in need of a shepherd (9:36). This is how we should view EVERYONE. Wait, you mean just the people who we want, right? Just the people who aren't totally hopeless, right? Just the men and women who won't drag us down or make us look bad, right? Wrong-o! I mean everyone. Every single boy, girl, man, or woman we see. View them as someone who is lost and in need of a shepherd.
Jesus has demonstrated how to guide people and be a shepherd to them. Jesus is our perfect shepherd, but we are called to follow in his foot steps. We need to look at people and not see them as a lost cause or a bad person, but as a living, breathing human being who God created. They are just like us. Treat every person as an opportunity to show Jesus' light to and share His love with. Jesus wouldn't look at the girl who I label as fake, as that. He would view her as God's beautiful creation who is in need of a shepherd and a friend. We all are in need of Jesus' guidance, friendship, and compassion. If we can make ourselves look at the good in others, we will begin to treat them better and as a result, minister to them. They will see Jesus. God is glorified when we show the world the light of His perfect Son.
I love how Jesus didn't shy away from the sick, the broken, and the lost. He embraced them as his own. He took the worst of men, like Saul, and because he showed them compassion and love, they were changed. Saul became Paul, who was one of Jesus's greatest ambassadors, followers, and missionaries. Ask God for compassion like Jesus had. Ask him for Jesus' gentleness and mercy. Ask him to soften your heart for the lost people in the world. If our perfect and sinless King Jesus could have compassion on the most sinful people in the world (like us), then we absolutely can. Through His power, we can see the world through the eyes of Jesus.
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