See how nobody can be against us

Photo by Jeff Rodgers on Unsplash

JUDGMENTS happen against people all the time — against ourselves and others. Character assassination by stealth or active engagement. Every person alive has been hurt. Some hurts are easy to recover from; others, well… let’s just say we’re working on those. We find it hard not to judge those who transgressed us. Then there are the hurts we are supposed to have inflicted; the ones to provoke another’s judgment of us.

But here’s a fact to work our weary minds around.

Even though Jesus said, ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged’, we judge and are judged. We condemn and are condemned. We and they lose sight of the directness of Jesus’ words — ‘For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.’ We and they lose sight of the power and seriousness of the words spoken and the heart of bitterness behind them; they are not only spoken in vain, but they usher judgment against anyone who does what only God can legally do. And yet if we would have cause to judge and/or condemn and don’t, and give grace instead, then we have won grace for ourselves before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Why is it we have no real reason to fear another human being? God made them and us — both of us — as blades of grass. In a short time, we will be cut down. In a short time, we will return to Him. They may appear as an enemy for what they do or think or say against us, but they are really fighting against themselves; and, they pick a fight with God they cannot possibly win. Watch and see. We are in the same game. We use our words maliciously or practice dangerous thoughts and do bad by somebody all to our own peril.

So, if people’s judgments against us are always wrong, because God alone is Judge, then nobody can be against us in the only realm that ultimately matters: eternity.

Whenever you’re abused, bullied, neglected, scapegoated, gas-lit, whatever, know that that person’s words and actions echo in eternity. Everything said and done is counted. Imagine God witnessing this event, because the whole of heaven is watching. What appears to be done in secret never is. There is nothing to fear in doing the right thing; to submit under the barrage of assault. Perpetrators will all pay; for every unreconciled transgression.

This is why confession and repentance are the most important concepts for life — they are the way we hold ourselves to account before an Almighty God. Whatever He judges is right, is final, is just, and everlasting.

* Jesus quotes are taken from Matthew 7:1-2.