“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:1-5
Who grew up hearing, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”? I heard it a time or two. For me, becoming an adult came with an unhealthy amount of judgement towards others. It was a regular thing for me to witness somebody struggling with something and think to myself, “It can’t be that hard… If only they would just…” I was quick to judge what I didn’t understand. As I’ve aged, I’ve found myself struggling with many of the same things. Take parenting for example. I was quick to judge a parent that couldn’t control their kids behavior in public. I was quick to cast judgement of parents with picky children. Surely parenting wasn’t that hard… LOL. I sure have learned my lesson.
It breaks my heart to see how often the enemy uses a judgmental heart to bring division within a church body. I have been the dividing person. An individual or group focus their thoughts and feelings around a disagreement and everything else gets lost in the blur. We begin to focus so hard on areas we believe others need to grow that we forsake our own growth in the process.
Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” This is a sad truth. When a person becomes judgmental, division within their heart is certain to follow. Before we can correct another, we must first better and correct ourselves.
So… if you don’t have anything nice to say… It’s probably best you just stay quiet.