CONDEMNING OTHERS

Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and make manifest the motives of hearts. And then each one’s praise will come to him from God. 1 Corinthians 4:5

Government workers have been the blunt of many jokes over the years. But they are not the only ones who have a reputation for inefficiency. Recently a crew was doing work along the road that I drive almost every day. I enjoyed watching the work progress, but many times I thought to myself, “They are milking this job for all its worth.”  From my limited experience, it seemed that they should have been able to get the job done in at least half of the time.

But then one day the Holy Spirit convicted me of my condemning thoughts towards these men. I have never been trained to do what they are doing. It is possible that there are many factors that I do not know about, at play; factors that require them to move at their slow pace (from my perspective). But even if I am right in my judgment, I am not their judge, God is. There is coming a day when the Lord will judge these men for the work they did along the road, and my thoughts towards them will be nowhere in the proceedings.

Therefore, I must not pass judgment on them, but entrust them to the Lord, who always does what is right. In addition, I must remember, that there have been many times when I have not worked as efficiently as I should. I must remember to remove the log from my own eye, before I remove the speck from my brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5).

Joshua Steiner