“To love another person is to see the face of God.” -Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
If you know me well, you know that Les Mis is one of my most favorite stories, so much so that we named our daughter Cosette. It’s a beautiful story of redemption woven through many people’s lives. How they hurt one another because they themselves were hurting and how God’s forgiveness for a man came through the tangible forgiveness of a priest and forever changed the trajectory of every life he touched.
WE are the hands and feet of God on this earth and when people encounter us, we have an opportunity to allow them to encounter God and His very nature through us.
When we remember that EVERYONE, even before they are a new creature in Christ, is made in the image of God, male and female He created them, we will see them differently.
It will be like looking in a mirror. Even a person you consider to be behaving in a way that is the most unbecoming, sinful even, we do share something in common with them. They have the same inherent right of incredible potential just because of Who their Creator is.
They may not yet be God’s children, because we only become children when we accept Jesus and become adopted into His family, but they are still His creation.
We can either LOVE or JUDGE but we cannot do both. We really have no right to judge anyone. Having discernment concerning the fruit or lack of it in others’ lives is not the same as judgment.
So, we don’t have to allow the wrong people and influences to be close to our lives. We may judge a situation, but not people. In Acts 17, the Bereans were called noble-minded people because they judged the teaching to see if the teachers were teaching correctly according to scripture.
God is the ONLY fair and righteous judge because only He alone can know the inward intents of their heart. He’s the only one qualified. We judge behavior if it is harmful to us or others, but not the person. Just as we are to love the sinner but hate the sin.
Always ask yourself what is the spirit behind my thoughts toward this person? If someone is in error, God Himself will handle them. He doesn’t need our help. The wages of sin is still death. There are only two categories of people. Those who Jesus intimately and those who do not. We can have compassion for both. Those who do not yet know Him are walking according to darkness. Those who DO know Him and are struggling to to walk according to their new man are just slipping back in to their flesh or their false-self.
We can only ever walk by LOVE or FEAR and they are being dominated by fear. They are removing themselves out from under God’s protection. Matthew 7 instructs us to “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.” If we choose to JUDGE, we will have to step away from LOVE (our new true nature) and our flesh may feel justified for a moment, sin is pleasurable for a season, but it only causes US pain. “For in the way you judge, YOU will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to YOU.” We ought not judge but to intercede and pray for the mercy of God! Remember that WE are the ones who will feel the feeling that comes from judging on the inside, not others. And LOVE feels so much better. ~Be Blessed, Jenny
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~JENNY RIEFLIN MINISTRIES~ 