Here I am, blogging about being a Christian, and yet I have been SUCH a hypocrite these past few months. So please forgive me for that.
I was standing in CV's the other day, (our local grocery store where I work) and a family of 3 came through my line. The little girl, around 8 probably, had an iPhone in her hands. The parents seemed sort of distant, and so I automatically assumed they gave their daughter whatever she wanted to keep her happy. "Spoiled kid," I automatically thought, and kept going on with the order. Later, a man came through my line. He had been through before, and I knew he rode a bike everywhere he went. He looked kind of rough, and so, ashamed as I am to say it, I automatically thought, "Ha, he's probably just some drug dealer."
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged." - Matthew 7:1
"Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for The Lord is able to make him stand." - Romans 14:1
It all clicked then.
Every person I see, whether it's in CV's, the street, school, WalMart... I judge them all. Automatically assume that they are some HORRIBLE people.
So I say to myself, "Jo, I bet he's a great guy with a great family at home that he's providing for."
But that may not be true. I stop myself. Here I am, a Christian, telling others not to judge. not to jump to conclusions. Yet I judge everyone I see.
Here's the thing. No, they may not have a great life. Maybe they do deal drugs. Maybe they don't care about their children. They make mistakes, just like me.
Here's the catch.
You've heard it 50,000,000,000 times in Sunday School. Learned it in AWANAS.
God loves them EXACTLY like He loves me. He cares for them. He's jealous for them. He's got His door wide open to them. Jesus didn't come for perfect people. He came for the lost. The broken. The hurting. The murderers. The drug dealers. The haters. The angry. That's who He came for.
So here's the thing. It's not about assuming somebody is a great person even if they don't look like it. It's not about repeating over and over to yourself that, "Hey, I bet they are really nice people!" It's about loving them no matter who they are. No matter if they've been to jail 10 times. No matter if they hate you.
No matter if they put you on a cross and slaughter you, because even then we are called to love like Christ.
1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
