Branch On The Vine

By: Alli Matthews

Hello and welcome back to the blog!

It has been a wonderful and challenging first six weeks of being a physician assistant in psychiatry. I decided to take a longer break from writing to focus on learning, resting, and spending quality time with people. 

But recently, I felt God nudging me to write again. 

And, of course, I think He is nudging me to write about a topic that is extremely humbling to myself: judging other people. 

I’ll start with a little story from a few weeks ago. I was talking with someone who had committed a crime. It wasn’t just stealing or trespassing – it was a crime that hurt and traumatized another human. I felt shocked and disturbed as I learned their story. Then, the person sat down in front of me. 

I had to make a choice. Was I going to allow my feelings and judgments to dictate how I treated this person, or was I going to treat them with love knowing what they had done? 

At first, it felt difficult to have a conversation with this person, but as time progressed, I learned this person wasn’t just someone who did something wrong, but someone who was curious about God. They had just gone to church for the first time that Sunday and really liked it. They felt regret about their past and had hope for a better future. 

God humbled me deeply in that encounter. He reminded me that we all have done things that are wrong. He brought Romans 3:23-24 to my mind, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 

I have sinned too. I am no better than this person. We both bear the image of God and fall short of His standard and need the grace He offers through Jesus. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all judge people. It’s part of our instinctual protection system that helps keep us safe. We use our limited knowledge and past experiences to determine whether a person is safe to be around or whether they may harm us in some way. We categorize people based on whether we can relate to them in order to build a community that can support us. This is important for survival. 

But it doesn’t end there, does it? We often judge people for things other than their potential to harm us or help us. The judgments we make about people often make us feel superior to them in some way, whether we recognize it or not. We label people in a way that makes us feel better about ourselves. For example, we say things like, “They’re weird because they do this,” or “They’re lazy because they don’t do that”. I’ll call this type of judgment ~pumping up our pride~. 

So, what is wrong with judging people? 

God didn’t create us to judge each other. He created us to love Him and love each other as humans. Jesus is the one righteous judge, and He often judges differently than we do. Here are some examples:

1. Jesus looks at the heart instead of outward appearance.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’” 1 Samuel 16:7.

In this passage, God is guiding Samuel as he is looking for the next king to rule Israel. God is trying to help him understand how He sees people. Jesus looks at their heart: who they are, their motives, their desires, and that is what is most important to Him. It’s incredible. 

When was the last time you judged someone based on outward appearance then later learned their heart told a different story? You’re not alone, but let this remind you that your heart is the part of you that matters most to God.

2. Jesus is given the authority to judge from the Father.

“Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.’” John 5:19-23. 

In this passage, Jesus is talking about himself, (the Son), to the religious leaders of his time, the Pharisees. He is describing how God, The Father, gives Jesus authority to judge, but they work together as One and both should be honored as God. 

Do you struggle to view Jesus as a righteous judge? You’re not alone, but let this remind you that although Jesus could condemn anyone who has ever sinned (A.K.A. every single human), He instead patiently waits for us to let Him into our lives and freely offers us grace and redemption. 

3. Jesus offers us forgiveness and salvation through faith. 

“But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

I get overwhelmed by the love of God when I think about this. Jesus Christ chose to die for us while we were still rebelling against Him. He knew that we would continue to do what’s wrong and disobey Him, but He loved us so much that He died for us anyways. We can receive forgiveness and salvation by choosing to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 

Romans 10:9-11 says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’” 

Thank you, Jesus, that we can receive your forgiveness, salvation, and grace through declaring that you are Lord. Thank you for dying for us while we are still sinners.

This beautiful truth brings me back to the question: who am I to judge another person? When I think of all the wrong I have done and how Jesus chose to love me anyways, I realize that I am in no place to judge anyone. 

Do you think we can fully stop judging people for the wrong reasons? 

Personally, I don’t think we fully stop, at least not until Jesus returns. Don’t get me wrong – anything is possible with God. Yet, judging others wrongly is part of the sin we still experience in this world. 

However, I think we can choose whether to let our judgments rule in our minds or to take them captive and make them obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” We can choose to release the judgments we habitually make about people, and, instead, let Jesus rule in our hearts and minds. 

My final encouragement is to love people freely by the power of Christ. If you believe He is your Savior, you can allow Him to love people through His Spirit that dwells within you. Look for the good in people, giving them as much grace as Jesus has given you.