Judge Not (Matthew 7:1)

In a conversation with a hospice patient, he said to me that he felt like the first verse from the 7th Chapter of Matthew is the most important and most difficult lesson in the Bible. Whether you agree or disagree with his statement, this verse deserves some consideration and attention. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (Matthew 7:1).

As the dialogue continued, we reflected on how many times we had judged others in our short conversation. We had judged others in so many ways for so many reasons as we talked. As we pointed out the times the other had judged, we were both surprised at how often we had judged others. We repeated the verse again together and said, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.”

This conversation has stayed with me as a good reminder of how easy it is to judge someone else. I can quickly judge a person or persons without ever knowing the full story. To reduce the number of times I resort to judgement, I have been repeating this verse over and over. I repeat this verse to remind myself to slow down and consider if I am judging someone else.

Compassionate One, you urge us to leave our judgements behind. The hard part is that we know that judging comes natural to us. We must do the hard work of living out this verse. We don’t want to be judged, so why are we judging? Help us, Holy One. Let this verse live in our minds and thoughts. Write this verse on our hearts so we may live it out in our daily actions. Strengthen us so that judgement will not be our first response. Let us respond first with compassion. Amen.