{"id":1348,"date":"2024-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/2024\/02\/05\/do-not-judge\/"},"modified":"2024-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T07:00:00","slug":"do-not-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/2024\/02\/05\/do-not-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"A Powerful Phrase That Changed My Entire Outlook On Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This may not be the most earth-rattling, mind-blowing verse in The Bible, but when people ask my favorite Scripture, this is my immediate answer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathew 7:1<\/a> – \u201cDo not judge others, and you will not be judged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I\u2019ve heard it said repeatedly that confession is good for the soul, so here goes: I can be \u201cjudge-y.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know, in a world full of turmoil, disagreements, bad hair and questions in faith, being \u201cjudge-y\u201d could be considered low hanging fruit. But this is exactly why I chose to address the topic. I figure if this is something I catch myself doing on an almost minute by minute basis, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m the Lone Ranger on this bad boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am an equal-opportunity judger. Friends, family, total strangers, random things I see and\/or hear, I catch myself passing judgement on anything and everything. Of course, I never go out of my way<\/strong> to be a little snarky about what someone is wearing or the weird name they chose to give their kid. It just happens before I even realize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was blissfully ignorant of this little personality quirk of mine until one day when I was in middle school. I was sitting with my mom in church not really paying attention to the sermon (something about a speck in someone\u2019s eye and a tree trunk in yours – I think that was it). I decided to flip through my Bible to pass the time, and I came across that one little sentence that changed my entire outlook on life<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not judge others, and you will not be judged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, as a kid I had my grandfather\u2019s King James Bible<\/a>, it read a little different:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge not, that ye be not judged\u201d (I always liked the drama of the KJV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, those seven little words stuck in my mind. I kept rolling them over and over, trying to decide what exactly Jesus meant by those words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After pondering it all these years, my conclusion is that the short version is this: Jesus is the Ultimate Judge. He is the only One with the authority, wisdom and discernment to pass judgement. It\u2019s not up to me<\/strong> to determine whether someone is condemned in the eyes of God. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s their make-up, their fashion sense, or anything else they choose or live out in their life and their Facebook profile. It ain\u2019t my job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, I now try to take it one step further. I ask \u201cwhat is it about this person or situation that I need to learn about? What\u2019s the lesson?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all as God made us<\/strong>, there was only one \u201cperfect\u201d One and He is NOT me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the Bible can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. This one\u2019s pretty cut and dry. Only He can pass judgment, and you are not Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, I\u2019m getting off the subject so let me put it back on the rails: next time you see your bestie from high school post a new profile picture with waaaaaaaay too many filters on it, smile and love them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please remember: If none of this makes any sense, consider the source. I am no Bible scholar. As the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh once said, \u201cI am a bear of little brain\u201d. Just a guy who loves Jesus and is trying to get along in a world I don\u2019t fully understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip Mahaffey
Director of Programming Operations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus is the Ultimate Judge. He is the only One with the authority, wisdom and discernment to pass judgement. It\u2019s not up to me to determine whether someone is condemned in the eyes of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24,28,120],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spiritual-growth","tag-encouragement","tag-inspiration","tag-judgment"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 03:57:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftingstar.com\/star1015denver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}