I’ve always hated a small restaurant near my house. I saw the outside of the building and how it was painted and just knew I would hate the food. It really didn’t seem like it was my style at all. I was certain I hated the place and its food.
However, one day a bunch of my family decided they wanted to eat there. So I went along with them to have supper. I wasn’t impressed by anything in the restaurant and knew the entire meal was going to be disgusting and not worth my time. But for the sake of my family, I stayed and ordered some food from the menu. I decided on a simple sandwich. I figured its pretty hard to ruin a sandwich.
Before too long, our food arrived. I bit into my sandwich. I didn’t have an expectations that the sandwich was going to be good. In fact, I was just hoping I could eat it without gagging. I took the first bite, and to my surprise, the sandwich was great! In fact, it was one of the best ones I had ever had. I couldn’t believe it, how could I have been so wrong about a sandwich?
That sandwich reminds me a lot of how easy it is to judge others. You can see how a person acts, the clothes they wear, or even the friends they have and put that person into a box. We write certain people off because of how they treated us, or how we perceive them. However, just like I was wrong about the restaurant being good, many times, our judgements of people can be wrong.
By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The other thing about judging others is that it cheapens the price Jesus paid for mankind. Jesus gave his life for all humanity. That means each person has value to God. From the most popular to the least popular, each person matters to God. Because each person matters so much to God, when we judge others we cheapen the price God paid for each person.
So the next time you’re tempted to pass judgement on someone. To look down on them for what they wear or how they act remember that they are important to God. He loves them and wants them to have the chance to get to know Him. So the next time you’re tempted to judge someone, use it as an excuse to share God’s love with that person instead. See the person like God sees them and invite them to start a relationship with a loving God.
God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. – 1 John 4:9 (GW)