Recognize your faults before fixing others'

This week we're reading Chapter 44, 'Judging Others', from 'Following the Call - Living the Sermon on the Mount Together' a collection of writings by more than a hundred writers who "call for the formation of a fellowship of disciples who will simply live as Jesus taught us to live." In this chapter, selections from Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Anthony de Mello, Christena Cleveland, Roy Hession. Every week we'll be reflecting on a new chapter. Get yourself a copy and read along with us. www.plough.com/en/topics/fait...
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[@sassy3923]

Yes, it's easy to project unto others the very negative traits we have within ourselves. It's only through introspection and the fear of God that we become willing to take the time to see how guilty we are of the same behaviors. Then we remind ourselves of Jesus' admonition that the mercy and forgiveness we extend to others will be meted back to us. All of a sudden the action of the one we were annoyed with becomes more forgiveable......

[@andrewdewitt7234]

So much of what Cleveland has written in her extract resonated with me. We humans tend to focus on differences. 'Us and not-us': Romans in the Coliseum watching those who were not Romans being butchered. The red team verses the blue team on the sports field. The liberal verses the conservative. Sub-culture verses sub-culture. Jesus pares all that away and defines what religion actually is. James notes that 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.' If Christianity were a crime where we live, would there be enough evidence to convict ourselves on this basis?

[@edwardsolecki6036]

You both are correct, but there is other way to address one's urge to judge; Unless somebody sinned directly against us, when we feel the urge to correct someone, we need to realise that we actually enter someone else's jurisdiction. As it is written: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15. God is the "Gardener". This is His 'job' to correct/prune our actions, not ours. Our job is to "remain in Jesus teaching", and in doing so "we will bear much fruit" John 15.5 And the only issue we should be worrying about here is; whose teaching we are following? Is this "unpolluted milk" preached to us? 1Ptr.2.2 and this is all we should care about in the matter of judging others, since we are loving even our enemies...

[@christianreese1010]

'Promosm'