Matthew 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
Judging others can be a bit like having termites in the house – the problem can be there for a lengthy time before we become aware of it. Then we have to discover how extensive the problem is and deal with it. A powerful example of judging wrongly comes from CS Lewis’ book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
In a house on an island, Lucy discovers a Magician’s book that offers her all kinds of opportunities – not all of which are appropriate. She speaks the words of a spell that will enable her to know what her friends thought of her. As she’s looking at the pictures in the book, she is aware that she is seeing and hearing two classmates, Anne and Marjorie,
speaking about her on a train back in England. The conversation does not go as she expects.
Anne asks Marjorie if she is going to continue spending so much time with Lucy; she asserts that the last term (at school) Marjorie was crazy about Lucy. Marjorie replies that
she wasn’t crazy about Lucy, saying, “I’ve got more sense than that. Not a bad little kid in her way. But I was getting pretty tired of her before the end of the term.”
Lucy explodes with indignation calling Marjorie a “Two-faced little beast.” She then realizes that she’s talking to a picture in the Magician’s book, but still is distressed by
this perceived betrayal by her friends, particularly Marjorie. Lucy had really befriended Marjorie, but she now wonders if her other friends are the same.
A few minutes later, Lucy sees Aslan in the room with her – He had been there all the time. He speaks to her about eavesdropping on her two friends and how she had misjudged Marjorie. Aslan tells her, “(Marjorie) is weak, but she loves you. She was afraid of the older girl and said what she does not mean.”
We are too prone to snap-judgments, and thinking we know why someone did something. Doing so is sin and has such significant consequences – spiritual and otherwise. Instead of judging, we must release things to the Lord and look to Him. I thank God for how He has used this scene to warn and keep me from making the mistake of judging others. Pray that He will do likewise for you.
