John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
This topic was illuminated to me as I read through John 7-10. It is really the most perfect quality to develop, as our world is becoming more and more negative. This is a movement of not only quick judgement, but quick condemnation. With every situation we crave a villain. Even accidents have to have someone who is held accountable. The result is hard hearts and dulled love. The world has enough hate, grudges, and judging. We need more love, forgiveness and compassion.
Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk at BYU titled, “Judge Not and Judging”. This talk gave excellent help to understanding what the Lord is asking us to do when he says judge righteously and yet at the same time to not judge others. He explains that the “not judging” is when we try to make the final judgement on others. That is the Lord’s responsibility, and His only. There are way too many factors that we as mortals cannot comprehend and have no way of knowing. Besides the fact that the Atonement is available to all regardless of mistakes they have made. Though the Lord has warned us to not procrastinate our repentance and to embrace the Atonement fully during our everyday lives, he has also told us that his hand is reached out still. When we are ready and willing to turn to Him, he is ready, even if it’s the fourth quarter, last seconds of our lives. President Oaks gives this example as to why we must NOT judge others upon a sin they commit.
“The effect of one mortal’s attempting to pass final judgment on another mortal is analogous to the effect on athletes and observers if we could proclaim the outcome of an athletic contest with certainty while it was still underway. Similar reasoning forbids our presuming to make final judgments on the outcome of any person’s lifelong mortal contest.” -Dallin H. Oaks
He also Quotes Brigham Young in relation to trying to pass judgement!
“I am very t`hankful that it is not our province . . . to judge the world; if it were, we would ruin everything. We have not sufficient wisdom, our minds are not filled with the knowledge and power of God. . . . And we must also acquire the discretion that God exercises in being able to look into futurity, and to ascertain and know the results of our acts away in the future, even in eternity, before we will be capable of judging. [JD 19:7–8]
In this teaching Brigham Young was, typically, merely elaborating on a teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said:
While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard. . . . He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men . . . , “not according to what they have not, but according to what they have,” those who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who have a law, will be judged by that law.” [Teachings, p. 218] -from Dallin H. Oaks talk “Judge not and Judging”
“Let us remember that Christ is supreme. He is the righteous Judge, our faithful Advocate, our blessed Redeemer, the Good Shepherd, the promised Messiah, a true Friend, and much, much more. He is indeed a very precious gift to us from our Father.” -M. Russell Ballard
How do we judge righteously? Which bring us to our weekly challenge “Judge Righteously!”
Once again I am going to quote Dallin H. Oaks talk.
“We all make judgments in choosing our friends, in choosing how we will spend our time and our money, and, of course, in choosing an eternal companion. Some of these intermediate judgments are surely among those the Savior referred to when he taught that “the weightier matters of the law” include judgment (Matthew 23:23).”
“First of all, a righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate. It will refrain from declaring that a person has been assured of exaltation or from dismissing a person as being irrevocably bound for hellfire. It will refrain from declaring that a person has forfeited all opportunity for exaltation or even all opportunity for a useful role in the work of the Lord. The gospel is a gospel of hope, and none of us is authorized to deny the power of the Atonement to bring about a cleansing of individual sins, forgiveness, and a reformation of life on appropriate conditions.
Second, a righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge.”
“Third, to be righteous, an intermediate judgment must be within our stewardship. We should not presume to exercise and act upon judgments that are outside our personal responsibilities.”
“A fourth principle of a righteous intermediate judgment of a person is that we should, if possible, refrain from judging until we have adequate knowledge of the facts.” -Dallin H. Oaks
In short, the reason for making righteous judgments would be to protect oneself or others from damaging situations; it ought never to be because of hurt feelings or revenge. It would never be from self-righteousness or anger. Judging of any kind should be accompanied with love and understanding.
I believe that we will be held accountable for the effects of the judgments that we bestow upon others. These “unrighteous” judgments DO effect our own lives and the lives of those we judge. Such judgments can remove the light of Christ from the situation, leaving sadness and darkness to guide.
Let’s all commit to love more and judge less.
Here is the link to Dallin H. Oaks full talk:https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dallin-h-oaks_judge-judging/?M=A
-Sherri Jorgensen
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