Many years ago, I found myself stopping at the mall that was in my local town. I can’t remember why I was there, nor the reason for my visit. It was early in the morning, and the mall had just opened.
Malls are great places for people to come and walk to get exercise, and those who do it regularly have come to be known as “mall walkers.” They usually come in during the morning to avoid the larger crowds that seem to gather later in the day.
As I rounded the corner at the center of the mall, I passed a woman mall-walking who was coming towards me. She must have been nearly 500+ pounds, and she was wearing sweatpants and a top.
Immediately, my judgmental thoughts went off in my head. At the time, I was used to wearing some of the day’s most popular brands, and I liked to wear things I thought looked sharp. It was important for me to look good in the eyes of others, and this woman was the complete opposite.
I wasn’t concerned to think that maybe she was there to go mall walking to try to lose some weight? The only thing that I could think about was how appalling it would be to wear those enormous sweats in a mall where she could be seen by so many people. She was the biggest person that I had ever seen, and I felt embarrassed for her.
“Why in the world would you ever wear something like that in the mall?” I thought, and I let all the mental judgments fly…
My Name badge doesn’t have the word JUDGE written on it… That title belongs to Jesus, not me.
To my surprise, I heard an audible voice speak to me. It was so audible that I had to turn around to see who it was that was speaking to me, but there was no one there. The voice said to me, “Stop Judging Her, and instead love her.” I was receiving a rebuke, and I knew it, and it stopped me in my tracks.
It wasn’t a mean-sounding voice, just a correction, but it was very loud, and I heard it very distinctly.
Whenever we judge someone, we are effectively sitting on the judgment seat of Christ and taking his right. A position that was not my right and a title that I didn’t earn. It wasn’t me that trodden the winepress alone, that was something Jesus did. Humans are disqualified from judging because we see only outward actions and appearances, whereas God sees the heart and the inner reality of an individual’s life.
It’s interesting to me, now that I am much older, how judgmental we can be. It seems that wherever we go, we are always passing judgment on everyone we come across.
“Oh, her hair looks awful on her.”
“Why would you wear something like that to church?”
“That is so ugly!”
“Does he not realize what type of restaurant he is in?”
“Could you possibly have any bigger hips?”
“Oh, dear, hasn’t anyone ever shown you how to properly put on any make-up, lady?”
I could go on and on. But it is all the same; we love to pass judgment on others.
We seem to think that it’s our job to make every possible mental judgment that we feel like at the time and dish it all out as if we are some authority over everything.
We “Nit-Pick” everyone who doesn’t fit our way of thinking. The truth is that “Mental Judgments” are something we need to just flat-out STOP doing. We do not know enough about another person’s life to judge them righteously for how they behave.
In this experience, I was counseled to love all men rather than judge them. Remember, God isn’t going to put on his black judge’s robe until Judgment Day. So why are we trying to wear it early for him?
One observation that I find fascinating is that there have been so many individuals who have come back from near-death experiences who say this exact thing. That “how we love others” needs to be a hallmark of our behavior while we are on earth. To truly walk with the supernatural, we must replace our critical spirit with divine love. Even when Jesus interacted with the rich young ruler, He did not pass harsh judgment; rather, He loved him and addressed him as “friend.”
God is kind to us and maintains this constant kindness, mercy, and love for us even when we stumble, and loving others is not a mere suggestion, but a commandment. “A new Commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you.”
Everything created is part of the work of God, and we need to learn to love all that he has created, including the earth and its creatures. To walk in love, we must treat others the same way in which God treats us, even when we face difficult people.
I have also been told that “true charity” means having a clean mind. A clean mind includes not hating or judging others, not having anger towards others, nor having thoughts of ungodliness of any kind. Walking in love means esteeming others as better than yourself and giving them preference, rather than looking down upon them. Give praise and glory to others and keep yourself lower, being humble.
God’s spirit cannot dwell with or in darkness of any type. If our minds are single with God, then our minds think how God thinks, and then we will stop passing out judgments. When love is perfected, we naturally cease to think evil of others, which is defined as walking in holiness.
A crucial takeaway is that our faith will not operate without love as its motivation. This is illustrated by several scriptural examples in which every time the Lord performed a miracle, it was preceded by compassion (love). I want my spirit to be illuminated with light as God’s is, and if it is pure enough, we might have others come up to us and say, “Hey, you’re glowing.”
I have been working toward stopping giving out judgments for many years. And it’s not that easy, you have to really think about it. We get so good at passing out this mental energy onto those around us that we don’t realize it. Whenever I catch myself, I have to mentally pull the thought back, wad it up like a crumpled piece of paper, and then toss it into my mental trash can.
This mental energy we send out sticks with people. It’s as if we are taking a heavy rock and placing it in someone’s backpack for them to carry around for years. My Judgment is negative energy, and I am projecting it directly onto people. Over time, our pack gets heavy due to all the judgments from others, and it emotionally affects us, and we won’t know why we are so depressed.
Every so often, I will mentally throw out the emotional judgments that others have placed on me, I physically say “that I don’t accept them,” and according to my faith in Christ, and in Jesus’ name, I throw them off and no longer consent to it. This allows me to clear out all the spiritual baggage that others have placed on me.
We don’t realize that we acquiesce to these energies by not throwing them off, so they remain and will influence us for many years to come. Some of this energy can also be felt physically.
Human love is inconsistent; we may love or like someone today, but that feeling can change tomorrow based on circumstances or the other person’s actions. We need to step back and stop adding rocks to the backpacks of those around us. Divine love is the ability to show unconditional love to strangers and even enemies. Jesus greeted Judas the betrayer with his salutation of “friend.”
Jesus said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”