Today’s 333 Devotional: “Learn To Judge Righteously”

To judge righteously we need to stop promoting our own religious agendas over God’s. This was exactly the point Jesus was trying to make when He said to the religious leaders, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)

The religious leaders were judging Jesus based upon His healing of a crippled man on the Sabbath. Jesus told them they didn’t judge rightly, because they said that the act of circumcision on the Sabbath to keep the law of Moses was okay, and yet at the same time they were condemning Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath.

In other words, they judge based upon their faulty theology. They were guilty of wrong judgment and were urged to mend their ways. They promoted a fallen human agenda rather than God’s agenda.

This was nothing less than hypocritical judgment that Jesus dealt with earlier saying, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2)

The command was to stop having them judge based upon their own preconceptions, religious rituals, and traditions, and start judging in accordance with the heart of God.

But how are we to know God’s heart so that we not only do the work of God, but also judge righteously?

We start by not assuming anything based upon what’s going on outwardly, but instead we are to take the time to look deeper, look beneath and behind the action.

When we take time and seek God’s perspective then we won’t make such hasty and wrong-headed and hearted judgments of others.

The Lord says, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)