It's sad to admit this, but being critical and making negative, even uncharitable judgments about others, comes naturally to me. But guess what?  The same is true of you! In his article, "Charitable Judgments: An Antidote To Judging Others," Ken Sande points out, "When Adam sinned, he corrupted the entire human race. He passed on to each of us an inherent tendency to sin, which includes a natural inclination towards mistaken, negative judgments." 

As Christians, wrongly or uncharitably judging one another is contrary to our new nature in Christ and the "Royal Law," "the Law of Love," as Jesus instructed us. The text in James (4:11-12) we looked at this Sunday put this in the strongest possible terms. Essentially he says, "When you, as a genuine Christian, speak evil against or judge your brothers and sisters in Christ, you are speaking evil against and judging the Law. You are putting yourself above the Law and therefore above God, as the Judge of what is just and good." In verse 12 he says, "There is only one lawgiver and judge" and by implication he's saying "and guess what buddy, it's not you!" In fact, James is showing us why it is that the Gospel totally obliterates any basis we might think we have for judging or speaking evil against others! 

One might ask, "doesn't the Bible actually instruct us to make judgments of others?" Jesus Himself, told us that if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone." Obviously this requires some form of judgment on our part that this person has sinned. Other Scriptures also instruct us to go to those who have sinned, to rebuke or correct others with gentleness, implying some kind of judgment about their actions on our part. So not all kinds of judgments we make towards others are wrong. But how are we to know when our judgments of others are proper and charitable or whether they are sinful and uncharitable? 

Because of these questions and the serious nature and consequences of sinful, uncharitable judgments, I would highly recommend Ken Sande's article to you. Please read this, talk about it with others, and prayerfully ask the Lord to show you your own heart and sinful patterns of judging or speaking sinfully about others. 

Lord, help us, so that our first inclination would be to believe the best about others, to see evidences of your grace at work in them, and to see them as more significant than ourselves. Lord, work in us at Crossway, so that we would be a people whose lives commend the Gospel and bring honor to the name of Jesus.