Don't Judge Me!

I have heard this phrase used frequently. Recently, while waiting on a customer, I asked a woman if the baby she was holding was hers.  I meant no harm when I asked and I certainly was insinuating nothing.  I was only curious and I absolutely love children.  Another woman, the baby’s mother, looked me square in the face and told me “in no uncertain terms” that I had no right to judge her daughter.  Wow!!!  I hear it used by others at work and I confess that I have jokingly used it myself. What concerns me is that, in our culture, it seems if I disagree with someone else’s opinion or something they are doing suddenly, I have judged them.  Perhaps we need to redefine or rather get back to what it really means to “judge” someone.  The word judge is a judicial term meaning to pronounce sentence on a guilty party. When we judge, we are pronouncing sentence on a person.  According to the words of Jesus, we are not to judge, sentence anyone. Even with the woman caught in adultery Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you."   Jesus, the only one who had a right to act as judge did not condemn her. His only concern was that she go and sin no more.  As Jesus looks at you and me, he says the same thing he said to her, “I don’t pronounce judgment on you."  When we trust him, he says you are not guilty.  I am not in the place of God to sentence anyone.  At times, my love for God and others may compel me let you know what you are doing is wrong.  How will you and I know what sin is if everyone is afraid to call something wrong. I know that Hell is just as real as Heaven and I do not want anyone to go there.  Love never judges, but it may bring us face to face with sin so that we can turn and be saved.