“Stop Judging By Mere Appearances And Make A Right Judgment”
Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the
temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did
this man get such learning without having studied?"
Jesus
answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If
anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes
from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain
honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a
man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the
law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
"You
are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill
you?"
Jesus
said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. Yet, because
Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but
from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. Now if a child can
be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses
may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the
Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
John 7:14-24
It
is easy to make snap judgments, and those usually get us into trouble. We make a decision not based on all the facts at hand. Based on
incomplete or inaccurate information, we can jump to wrong conclusions and make
poor value judgments about people and situations. And that can cause great hurt
to others.
Speaking
to people who had misjudged Him, Jesus warned people not to make judgments by
outward appearances, but with righteous judgment.
A snap judgment has a way of becoming unfastened.
Our Daily Bread –