Matthew 7:2
God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
I have really thought about what to say today. I’ve asked God to give me His message through this scripture passage. Here is what I keep getting …
Many of us operate in assumptions rather than truth. We listen to our friends, our family members, the guy on the television who we deem an “authority” on certain topics, and others … and we formulate our attitudes and positions based on what we hear from them and assume to be truthful. More than once, I have mentioned to someone, “So-and-so is such a nice person,” only to receive a tirade about what a terrible person “So-and-so” really is. I’ve had people tell me how awful someone is, and when I reply, “That person is a good friend of mine,” – or worse yet, “That person is a member of my family,” the person complaining starts to back-pedal … and on at least one occasion, the person persisted to the point I had to end the discussion. Apparently he never comprehended my repeated phrase, “you are talking about my family.” I’ve had people tell me, “You have never lived around this minority or that one … you have no idea how they behave.”
I do not operate in absolutes. I’m not saying all of my friends and family members are perfect and never have a bad moment. I’m not saying that any group of people doesn’t have “bad apples.” But I’m saying that we are hard on people … and often, we want others to come along for the ride and agree with us. And this is how terrible misunderstandings and the mistreatment of others begins.
Suppose someone told you that a friend of yours sent out a vicious e-mail that resulted in getting people you hang around with in trouble at school … or even expelled. Suppose you never saw the e-mail for yourself … but you readily assumed that the person accused of sending it did so. And you and the rest of your buddies were very tough on this person … to the point of ostracizing them and being downright rude and unkind toward them. And then suppose you found out that the person you accused of sending the vicious e-mail never did so … somewhere down the line, a false accusation had been made.
I won’t repeat the story, because I’ve shared it in a devo before, but a version of this happened to me in junior high. The school “bully” distorted something I said on a church trip and caused every single person on the trip to be mad at me to the point that only a couple of them spoke to me the whole bus ride home from Dallas. I don’t know that some of the relationships ever fully recovered, but it was months before the “bully” let it slip one day that she made it all up. It was really hard to forgive some of those who had dissed me – especially people I considered my close friends. They had not believed me… or trusted that I would never say or do those things. They assumed the other person’s story was true.
I can’t say how God dealt with my friends over this, except to tell you I know some were deeply saddened and remorseful for how they had reacted and treated me. And I can only imagine how people would feel if they falsely accused someone of sending a vicious e-mail … or they talked disrespectfully or unkindly about someone only to find out they were bad-mouthing a dear friend or relative.
I don’t know how God deals with people who spread lies and rumors and try to scare folks into believing one way or another … politically, religiously, socially, or personally. But I know this … the judgment and the retaliation belong to God, not us. We may not see it in our lifetime … those who are mistreated may never realize vindication this side of heaven. But God will deal with injustice … in His time and His way. And I can assure you, if you mistreat others, God will deal with you, and it ain’t gonna be pretty!
The message for today is to use your brain. Think before you pass judgment. Ask yourself … “Have I done the right amount of investigation on my own to form an accurate opinion, or am I trusting the word of someone else?” Be careful how you treat others … mindful that people are “innocent until proven guilty.” Before you disrespect those who do not appear to be “like you,” get to know them and their situation. Ask God to give you an open, loving, generous heart for His people. And at the end of the day, ask Him to have mercy on you and those around you … and compassion for those who are judging you in return!
©2010 Debbie Robus
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