YouTube: The Mystery of Judgment
Audio: The Mystery of Judgment
The Alternative Christian Series
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Matthew 7:1-2
Do not think of judgment as some form of divine retribution. Think of it in terms of vibratory attraction. We see from the level of what we believe to be true. To withhold judgment, especially one that is critical, is to recognize that you are reacting to a thing based, not on the truth of a situation, but on the level from which you are seeing it.
We’ve all seen the ancient Indian parable of the group of blind men who encounter an elephant for the first time. Each man touches a part of the elephant and makes his declaration of what is true of the whole animal based on his limited experience. The judgment enacted on each man is that they live with an incomplete understanding of what an elephant looks like.
What is true of the elephant is true of life itself. Just yesterday a man driving a pickup truck zoomed past me well over the speed limit. My first judgment was the reaction of how careless and inconsiderate he was. Needless to say, the emotions that accompanied this judgment were not the best. Then it occurred to me that he may have had an emergency. Maybe his house was on fire or his wife was having a baby. If I was in that situation, I’d break the speed limit too.
In both cases, in the course of a few seconds, I was judged by the judgment I pronounced. The measure I gave was the measure I got back. Blindfolded by my judgment, I touched the trunk of the elephant and said this animal is nothing more than a long wriggling hose.
Our negative judgment does not affect the omnipotence of God, our own divinity or our relationship of oneness with God. It only affects the quality of life we’re experiencing in a given moment. Understanding this principle is an important part of knowing the truth that sets us free.
J Douglas Bottorff 