July 11
________________________________________JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY
19 “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22 For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”– John 7:19-24
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In this gospel account of John, we get a deeper glimpse of “legalism” binding the hearts and minds of the Jewish leaders. They were hounding Jesus because He healed on a Sabbath which was prohibited in the Mosaic Laws. They thought that Jesus had a demon in Him. How blinded these Jews are! Because they are so concerned with the strict adherence to the laws, they couldn’t recognize that Jesus was the real Son of God and that He isn’t covered by such laws because He is God himself. Unbelief covered their minds and heart and they were unable to see truth. Jesus pointed out to them the hierarchy of intentions. Is fulfillment of the law through rituals higher than ending the suffering of a man? Jesus role-modeled compassion in this story which is more important than doing rituals. He exhibits perfect wisdom in this conversation and warns them not to judge only by what they see but to dig deeper into what may be hidden like motives or intentions. Only God can see people’s hearts, not man as 1 Samuel 16:7 states.
We tend to instantly judge others by what we see but sometimes we fail to recognize the intentions and reasons why someone did what they did. Jesus wanted to end the long years of suffering to this man and healed him. He set someone free from their condition. His intention was borne out of love and compassion. A lot of times we do things out of rituals and habits and fail to remember that if we claim we are believers, we ought to operate in love and not just ritualistic and habitual acts. We also should take caution in judging others because we can’t see people’s heart. We don’t have all the facts. We need to focus more on exercising compassion. We shouldn’t be quick to judge, but quick to understand instead. We need to judge according to truth and love, not on what we see.
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REFLECTION
• How can a believer develop a compassionate heart and avoid quick judgments?