{"id":7130,"date":"2021-07-04T10:54:04","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T00:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7130"},"modified":"2021-07-07T12:32:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T02:32:09","slug":"fr-marks-top-5-tips-to-avoid-judgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/fr-marks-top-5-tips-to-avoid-judgement\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr Mark’s Top 5 Tips to Avoid Judgement"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Fr Mark’s Top 5 Tips to Avoid Judgement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Reading Luke 6:27-38<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and\nyou shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>Luke 6:37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a simple approach to passing through judgement, yet\nthis causes us to wonder, what is judging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Paul defines judgement during the end time saying, \u201cTherefore\njudge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring\nto light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts<\/em>\u201d\n\u2013 1 Corinthians 4:5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Paul is saying that we cannot judge anything before it\u2019s due time. The time will be due when the Lord comes in the end times. Christ is the judge and He is the One that brings forth to light the hidden things of darkness and reveals the counsels of the hearts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To judge is to expose the heart of somebody. Who could ever expose the heart of another? For us to judge one another, we are taking the place of God. We assume that we can expose the heart of another. At its core, to judge somebody is to elevate one\u2019s self above another. We cannot judge, as we are not God and do not know what dwells in the hearts of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we begin to judge another, we are in a state of confusion. There are five key confusions that cause us to judge others wrongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFUSING YOURSELF WITH ANOTHER PERSON<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

 I can see myself as an\nindividual. The lens that I view others in is skewed by what is inside me. When\nI judge someone, I begin to notice flaws in my own character. We can use these\nthoughts of judgement as a mirror of what is going on inside of me. We see what\nwe are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man lived in a large apartment block that was parallel to\nanother apartment block. One night he was looking outside his window and could\nsee inside the window of another apartment. As looked into the adjacent lounge\nroom, he was struck by what he saw in that lounge room. He thought to himself, \u201cwhy\ndon\u2019t they get a new couch? It\u2019s so old and falling apart. Why don\u2019t they at\nleast clean it? How would you even sit on it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon he realised, it wasn\u2019t actually a window that he was\nlook into, but a mirror \u2013 a reflection \u2013 of his own living room. He never\nrealised his own couch was a mess until he thought it was somebody else\u2019s. We\ndo the same thing when we look at the lives of other people in a judgemental\nway, not realising that what we are seeing is a reflection of our own\nweaknesses and flaws. We can use our judgement to self-reflect of what is deeply\nhidden inside of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

WISHING OTHERS WOULD CHANGE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If I look to my spouse or my children and I see something in\nthem that I wish they would change. My colleagues at work annoy me and I wish\nthey would change the way they do things. Society is a mess, and we wish they\nwould change their views. Alas, we shouldn\u2019t confuse the order of change. Change\ndoesn\u2019t begin with others, it begins with me. I am the one that needs to be\nchanging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Anglican bishop wanted the following inscribed on his\ntombstone, \u201cwhen I was young and free, my imagination had no limits and I\ndreamed of changing the world. As I grew older, I discovered the world would\nnot change. I decided to shorten my sights and decided to change only my\ncountry, but it seemed immovable. As I entered my twilight years, I settled for\nchanging only my family. Alas, they would have none of it. Now, as I lie on my\ndeath bed, I realise, if only I changed myself first then by example, I would\nhave changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would have\nbeen able to better my country, and who knows, maybe even the world.\u201d<\/em> Change\nbegins with one\u2019s self. We shouldn\u2019t worry about changing others, but to focus\non what I can do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFUSING EARTHLY BEAUTY WITH SPIRITUAL BEAUTY<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

 We often assess\nthings by their earthly beauty and appeal. We need to look deeper and assess their\nspiritual beauty. We are all created in God\u2019s image. Christ saw the beauty in\nall \u2013 the criminals, the prostitutes and the sinners alike. Christ sees the\nbeauty in me, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we are dealing with anybody, we can look deeper for the\nbeauty within, for we know it is there according to the image of Christ. We\ncannot let our eyes search for the wrong, but for the beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a monk visiting the cells of the other monks. He\nenters one that is clean and tidy and organised. He is so impressed and thinks\nthis monk must be so holy, organising his spiritual life the same way he\norganises his cell. He visits another monk\u2019s cell and sees a mess, nothing in\nits rightful place. He thinks, \u201cwow, this monk must be so holy, he pays no attention\nto the things of this world, he must be so fixated on his spiritual life.\u201d The monk\nwas able to find beauty despite opposing conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFUSING PROCESS WITH FULFILMENT<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When we judge someone, we can sometimes act like that this\nhow a person will always be \u2013 this is there end. All of us are on a journey, we\nare going through a process. A person may have a certain weakness now, but this\nis just a part of their journey. Every masterpiece takes time. Imagine judging\nan artist\u2019s work before it is complete, with rough edges, uneven lines, a face\nwithout all its features. What a mess. The artist would tell you to wait, they\u2019re\nnot finished yet, this all part of the process. When we judge someone in the\nmiddle of their life, we must wait, they are a masterpiece that is not yet completed.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St John Climacus once said, \u201cDo not condemn, even if you see\nwith your eyes, for they are often deceived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONFUSING ACTION WITH ESSENCE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Until the Lord comes, the hidden will be brought to light.\nThis is the essence of someone. We deal with people that disappoint us, we\njudge and we condemn, without understanding the essence of that person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is more than just do not judge and you won\u2019t be\njudged, but there is more in a reward. \u201cGive, and it will be given to you:\ngood measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into\nyour bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to\nyou<\/em>\u201d \u2013 Luke 8:38.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reward is equal to what we give. I hate when you buy a drink\nand they fill it with so much ice that the drink is finished after only a few\nsips. Now I ask for no ice, so I can enjoy it fully. The measure of ice is so\ntight that it consumes the space for the drink. We give in the same way. We\nforgive, but we forgive with ice. We give to each other, but with ice. God is\ntelling us to remove the ice. Remove the coldness. God can give us in\nabundance, but we must also give in abundance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fr Mark’s Top 5 Tips to Avoid Judgement Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily Reading Luke 6:27-38 \u201cJudge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.\u201d \u2013 Luke 6:37. Such a simple approach to passing through judgement, yet this causes … Continue reading “Fr Mark’s Top 5 Tips to Avoid Judgement”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7135,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7130\/revisions\/7135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}