April 29, 2018
Benefit of the Doubt
For with what judgment
you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured
back to you
(Matthew 7:2).
It would be a better world if each of us would be as patient with other people
as we are with ourselves. When it comes to mistakes that we
have made, we tend to be very “understanding,” but we aren’t always so lenient
toward the mistakes made by those around us. But Jesus Christ calls upon us to
grow in this area of our thinking, and there are several ways we can do this:
When others have erred, we can place the best possible interpretation on the
evidence. Very few things happen in this world that aren’t
capable of more than one explanation. Rather than jump to the worst possible
interpretation, we need to do for others what we always hope they’ll do for us:
believe the best until the facts force a more negative conclusion, which is then
accepted reluctantly.
We can give others time to improve. Every single one of us is a work
in progress. At present, we continue to make mistakes that we hope we’ll not
make quite so often in the future. Consequently, we hope that others will extend
grace to us and allow us the time we need to make the adjustments we’re trying
to make. Wouldn’t it be wise to give them the same consideration?
We can see others more from the viewpoint of their potential and less from that
of their present performance. When Jesus spoke to the
adulterous woman who had been brought to Him, He did not condone her sin. In
fact, He commanded her to repent: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). In
saying that, however, He showed more compassion than her accusers had shown. In
His view, she was more than a person who had sinned — she was a person with
potential, one who could
overcome the bad choices she had made!
It ought to be sobering for us to remember that a day of accounting awaits us
all, a day when we’ll be judged by God. At that time, we’ll want God to show
every possible leniency to us. But Jesus warned, “With what judgment you
judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured
back to you.” And James said, “Judgment is without mercy to the one who
has shown no mercy” (James 2:13). So we need to ask: what kind of accounting
by God are we setting ourselves up for?
If you put up with yourself, why not put up with
everyone else.
. . .
Guigo I