Question: Judging other Christians

A couple of people have questioned the subject of judging other Christians; should we judge, how can we not be discouraged by the inconsistencies of others? This has been discussed some already, but let's go a little further.

One thing that we know with absolute certainty is that people will disappoint us. They may be our friend, our spouse, a parent, our leaders, our preacher. It may even be us; we may be the one to fall and fail others. It shouldn't go that way, but it does sometimes. A very smart person close to me has always said "I won't let the actions of another person affect my faith in God." I think that is great advice.

The Bible provides us lots of examples of this. At the very time that Jesus is being taken and tried and headed for crucifixion, Peter was denying Jesus 3 times. Peter cursed and said, "I do not know the man." And yet, just a few weeks later, Peter is up in front of all preaching the first sermon after Jesus has left the earth. Peter's prior actions could have been quite a discouragement to his fellow disciples; but instead, they rallied, gathered themselves and went about the work. And Paul, what a great man he became. He had been persecuting Christians, went on to travel and preach and convert and to build. But he wasn't a perfect man. He says in Romans 7, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do."

The answer to all this is to build our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We cannot focus on the actions or inactions of others. We must do what we should do, focusing on our own selves, and living the best that we can. We still are encouraged to associate with others through the church and to help them with their faith. And we are to evangelize, reach out to those who don't know Jesus. Remember, the only perfect person to ever live was Jesus Christ himself; He never sinned and never disappoints. Have a good week.