Unwarranted Judgement
Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye Matthew 7:1-5
We make judgements about others based on what we know. So already we have a problem. What if we don’t have all the facts? That’s where we get ourselves into trouble
Take as an example William Carey, the man known as “the father of modern missions.” He left England with his wife and four young children in 1793 for India.
At one time many of the younger missionaries that followed became very critical of Carey. He had been made a Professor of India’s (and Asia’s) very first university and they openly criticised his position and income. They based their judgement on what they knew, which was very limited.
Carey lost both his first and second wife while in India and two of his children. Yet he continued to pour his life out to those around him while nursing his first wife through severe mental illness for fourteen years. He survived numerous attacks on his life and the destruction of his work through fires and floods. He served 41 years in India without a break and lived all but the last part of his life in austere conditions. Amazingly, he poured back into the Baptist Missionary Society more than 40,000 English pounds. Their support for him over all the time was 600 pounds.
Was the criticism from the younger missionaries justified? Not if they’d known the enormous price Carey had paid. They made their judgement on their limited knowledge and, quite frankly, got it wrong.
Don’t make the same mistake.
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