"Judge not according to appearance but with righteous judgement judge."1
The Bible states judge not lest you be judged. The measure you measure others this will be given back to you. In other words, you will reap what you sow. Do not be a hypocrite, judge yourself before you judge others, take the plank out of your own eye first. And if you judge and cause one of these little ones to stumble then it is better a millstone is cast around your neck and you are cast into the sea. We are not to judge carelessly, by appearances, but to judge righteously.
"You will know them by their fruits."2 This word for know is I come to know, discern, recognize; properly, apt, experiential knowing, through direct relationship. It is not the same word as judge, which is about the law, the trying of fact in a court of law. "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge,"3 His name is Jesus. Job's friends came to him, "they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great." Job had some pretty good friends, how many people will sit with you for seven days before they judge? of course we know the story, their judgement was not a righteous one.
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."7
Trees and Flowers
We are not to judge by appearances. How can we discern if it is not experiential and how can we experience if we do not have relationships? we can not. We can judge by the branches being pruned, but it is the trees that look like fig bearing trees, with no figs, that Jesus cursed. Authority doesn't protect from the vengeance of an Almighty God, no, there is a higher accountability, these who should know the teachings of Jesus, who should not judge little children to cause to stumble, who should not devour widows homes, such will be measured back to you.
They accused Jesus of having a demon because he healed a man on the Sabbath. Now, they did not notice His righteousness at all, just the appearance of breaking the Law. They were not really about righteous judgement. There was absolutely no grace, unless you were in the ruling class, they excused away their unrighteousness. They judged the appearance of Jesus. He was a nobody from Nazareth, even prophecy said the Christ would come from Bethlehem? They probably should have done a background check. It was righteous to make a man whole on the Sabbath.
"Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?"4 Legalism is all about the rules, it is disguised as a fig tree, but it bears no fruit of righteousness. What was the purpose of the Sabbath, is it not a day of rest with God? "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?"5 A Pharisaic society says it glorifies God in its laws but there is no righteous judgement in self glorification, "thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."6
"If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching..." Is not Jesus the Word of God, did He not come to teach these things from the Father? amazing, the Teacher was before them, if they sought the glory of God they would have known, but they listened to those who called themselves "teachers of the law." If we are seeking the glory of God, we will know the teachings but "he who speaks from himself seeks his own glory." The highest glory of the Father is relationship, it is oneness with His children, and it is to their edification, their conformation to the image of His Son. So for one to cause His children to stumble in this regard, it would be better they were cast into the sea, this person will experience the Just Judge. The one seeking the glory of the Father, he will with righteous judgement judge, to the glory of the Father.
Trees and Flowers