How was your day? Was it full of meeting wonderful, successful people or did you find yourself surrounded by those who have different values than you? Today I found myself in an awkward position when I was faced with two choices. To Judge or not to judge - that is the question.
 

I met a woman who owns a business that is less than desirable if you now what I mean. The men who enter into this dwelling are looking for a release for their frustration and that’s what most of them will find. I’m not talking about anything illegal here but highly immoral. I realize this is a taboo subject but it’s one I feel must be addressed.
 

What was my gut reaction when I found out what business this woman owned? The condemnation and self-righteousness started entering my mind. I was already judging her in my spirit but something shocked me back to a verse that I knew all too well. Let’s look at Matthew 7:1-5.
 

Judging Others​
 

“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."
 

Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not condoning behavior that is outside the will of God but I believe we are to love others as God would have us to love them. The reason that God sent His beloved Son to die a terrible death on the cross wasn’t just for the upper class. It was for ALL PEOPLE – Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world not just the elite.

I believe in relationship building and allowing the Holy Spirit to draw in those who are living in darkness. If we are to reach out to a lost and dying world, we must be very sensitive to God’s prompting when He brings someone in our path who needs Jesus. It doesn’t mean we accept their sinful ways but we can speak the truth in love to them and let them see Jesus is us.
 

In John 4 - Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman drawing water at the well. Jesus speaks to her kindly unlike the others in her community. I can imagine her wearing a scarlet letter branded to her skin to keep her from ever having a sense of worth. What does Jesus do in this situation. He offers her “Living Water.”
 

John 4:13-15
 

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
 

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
 

The Samaritan Woman realized what I hope we all realize. WE NEED JESUS. We all need Him – even the worst sinners in the world. We all fall short – there is not one righteous human being – not even one. Jesus then told the woman the number of husbands that she had married and the one she was now living with was not EVEN her husband. Despite this woman’s sin Jesus gave her eternal life – “The Living Water.” It didn’t matter what type of life she had lived up to that point. God loved her.
 

What about you? Do you find yourself judging others around you who are living like the woman in my story? How could you look more like Jesus to those around you. It’s worth contemplation, don’t you think? God knows all about you and he loves you despite your mistakes and your broken past. Let’s get out there and start loving people like Jesus did.
 

In Christ,
Margaret