This story has many different versions but the truth of it is sure.
A Jewish holocaust survivor was sitting at the trial of a Nazi officer who was responsible for killing, not just members of his community, but his own parents. During a break in the trial a news reporter observed this man with tears streaming down his face. Misinterpreting what he was seeing, the reporter asked the man if his were tears of rage. The man looked up and said, “Tears of rage? No. Not at all. These tears are because I recognised that the evil that resides in that Nazi also resides within me.”
If we fail to recognise the evil that resides in others (husband / wife / neighbour / co worker) also resides in each and every one of us, we fail to know ourselves at all.
It simply cannot be right for:
. a Christian to not hesitate to find fault with others,
. a Christian to relish the opportunity to judge others,
. a Christian to possesses an eagerness to correct others,
. a Christian to not show mercy and grace and forgiveness in the face of being wronged.
Most Christians have been brought to a place of humility whereby the mere thought of judging someone else, the mere thought of holding another accountable is abhorrent. How can we who have been born of love and forgiveness, withhold love, refuse to let go of the past, refuse in fact to forgive?
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It is in human nature to want to judge and place ourselves higher-- I think that's what is at the core of Matthew 7 when we are instructed not to judge because the manner of the judgment that we judge with will be applied to us.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to get to the point where our first thought is to forgive-- but we must get there.