The Content of our Character

  Years ago Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed his dream to live in a world where people are not judged by the color of our skin but the content of our character.

 I’m not sure if we live in that world today, but I’ve noticed one thing about it, we'd rather not be judged by either.

  The absurdity and ignorance of judging by something as superficial of one’s skin is something we should strive to eliminate. However, there is a reason to not want to abandon judgment of ourselves altogether.

  When Jesus told us not to judge, it was the judgment with impure thought and motive. The hypocritical, unfair, bias, judging that is all too common in our world today. We are to judge rather as he says in John 7:24 "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

 Still, folks wish we didn’t have to be judged even by that standard.

  We don’t like it when our sin is pointed out.  We don’t like to be shown the inconsistency of our statements.  We don’t like it noticed that we don’t practice what we preach. We would rather dismiss the flaws in our character as someone else’s bias rather than our own lacking.

 However, we can’t escape judgment. The Bible clearly teaches that we will all be judged (Acts 17:31, Romans 14:10,2^nd Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:13). Would we rather get judged fairly now while we can fix the problem than face the final sentence on judgment day?

  No one likes to be judged, but if it is a fair judgment, I shouldn’t balk at the one telling me, but rather try to improve my character.