"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." Luke 6:36-38

Jesus said, "Be MERCIFUL – even as is God." Wherefore He added "Judge not…." Supposing you catch a man in a minor theft. But you know not God's Spirit of CHARITY. So forthwith you make him RESTORE TENFOLD, or threaten him with jail. Another person fails to keep a promise given you. Forthwith you say within yourself: "That so-and-so deliberately lied to me – NEVER INTENDING TO KEEP HIS PROMISE!" And from there you proceed to permit bitterness to enter your heart…. Still another gives you SHORT change, when immediately you condemn him in your heart, and in harsh words accuse him accordingly.

ALL of these instances – and similar – are those of which our Lord spoke when He said: "Judge not…." In the first instance, the thief may have been hard driven by circumstances. Who of us can say what we might not do under stress of hunger, or for the NEED of those we love? Or how can we know that the broken promise was not made in good faith? Or how do we know that the SHORT-change was not an innocent error? …Such are the cases – almost without number – in which the spirit of CHARITY should dwell within, lest without it we JUDGE in hardness of heart, and thus render ourselves UNFIT FOR HIS MERCIES in the day of our own judgment.

Let us observe clearly that wherein the Lord admonished the individual against JUDGING, He did not thereby propose that judgMENT should never be resorted to. Therein is a vast difference.

Student Problems