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Judging Others vs. Judging Ourselves
What? People Don't Treat Us Like Saints?
Think of how often we decry people when they don’t measure up to our standards. Think of how often we're surprised when people don’t act like saints towards us, but sinners. How indignant we become when someone slights us, ignores us, or just acts in a bad way!
Do we expect such endless goodness to flow to us from others? Are we left disillusioned when it doesn't? Do we assume that people should treat us as our "righteousness" demands? Shouldn't people know our good intentions and respond accordingly?
Judging Ourselves vs. Judging Others
It's no secret. We don’t judge ourselves based on what we have done, but on our "good intentions." Simply put, we ignore our actions and judge ourselves on our own intentions. Other people don’t judge us this way though. They judge us on our actions, or better yet, how they perceive our actions. And, of course, that's exactly how we judge others too.
People aren’t always going to regard us the way we want to be regarded, and to always demand that from others is to take the place of deity.
That explains a great deal of the mess we are in—something has to give. And that something is desire to be seen the way you want to be seen and respected like you want to be respected. This is not an appeal to be a doormat, but to give up our idolatry of self.
Consider Jesus
Consider Jesus for a moment; the God-man who had every right to demand he be regarded for who he really was, laid that down while he walked the earth and served sinful people like you and me. He even went so far as to humble himself to the point of death on a cross by his own creation's hands! Surprisingly, there is good news here; Jesus is our perfect example and also the fulfillment of the law on our behalf. He gives us his own righteousness and the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts to be more like him. Our righteousness is not even our own! How can we demand others to treat us according to what's not ours?
People aren’t always going to regard us the way we want to be regarded, and to always demand that from others is to take the place of deity. When we only want our will to be done, we can’t love people like Jesus—particularly the people who hurt us.