¹² Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:12-13 CSB)

There is this seemingly continual need to judge others in the world today. This is nothing new. Since the dawn of man we have judged each other, most often by our own measure and not by God’s. And even when we judged by what we believe we know as by God’s standard are we doing so when we ourselves will be judged in the same way.

Judging others is best done by God and not ourselves. We are often far worse off than those we judge. And we must not forget that God will judge us by how we judge others. Thus, it is best not to judge. We can maintain our own ethical and moral compass based upon scripture that focuses upon our behavior and how we conduct ourselves. This is not to mean that we condone sinful behavior in others, but that we do not judge them by it. We leave that to God.

It is amazing how much brighter the world around us looks when we are not tainting it with our judge mental views. Mercy should be our first response to others because it is Gods first response to us. He chose to show us mercy when we did not deserve it and we should do the same.

Mercy triumphs over judgement. We should look to this grace in our lives and in the lives of others.