In The Force Awakens, Finn and Rey are looking to find a ship while fleeing the TIE fighter attack on Jakku. Finn sees a ship (which the audience knows to be the Millennium Falcon) and asks, “What about that ship?” to which Rey yells back, “That one’s garbage.”
Rey, like Luke in A New Hope, misjudged the Falcon.
In John 1:43-51, we see the calling of Philip by Jesus.
Philip is ecstatic when he tells Nathanael that he has found the one that Moses (in the Law) and the prophets wrote about. But then Philip mentions that the person is Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael snidely remarks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
When we judge a person by their outward appearance, like Rey, or judge them based on where they are from, like Nathanael, we do them and ourselves a great disservice.
People who call for tolerance often quote Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” as an absolute statement.
Jesus is not telling us not to judge at all but to judge with the right judgment, as He tells us in John 7:24.
In 1 John 4:1, we read to test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
And in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, we are told to test everything and hold fast to what is good.
Romans 12:2 tells us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
When we judge others without recognizing the “log in our eye,” we have no business applying the standard by which we judge others.
For whatever standard we use to judge others, we will be judged by that.
Make sure that we apply John 7:24 and “judge with right judgment.”
