We have been addressing the veils that must be removed to see the glory of the Lord without distorting it. The next veil is judging everyone and everything by one bad experience. 

         For example, I’ve heard of people visiting a church and making sweeping, general judgments about that church based on one visit. It may or may not have been an unusually challenging service, but the visitor concluded that the church was not doing well or—worse—said  it was a dead church based on that one visit. Every church, including thriving churches, will occasionally have dull or bad services, so to make a judgment based on one visit is wrong. 

         Conversely, we could visit a church when it’s having the most exciting service it’s had in years and conclude it’s a really great church when it’s really not. 

         We do the same with people, making major judgments after only a brief meeting. We do this with businesses, restaurants, and just about anything. This robs both us and those we’re judging of much in life. We’ve probably all met people who judge all churches based on one bad experience. This severs them from vital relationships they need in their lives. 

         We are told in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love does not remember a suffered wrong. What is wrong, and even delusional, is to base our opinions of churches, ministries, preachers, or people on one or even a few encounters—good or bad. Everyone and every group has bad days. We must guard against making sweeping judgments based on partial information. 

         When I was a new flight instructor, an FAA examiner once told me women were not good pilots because they tended to panic in emergencies. This sowed a seed of doubt in me about female pilots. So, I watched every female student closely for even a hint of this. I even made the emergency procedures training harder for female students, but to my surprise, they excelled! I finally concluded that statement about women was untrue, since women tend to be calmer and less likely to overcorrect the controls—the two most important factors in successfully dealing with a flight emergency.  

         You may be thinking you want female pilots on your flights, but that would also be an overgeneralization. I trained many pilots, including military and airline pilots. Yet I only trained a tiny percentage of pilots, so even my experience is partial. We are told in 1 Corinthians 13:9, “we know in part and prophesy in part,” so everyone’s knowledge is incomplete. Pride is thinking we know all there is to know.

         I have read quite a few books about certain denominations, sects, and cults, but do not fully know any of them. I may have studied them more than anyone else, but my knowledge is still limited and can be inaccurate based on missing facts. There are times when we must act on the knowledge we have, but that should always be with open humility, knowing God gives grace to the humble. We need His grace in everything we do and in every relationship. 

         I have been in non-denominational churches that were sectarian, and I have been in denominational churches that had no sectarian spirit and were open to and loved the whole body of Christ. With whom is the Lord most pleased?

         Remember, the Lord said we would be judged by the same measure by which we judge others, so should we not heed the teaching of 1 Corinthians 13:7 to live our lives with love, which   “believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”? This is especially important regarding people. If we judge with grace and mercy, we will receive grace and mercy (see Matthew 5:7). This does not negate the need for discerning or judging something correctly when it’s wrong, but we, as Christians, should not be predisposed to the negative.

© 2024 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.