Matthew Study 7:1

"... judge not, that you be not judged..."

It's funny how it works. But the very thing we most judge, we become.

We need to be careful in this. Obsession with the sin will bring us into the participation of that same sin, howbeit be an obsession of avoidance with the sin, or fascination with the sin. Where our heart is, there our treasure will be also.

So we need to honestly ask ourself: Who do I judge? The idolator? The thieve? The murderer? The adulterer? And when that is determined, move slowly away from that judgment, lest we incur the same judgment from our Heavenly Father towards that same sin.

Judgement on sin is solely reserved for God alone - and that, for good reason.

Jesus tells us not to judge others because he knows that, when we become the thing judged, we will invoke the Judgement of the Father for the same sin. So, in essence, our freeing of judgement towards others frees God's judgement from us. Or, to say it another way, God judges us, more/less, in the way we judge others.

Forgiveness works the same way. Scripture says, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." You see, my dear one, we become the thing we withhold, and we loose in ourselves that which we loose in others. Thus - while it sounds heretical - there is a sense wherein God's work in Creation is either stifled or nurtured by the free-will choices of that same Creation.

As Living Temples filled with the Essence of Heaven, we carry tremendous Authority. We have the power to loose and to bind, to heal, and to forgive. Let's use our authority wisely. Let us bless everybody we meet the Grace and Mercy of the One who has graced us with his unconditional mercy.