Judging Ourselves and Others

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 6, 1913

Judging Ourselves and Others

MANKIND cannot be forced into a state of righteousness. The ransom which some in the past were forced to pay for their lives was the nominal profession of Christianity. But the point of the sword could not write the law of God upon their hearts; hence with the change of formal profession there came no change in the practical working of the life.

We do not employ the sword today to drive men to Christ, but sometimes we are tempted to feel that it may be accomplished by argument, by intellectual rather than by physical blows. We use the Scriptures as a club to silence opposers. We quote the Testimonies to bring into subjection those who differ from us. We place ourselves in the judgment-seat and gage the Christianity of our fellows by the cut of their clothes, by the food that they eat, forgetting all the while that God alone is judge, and that while we may hold up our fellows to severe censure because they fail to measure up to our standard we may be taking a course in relation to some other doctrine or duty which leads us to come much farther short of the perfect standard than do those whom we criticize. We do well to discipline ourselves severely, but let us exercise a kindly attitude toward our associates.

We need much real, genuine Christianity in the world today. We need more of the charity that suffereth long and is kind,—a charity that envieth not, that vaunteth not itself, that is not puffed up, that thinketh no evil. It is proper that the church of God should have a standard of fellowship, and that in the church Christian discipline should be more faithfully enforced than it is. But over and above that there is needed a greater degree of Christian charity and brotherly love, a love which will not make a man an offender for a word; which will not lead us to discount a brother whose life of devotion and sacrifice to God has demonstrated his loyalty, because he does not conform to our standard of thinking.

We need today a conscientiousness which will not excuse sin in ourselves; a spirit of missionary labor which will lead us to put forth earnest efforts for those who fall into the ways of error; and a generosity of soul and a broadness of mind which will lead us to love the sinner while we are seeking to separate him from his sin, remembering our weaknesses and shortcomings, and extending to our fellows the same kindly spirit of Christian helpfulness which we might ask for ourselves. This is the principle involved in the golden rule, the very essence of the gospel of Christ.