Vessel & Altar

Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. - Matthew 7:1-2

They went after vanity and became vain. The warning in the Israel narrative is the warning in the judging passage: what you consistently attend to shapes you. Israel attended to the gods of the surrounding nations and became like them. The person who consistently attends to others' faults, measuring and judging with a careful eye, becomes someone shaped by judgment.

As you judge, so will you be judged. The measure you use will be used on you. This is not only a warning about divine judgment - it is a description of relational reality. The woman who measures everyone else's cooking will have her own cooking measured. The one who notices every parenting failure will have her own parenting noticed. The standard we apply is the standard we invite.

Remove the beam from your own eye first. The self-examination is not meant to produce paralysis or shame. It is meant to produce the clarity that enables genuine help - the helping of the other that comes from having named the same weakness in yourself and found the mercy that covers it.

With the measure you measure you will be measured. Examine the standard you have been applying to someone close to you this week. Is it a standard you would want applied to yourself in return? If not - soften the standard or apply it first to yourself. The measuring with mercy comes from having received mercy.

Lord, let the measure I use be one I would want used on me. Remove the beam from my eye so I can see clearly and help with compassion. Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.