The One Thing

John 7:24 Standards

We talk of several standards. Growing up we heard the phrases 'low standard' and 'high standard' a lot. Now the word standard has been gradually replaced by the word class. If only it were as simple. In school it is easy to set up the classes depending on age, maturity, extent of curricula. But what about in real life where anyone can be anything. A nineteen year old girl can be a mother and a twenty four year old guy can be returning to school because he wants to change streams. I have seen both. Jesus tells us to not judge by appearances but by right judgement. In other words He wants us to have some ideal standards to measure by. Often times the attitude I would like to portray is 'Judge not lest you be judged' but that isn't an ideal way to deal with the world. The First epistle to Thessolonica tells us that we should test everything. While that means approaching everything with an open mind it also means that we come to a conclusion about it. In the past fourteen years as a seeker and the past four years as a Christian I have come across many people about whom I had to form an opinion to decide whether they stay in my life or not. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the other person is not always healthy and I have learnt it the hard way. There comes a time when you stop giving chances to people. You form an opinion. You judge. Jesus tells us that our judgement should not be skin deep. We need to test it, go deeper, analyze the means and motives behind a person's action before we decide on something. Taking it in context of the argument, Jesus tells us to apply the same measure of judgement in all similar situations, avoid prejudice, hypocrisy. Jesus wants us to be judges with integrity, to go beyond class, race, gender, to be fair in our dealings. In short he wants us to use the same standard God has who rains equally on the good and evil but at the same time withholds rain when he deems necessary. Fairness doesn't always mean being soft and tender-hearted. It means to be strong enough to be kind when faced with cruelty if that can lead to greater good.