Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

-Parallel verses:
I Corinthians‬ ‭6:8-11‬‬‬

Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The church I grew up in was heavy on the “don’ts” and light on the “do’s”.  Oh, they had great servants serving in different ministries, but the messages focused on what not to do most of the time.  What this created was a culture of “living by comparison”.  And it was also a defeatist mentality.  I have found that when we focus on what we are not to do, we do it more.  Paul describes this later in Romans: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans‬ ‭7:15‬) It becomes the “elephant in the room”.  Feeling defeated and in order to make oneself feel better about life, the tendency is then to compare to others.  We find people we think are “less good” than us, and we try to stand next to them, to draw attention to them and take the focus off of our inadequacy and the sin in our lives.  And this is at the root of a judgmental heart.  The problem with humans judging hearts is: 1) we are not able to see the hearts of others clearly without God’s help, 2) our hearts are not yet perfected in Christ Jesus, so we are judging imperfectly, and 3) we tend to get prideful by comparing to others. The REAL STANDARD for my conduct IS not the imperfect lives around me, but GOD’S TRUTH.  Paul found that some of the Romans were, on the one hand, accepting God’s Grace for their specific areas of sin, but then categorizing the different areas of sin in others — as worse.  The passage in I Corinthians calls out the “sin grading process” for what it is — garbage!  Notice it lists the sexually immoral, idolators, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, and swindlers all together as sinners.  So we cannot pick apart sins and rank them as better or worse.  ALL SIN IS EVIL to God, though different sins have different earthly consequences.  I also notice that some of the above sins, like being judgmental or greedy, are covert type sins, or sins not always acted out on, but in the heart and/or mind.  In general, we can only focus and change ourselves, so our focus should be on our purity first.  The I Corinthians passage tells us how we should view ourselves: first, HUMBLY — recognizing what we once were; and second — CONFIDENTLY, recognizing what Christ has done for us!  Jesus Christ redeemed us by washing us in His precious blood.  He sanctified us by paying the price for our sins and allowing us to have a relationship with God again.  And he justified us before God the Father, creating a way for us to be adopted into his family and making us into a temple of the living God.  We are, as it says in I Peter 2, “a holy priesthood”.  So, when given this amazing gift of salvation by Jesus, with so many benefits, how can we then pass judgment on our fellow man?  Instead, we are called to be a light in a dark world, to attract others to us by God’s COMPASSION and KINDNESS for them.  So I must repent of my stubbornness and the hardness in my heart and I must receive God’s love in its place — for me and for others.  Otherwise, by judging others, I store up God’s wrath for myself.  I take back control of life when I judge others and play the Comparison Game.  I AM NEVER SAVED BY COMPARISON, ONLY BY GRACE.

Lord, teach me to be patient and loving with those around me, not judgmental of their hearts.  When calling out sinful behavior, help me to do this from a place of grace, realizing that “there, but for the Grace of God, go I”.  May I not take for granted your past kindness to me in saving me, but PASS KINDNESS ON to others, all the time!