Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me. They said to him therefore, Where is your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also. (John 8:12-19 ESV)
You judge according to the flesh and according to what you see. Have you ever seen someone and said “wow I know all about them.” and how many times are we wrong?
Yet there is something to the first impression. I remember my mom telling me over and over you dress to impress when you first meet someone and the first impression lasts the longest and is hardest to over come. But most first impressions are ones of sight alone, and nothing about who we actually are. We are judged by how we look and we all do the same thing. We judge people by how they look. See all of those tattoo and gauges, he is a loser and will never amount to anything. Then someone says, ” hey I’d like you to meet my pastor…” walking up with the loser you just judged…
Jesus looks on the inside, which means He takes the time to get to know a person and who they really are inside, not the whitewashed exterior. Jesus does not judge by what the world sees, but by what God sees. And according to John in this passage Jesus does not judge. He wants to know us and help us to know that we are loved and wanted by God.
So stop looking and judging and start learning who people are and helping them know who Jesus is and He will work in them to make them who He created them to be, not who you want them to be.
aSacredRebel 