Matthew 7:1-3 recounts Jesus as teaching, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

I’m convinced that in our day of advanced communications, we need to pay more attention to this old idea taught by our Lord, for the sake of understanding and respect among peoples, for the quality of our political life, for the soundness of our families and marriages, and for the health of all our relationships in life.

Do we respect people because they are people, and creations of God; or do we scorn people until they prove to us on our terms that they are worthy of respect?

Do we seek to live peaceably and work as agreeably as possible with different people or do we cast aspersions on any who are different? Do we expect to see wholesome change in people brought about by showing them what worthless scoundrels we think they are?

One of the points Jesus made in this teaching was that being judgmentally critical of others often blinds us to our own flaws. It is easy to generate emotional distaste for others, and the emotional momentum of our distaste causes us to be blind to our own bad attitudes and misperceptions which need to change. His second point derives from the first, that we will be judged with the kind of judgment we mete out. This may play out in our every day life.

Hypercritical people are often eventually found by the people around them to be unreliable, insensitive and unwise, and their ideas as unworthy of being followed.

The larger implication of Jesus’ warning, however, is that ultimately, in the final judgment, we will be brought face to face with our own unjustifiable spirit of condemnation and hostility.

This week we are being made aware of the passing of Steve Jobs, one of our generation’s most imaginative and successful entrepreneurs, a technological innovator par-excellence, who has enormously impacted and shaped the world of computers, smart phones, the music industry, the movie industryand the ways people communicate and carry out their daily routines. Some are likening his influence to that of Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein. He may well go down in history with Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and other notables. The Mac, the iPhone, iTunes, iPod and iPad have made huge libraries of information available almost instantaneously at the touch of a few buttons, and keeping in touch by voice or text can now take place nonstop, day or night.

But, like many wonderful earlier technical inventions and advances, new inventions and innovations seem always to introduce new methods and opportunities for mistreating other people. Bullying is no longer just a matter of physical intimidation, cyber-bullying can become constant day-and-night abuse. Misinformation can be broadcast nationwide, or even worldwide, in an instant. Vicious character assassination can be as simple as a few e-mails and texts.

Perhaps as never before, our new world of electronic communications challenges us to the necessary moral maturity that can celebrate our technological gains, while maintaining our humanity and curbing the new opportunities for transgression. What a tragedy when fantastic electronic gadgets are used to attack, to exploit, to ruin and to alienate people. What a loss when the amazing Internet is used as a means for spreading judgmental propaganda and hate. Some seem to think of the Bible and Jesus’ words as just old ideas. I hold that the Bible and Jesus’ words are newer and more advanced than any contemporary development, and that for the sake of truth and right we need to hear, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”◊◊◊

Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Church, Pages 2 on 10/12/2011