Do We Have All The
Facts?
Betty was hopping mad. A friend of hers had overheard a telephone
conversation between her boyfriend Bob and another person, and -- well,
Betty’s friend spared no details of what she had heard; and from what
Betty’s friend told her, Bob was looking like a deceptive, mean,
selfish, egotistic excuse for a man! So based on her friend's words, Betty broke off her relationship with Bob, and moved
away. The only problem with all this was that Betty’s “friend” (and we use
that term loosely) had overheard only PART of the implicating dialogue
between Bob and this other. The truth of the matter was, Bob was
completely innocent of all the crimes Betty though he'd been guilty of.
To make
a long story short, Bob and Betty renewed their relationship when she
happened upon some information that cleared up the whole situation.
Alright -- I admit the above was part of the plot to an old Bing Crosby
movie I watched the other night. But the scene reminded me so much of
how we humans tend to react (or should I say, overreact) to lopsided,
incomplete information, “answering a matter before we hear it“ (Prov.
18:13).
Jesus said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with
righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Such a statement implies that at
times it just might be possible that we don't have all the information we ought to
have in order to form a judgment about a certain situation or person. It
means we should not be hasty in forming character assessments.
What compounds our sin even more is when we pass our hastily formed
opinions on to others. Such is called “slander.” Slander is “a false
report meant to do harm to the good name and reputation of another...the
spreading of false reports about persons,” and it is sin. He who
rebelliously engages in such will not enter into heaven on the judgment
day, but rather will be cast into hell (1 Cor.6:9-10; Romans 1:28-32;
Rev.21:8). It is serious.
Our Lord didn’t simply give us instructions about not judging according
to appearance -- He as well lovingly counseled us concerning the means
by which to judge righteously. He said, “Moreover, if your brother sins
against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone”
(Matthew 18:15). In other words, we aren't to keep to ourselves, festering in
the knowledge of what we think our brother has done. Nor are we to spread what
we know (or don’t know) about our brother’s supposed sin. Rather,
we are to GO TO HIM. After talking with him we will then be able to
better make a
“righteous judgment.”
“Love...believes all things, hopes all things” (1 Cor.13:7). The
Christian who loves his brother will give him the benefit of the doubt
until he is presented with irrefutable facts to the contrary --
information that goes deeper than mere “appearance.” He will express his
love and concern for him by talking to him -- not to others -- about his
perceived condition. He will “judge with righteous judgment.”
--Mike Noble
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