Thursday, September 18, 2014

Judgement, or sympathy

          "Do not judge a man until you have walked in his shoes." We perhaps have heard that saying many times; and while there is an element of truth in it, on the whole it is simply wrong.
          The element of truth is that if there are extenuating circumstances in a man's life, you will not be able fully to know them without firsthand knowledge of his circumstances. I cannot sympathize with him without walking in his shoes.
          The error in the statement is that I do not need to have intimate knowledge of everyone's circumstances in order to know that wrong is wrong. Sin (misconduct) is wrong because it is contrary to God, his nature and his word. Put another way, sin is wrong because God said it is wrong. If a man has done something that God has pronounced wrong, I do not need to know the man's circumstances in order to judge that what he did is wrong.

No comments: