Jesus Over Everything: Uncomplicating the Daily Struggle to Put Jesus First

by Lisa Whittle

3. We justify judgment by making lump assessments. We have some grand excuses for our prejudice when we feel justified in judging a group of people based on the behavior of someone who is in that group. A lot of us have stopped going to church because one person in the church deeply hurt us or a minister in the news behaved poorly, and now we judge all the leaders and churches the same. We have formed feelings and opinions about a person of another race because someone else of that race personally hurt us, hurt people we know and love, or publicly behaved badly. Lumping everyone in a category instead of considering each person as she comes into our lives, finding out who she is and what her story is, and seeing who God made her to be is damaging and unfruitful. (One of my favorite things about God is how He died for the collective of us yet created us, loves us, knows us, gifted us, cares for us all, and saves us individually.) If we want to lump people into any category, let it be lumping them into the category of people we deeply love. I heard recently that a church put the following statement on their sign outside, and it’s such a powerful word: “Just love everyone. I will sort them all out later.—God.” I can’t give you a specific chapter and verse in the Bible that says that exactly, but I would suggest that the Word says that very thing throughout, loud and clear. I’m just grateful the sorting out isn’t any of our roles down here. We’d all be in ...