God teaches the people of Israel not to judge the strangers and sojourners (undocumented people or refugees) in their midst, but instead to welcome and love them, for God’s people were once strangers in Egypt (Leviticus 19:33-34). The book of Jonah humorously reveals the folly of judging out of anger (Jonah 4), showing that God loves even the enemies of Israel. In Ephesians 2:11-22, we hear that Christ breaks down the dividing walls, uniting all of humanity in God’s love.
In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther’s explanation of the eighth commandment – you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor – also provides helpful guidance. It reads: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 1161.). Following Luther’s guidance requires us to move beyond the automatic survival-based judging of our emotional brain to the slower learning and choices of our thinking brain.
This message is excerpted from “Snap judgment” by Bev Stratton in the April 2018 Gather magazine.
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