Scriptures: Matthew 7:1-6, 1 Corinthians 2:15, John 7:24

Judgmentalism. Hypocrisy. Two words many think are synonymous with the church. We have all had the experience of knowing someone who was overbearing, bigoted, hate-filled or who made assumptions they should not have. How do you live a life free of judging others, but still be able to offer input, even criticism, when it is needed? In this message, Dr. Merritt unpacks how to stop condemning others, to practice healthy self-judgment, and to deal with others' wrongs as Christ did.

"You can use the right standard and still be judgmental if you judge someone with the wrong spirit. We are going to learn this next week, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. If you are a parent you can relate to this. Sometimes your children need to be corrected. They need to be disciplined, because they have done wrong. The purpose of that correction is to be constructive - not destructive. It is to be done in humility and love, not in anger and self-righteousness. Do you know what I have learned? You cannot judge a person by what others say about him, but you can judge a person by what he says about others." --Dr. Merritt

Keywords: judgment, understanding, discernment, Christ, Jesus, righteousness, wrong, sin speck, log, eye, splinter, plank, righteousness, hypocrite, correction, forbidding, spirit, correctly, responsibility, jury