Judging Ourselves and Others – Sunday, August 28, 1949
The question of judging ourselves’ and others is always a matter of serious concern. Perhaps all of us, certainly almost all of us, seek to justify our own actions and are critical of the actions of others; and most of us do some things that we resent in others—which reminds us of the man referred to by the Master—the Pharisee who prayed: “I thank thee that I am not as other men are.”1 More justified, said the Savior, was the publican who prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”2
Since none of us is perfect, it is unbecoming to assume a self-righteous superiority. This doesn’t mean that we should condone misdoing in others. Being charitable of the errors of others doesn’t make their wrongs right. But it may relieve some of the harshness of the judgment which we sometimes spare ourselves and impose on others. There are so many small ways in which we judge or misjudge ourselves and other men and their motives. If, for example, someone passes us without recognition, we may assume that he has done so deliberately; whereas it is more probable that he was preoccupied with a pressing problem and was utterly unaware of us.
If we direct favors to friends or place members of our own family in preferred positions, to us it may seem merely a matter of loyalty or of doing our duty. But if others place their friends or families in favored positions, we frown upon it as favoritism or decry it as nepotism. If we are negligent in performing some service, it is an understandable over-sight to us. But if others fail in performing a similar service, it is an offense for which penalties should be imposed. And so, we could go on cataloguing a long list of acts and of attitudes in this two-sided picture which shows one color to us and another color to others. It should cause us to be grateful that the final judgment of men rests with Him who knows us better than we know one another. And, in looking at it all around, it should lead us to be as understanding of the actions and errors of others as we are of our own.
1 St. Luke 18:11
2 St. Luke 18:13
‘The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, August 28, 1949, 11:30 to 12:00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1949
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August 28, 1949
Broadcast Number 1,045