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Originally Posted by Archaea
Interesting take.
However, I for one do not agree that God ever wants us NOT to judge. For exercising judgment is the exercise of discernment.
God does not wish for us to exercise condemnation, locking a person into a corner with no way out.
So the "do not Judge" is an incorrect interpretation.
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We are free to make all the choices we want. God wants us to. It's how we learn and grow (which is the whole point of this planet).
The problem is when we judge something to be good or evil. That is something we cannot possibly hope to know. And doing so makes us miserable (individually and collectively). It also cuts us off from the tree of life.
There was a complete genius, Mike, in my AP Chemistry class in H.S. I couldn't hold a candle to him. Now, I spent a lot of time bemoaning the fact that I wasn't as smart as he was. I was judging my circumstance as bad. Mike = really smart = good
Me = not so smart = bad
There I go, listenting to Satan tell me I'm naked (God made me dumber than Mike, and did so for a reason) and believing it. Believing there is something wrong with, something bad. And so I became miserable.
The proper response is just to notice that we are different, neither good nor evil relative to each other. I'm not naked, God made me this way. Now, Mike was a little odd and didn't date much. (I was a little odd too, but did date a bit). So perhaps Mike was envious of me? Who knows. As long as we think God messed up and made us naked (incomplete), we'll go around finding reasons to hate ourselves and be miserable. If we have enough influence we can persuade a lot of people to believe some collective nakedness (a veritable nudist colony!) and we can all be miserable together.
Now what Mike and I needed to learn here on earth were not the same. So, God created different circumstances for each of us.
Accepting that is very hard, but the key to enlightenment.
Would that I had Bill Gates' lessons to learn (c: (But there I go, munching on that fig again !)
Regards,
Brian