"Judge not, that you be not judged"

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Matt. 7:1-4

People are so quick to judge, especially christians, and this should not be so! The Word clearly talks about judging. Why are people so quick to judge a brother or sister? The Pharisees were also quick to judge Jesus. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to be compared to a Pharisee. But are we acting like Pharisee's when we are judging our brothers and sisters. Before we are so quick to judge we need to look in the mirror and get the plank out of our eye! The Word says that, "for with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." My brothers and sisters we need to be careful!!
We need to leave the judging to the Lord because He is the great judge. Do you not realize that when you judge another person that you may be causing damage to them? You may even be causing a stumbling block to them with the Lord? This is not the works of the Lord! Romans 14: 13 says, "Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way." As a christians we need to walk in love NOT judgement. If you feel like something needs to be addressed with a brother or sister, first, you need to pray about it and ask the Lord for wisdom and knowledge about the situation, you also need to make sure your motives are right and ask yourself, "am I doing this in love?" or am I'm I trying to make myself look better?
I will leave you with this thought, "are we acting like Jesus or a pharisee?" In Matthew 9: 13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Are we showing mercy and love or are we trying to sacrifice our brothers and sisters?