Black Ball?

When I was in Junior High and High School, I belonged to an organization that voted on their membership by placing white marbles into a box for a yes vote and black marbles for a no vote. Being a Christian and very optimistic the majority of the time I thought it a mere formality and we were always cautioned about the responsibility we had in casting a negative vote. The admonishment always went something like, "The only reason to ever cast a black marble was if we knew this person to be morally corrupt in some way." (Remember our age please.)

Much to the displeasure of our advisor and shock of the majority of us one young lady being voted on the year I was a senior was black balled by three voters. This had never happened before and we were all asked to leave the hall and the three voting negatively were asked to speak to the advisor privately within the next week at which time another vote would be taken.

I don't know what was said but I do know that whatever these young ladies decided they knew about this person was not what they claimed and when the vote was retaken there were no black marbles cast. For me it was a relief because I had come armed with Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." I say relief because at the time I was not as bold for the Lord as I am today, but bold or not I would have stood in the gap for this young women who as far as I could tell was a Christian and had done nothing to deserve this type of contempt.

When we judge someone else's character we need to be so careful that what we say is truth (not just as we think, but as God so deems). Being judged with the same measure as we judge someone else is very serious, because it is God that does that judging and He has the advantage of knowing what is in our hearts. I would not want to stand in God's judgement for having misjudged someone else harshly or otherwise! In fact if we cannot say that we for certain know someone else's heart, we better leave it to God!