Joe South: "Walk a Mile in My Shoes"

The sixties was a decade when people became socially conscious of societal wrongs. Judging people by their hair length or skin colour suddenly became a topic of conversation.

Listen to Joe South's scathing indictment of hypocrisy here:

It's a pity that non Christians hear Matthew 7:1 and accuse us believers of hypocrisy. The Bible in Basic English renders the verse this way. "Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged."

Jesus was addressing the Pharisees in that verse. They were the ultimate hypocrites. As Matthew 23:1-3 (BBE) reads, "Then Jesus said to the people and to his disciples:' The scribes and the Pharisees have the authority of Moses; All things, then, which they give you orders to do, these do and keep: but do not take their works as your example, for they say and do not.'" Then he listed some of their grievous acts.

Hypocrites lack empathy and the understanding of a person's situation. As Luke 13:15 and 16 (BBE) recounts, Christ was angry at their picky Sabbath rules. "But the Lord gave him an answer and said, 'O you false men! do you not, every one of you, on the Sabbath, let loose his ox and his ass and take it to the water? And is it not right for this daughter of Abraham, who has been in the power of Satan for eighteen years, to be made free on the Sabbath?"

So when and how may we judge? Hebrews 5:12-14 (BBE) holds the answer. "And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who takes milk is without experience of the word of righteousness: he is a child. But solid food is for men of full growth, even for those whose senses are trained by use to see what is good and what is evil."

James 1:19 and 20 (BBE) sums the matter up nicely. "You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry; For the righteousness of God does not come about by the wrath of man."

If the judge of all the earth hasn't come by Monday, I hope to explain why we mustn't live in fear of the future.