"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24 The Court of Public Opinion is always in session. Think about it; better yet, don't think about it, and log in to your social media accounts, turn on the news, or read an editorial, and you'll see celebrities, journalists, and regular people expressing their opinion and telling you what to think. And, we're being manipulated. Think about it, verdicts are given, guilt pronounced, and lives are ruined before the evidence can be weighed, and, when the evidence IS weighed, we're already so set in our opinions, it doesn't matter what is said.
Jesus wasn't immune to this Court ruling either; According to the Pharisees (And others), He was a sinner because He healed on the Sabbath. There was nothing in the Law of Moses about doing good on the Sabbath, just working and treating it as any other day. It was a day for the sacred and Holy, and even though Jesus was doing both sacred and holy acts (heck, isn't helping someone be purified before God both sacred and holy?), the court of public opinion made their verdict: guilty. Because Jesus did miracles outside of their limited point of view, God could not operate...because they said so!
It's time to stop valuing our opinions, and time, as Jesus said to His detractors, to "not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement." That means we step out of our feelings and emotions, ask God for discernment, and make the right call. We are to submit our thoughts, feelings, and yes, judgements to the Holy Spirit for His purposes. It's time to stop being led around by our feelings, and to judge with right judgement. Step out of the crowd and in to the Spirit. John 7:1-24 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not[c] going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
