Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
“You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. Now if a boy can me circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
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Jesus says to stop judging on appearance and judge correctly. What is correct? To seek God’s glory. What does that mean? It means, whatever we do, we look at it through God’s lenses and not our own. We allow God to be the judge and we follow accordingly. We allow God to bring approval or condemnation and we respond accordingly. Before we make decisions we seek God. Before we make changes we seek God. Before we speak or act we seek God. Wouldn’t it make life a lot easier knowing we have God’s approval to do or say the things we choose? Stop being the judge…let God be the only judge…because He is.
A Journey With Jesus 