What Peter Says About Paul Says More About Peter Than About Paul

Some stand ready to judge and unwilling to show little mercy. Jesus said, “Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 5:1, 2).

What this means is that if you see or hear of a person doing a certain thing and you make a judgement as to why you are saying, “If I were in that person’s situation this is what I would be doing.”

An example of this involved a friend of mine. Someone saw him coming out of a bar in New Orleans at 2:00 AM. They broadly told others he was seen coming out of the bar where he had been drinking most of the night. What the person who made that judgement didn’t know was the man had been in many bars that night looking for his alcoholic brother.

What the accuser was confessing is that if it had been him coming out of a bar at that hour, he would have been there drinking. Judge not lest you be judged.

In that same message Jesus said, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15). Translated this means “the unforgiving are unforgiven because they are unforgivable.” 

With the judgment you judge you will be judged.

What Peter says about Paul, says more about Peter than it does about Paul.