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Dynamics for Living
Judgment and Justice
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[Dynamics for Living]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
TRUTH is ready at all times to give judgment and justice.
As God is love, so God is justice. These qualities are in
Divine Mind in unity, but are made manifest in man's
consciousness too often in diversity. It is through the
Christ Mind in the heart that they are unified. When
justice and love meet at the heart center, there are
balance, poise, and righteousness. When judgment is
divorced from love, and works from the head alone, there
goes forth the human cry for justice. In his mere human
judgment, man is hard and heartless; he deals out
punishment without consideration of motive or cause, and
justice goes awry.
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Good Judgment
Good judgment is developed from Principle. In its
perfection it is expressed through man's mind, with all its
absolute relations uncurtailed. Man has the right concept
of judgment, and ideally the judges of our courts have that
unbiased and unprejudiced discrimination which ever exists
in the Absolute. A prejudiced judge is abhorred. A judge
who allows himself to be moved by his sympathies is not
considered safe.
It is necessary to place judgment in the Absolute in order
to demonstrate its supreme power. This is accomplished by
one's first declaring that one's judgment is spiritual and
not material; that its origin is in God; that all its
conclusions are based on Truth and that they are absolutely
free from prejudice, false sympathy, or personal ignorance.
This gives a working center from which the ego, or I AM,
begins to set in order its own thought world. The habit of
judging others, even in the most insignificant matters of
daily life, must be discontinued. The law of judgment works
out in a multitude of directions. If we do not observe it
in small things, we shall find ourselves failing in large.
Condemnation
Judging from the plane of the personal leads into
condemnation. Condemnation is always followed
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by the fixing of a penalty. We see faults in others, and
pass judgment upon them without considering motives or
circumstances. Our judgment is often biased and prejudiced;
yet we do not hesitate to think of some form of punishment
to be meted out to the guilty one. He may be guilty or not
guilty; decision as to his guilt or innocence rests in the
divine law. We have no right to pass judgment. In our
ignorance we are creating thought forces that will react
upon us.
Whatever thought you send out will come back to you. This
is an unchangeable law of thought action. A man may be just
in all his dealings, yet if he condemns others for their
injustice, that thought action will bring him into unjust
conditions; so it is not safe to judge except in the
Absolute. This is the stand which everyone must
take--resting judgment of others in the Absolute. When this
is done the tendency to condemn will grow less and less,
until man, seeing his fellow man as God sees him, will
leave him to the Absolute in all cases where he seems
unjust.
Judgment Day
The great judgment day of Scripture indicates a time of
separation between the true and the false. There is no
warrant for the belief that
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God sends man to everlasting punishment. Modern
interpreters of the Scripture say that the "hell of fire"
referred to by Jesus means simply a state in which
purification takes place.
The word "hell" is not translated with clearness sufficient
to represent the various meanings of the word in the
original language. There are three words from which "hell"
is derived: Sheol, "the unseen state"; Hades, "the unseen
world"; and Gehenna, "Valley of Hinnom." These are used in
various relations, nearly all of them allegorical. Hell is
a figure of speech that represents a corrective state of
mind. When error has reached its limit, the retroactive law
asserts itself, and judgment, being part of that law,
brings the penalty upon the transgressor. This penalty is
not punishment, but discipline, and if the transgressor is
truly repentant and obedient, he is forgiven in Truth.
Vacillation
Another form of thought related to judgment is the
vacillating of the mind that never seems to know definitely
what is the proper thing to do. There must be singleness of
mind and loyalty to true ideas. Everyone should have
definite beliefs of what is just and right, and stand by
them. Condemnation in any of its forms retards freedom
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of action in the discriminative faculty. We hold ourselves
in guilt and condemnation, the natural energies of the mind
are weakened and the whole body become inert.
Unjust Treatment
The remedy for all that appears unjust is denial of
condemnation of others, or of self, and affirmation of the
great universal Spirit of justice, through which all
unequal and unrighteous conditions are finally adjusted.
Observing the conditions that exist in the world, the just
man would have them righted according to what he perceives
to be the equitable law. Unless such a one has spiritual
understanding, he is very likely to bring upon himself
physical disabilities in his efforts to reform men. If his
feelings come to a point of "righteous indignation," and he
"boils" with anger over the evils of the world, he will
cook the corpuscles of his blood.
Put all the burdens of the world upon the one supreme Judge
and hold every man, and all the conditions in which men are
involved, amenable to the law of God. By so doing, you will
set into action mind forces powerful and far-reaching.
If you think that you are unjustly treated by your friends,
your employers, your government,
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or those with whom you do business, simply declare the
activity of the almighty Mind, and you will set into action
mental forces that will find expression in the executors of
the law. This is the most lasting reform to which man can
apply himself. It is much more effective than legislation
or any attempt to control unjust men by human ways.
Jealousy
Jealousy is a form of mental bias that blinds the judgment
and causes one to act without weighing the consequences.
The remedy for all this is a dismissal of that poor
judgment which causes one to be jealous and a fuller trust
in the great all-adjusting justice of God.
Success
Success in the world is largely dependent on good judgment.
Everywhere businessmen are looking for people who have
judgment equal to the making of quick decisions, on the
spur of the moment.
By clearing your understanding and acknowledging the one
supreme Mind in which is all discrimination, you can
cultivate the ability of your mind to arrive quickly at
right conclusions. Take the stand that it is your
inheritance from God to judge wisely and quickly. Do not
depart therefrom by statements of inefficiency
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in matters of judgment.
When you are in doubt as to the right thing to do in
attaining justice in worldly affairs, ask that the eternal
Spirit of justice shall go forth in your behalf and bring
about and restore to you that which is your very own. Do
not ask for anything but your very own under the righteous
law. Some people unconsciously overreach in their desire
for possessions. When they put the matter into the care of
Spirit, and things do not turn out just as they had
expected in their self-seeking way, they are disappointed
and rebellious. This will not do under the spiritual law,
which requires that man shall be satisfied with justice and
accept the results, whatever they may be. Justice can be
cooperated with by one who believes in things spiritual and
he will thereby be made prosperous and happy.
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[Dynamics for Living]
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