SM 39: Judge Not
- BOO
- Jul 12
- 24 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For with the judgement you judge you will be judged, and with the measure you measure it will be measured to you. ~ JESUS (Matthew 7:1-2)
CORE
(The heart of the message)
This article is a crucial call to keep the teaching and example of Jesus central to our ethics and engagement with those who fail.
"You can't love and judge at the same time. It's impossible to ascribe unsurpassable worth to others when you're using others to ascribe worth to yourself." ~ Greg Boyd (Sermon)
CONUNDRUM
(Raising questions skeptics might be asking)
Jesus says "don't judge", but it seems like that's what his followers love to do most.
Besides, every time we decide between right and wrong, aren't we judging? Even Jesus goes on to tell us to confront a fellow Christian when they sin (Matthew 18:15-20). Isn't that judgement?
So, should we judge or not? What gives Jesus?
CONTEXT
(What’s going on before and after this passage)
We are in the home stretch, having arrived at the last of three chapters of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has said no anger, no lust, no unforgiveness, no worry, and now no judging. Dang, Jesus, you won't let us have any fun.
"Judge not" may be the most known, most quoted, and least understood phrase in all of Jesus' teaching. "Don't judge me" has become a modern day mantra that can eclipse everything else Jesus taught. Theologians call this "totalization" - the practice of choosing one principle, one favourite truth teaching, and making it THE truth through which we interpret everything else. But the only thing Christ-followers should be totalizing about is love, for God is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and Jesus has already connected loving like God as the goal of the whole sermon (see our study here on the central theme of love).
These verses are part of a unit that stretched from verse 1 to verse 6. We will break it down into three studies, but it will be good to keep the full unit in mind. Here it is in the NIV:
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. ~ JESUS (Matthew 7:1-6)
At first glance, it seems as though Jesus shifts here to a completely new topic from what comes before. In chapter 6 Jesus addressed secret spirituality, treasures in heaven, money management, worry and anxiety, and pursuing God's kingdom and righteousness. But there is a flow of thought. Jesus is moving from negative attitudes about our own lives (worry and anxiety) to negative attitudes towards others' lives (judgmentalism). He is also moving from his emphasis on inner righteousness in our relationship with God to our outwardly expressed righteousness in our relationships with others.
Beyond this, Jesus' teaching against judgementalism is thematically tied to earlier teaching about the priority of mercy, peacemaking, enemy love, and forgiveness. Each new thought in this sermon hangs together with what has been said before.
And there is another connecting point.
Chapter 6 began with the theme of going deeper with God to avoid the tragedy of hypocrisy (see 6:2, 5, 16). And Jesus returns to using the word "hypocrite" in 7:5. So Jesus is expanding his warnings about hypocrisy by addressing a new example - the hypocrisy of being a judgy judgerson. (Yes, that's a technical theological term, I assure you.)
As we discussed in previous studies, hypocrisy refers to hiding behind a mask or focusing on the shallow and superficial rather than looking deeper. Hypocrisy means relating to people on the exterior, status-to-status, appearance-to-appearance, and image-to-image, rather than heart-to-heart.
As Jesus will say in another context:
Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge with righteous judgement. ~ JESUS (John 7:24)
Right after Jesus condemns judging over someone, he will go on to teach us to come alongside them as a fellow struggler to offer help. (We will cover "the plank-eye process" in our next study.) This will require making a judgment call about good and bad attitudes and actions, and we will discuss the difference.
In essence, this teaching against judging is the flip side of the fifth Beatitude:
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. ~ JESUS (Matthew 5:7)
It is also tied back to Jesus' teaching about anger (the emotion associated with judgement) being a kind of murder, as well as the renunciation of vengeance in favour of enemy love.
Jesus illustrates why humans cannot be trusted with judging human hearts in his Parable of the Wheat and Weeds in Matthew 13. We are simply not good at it, so Jesus says to wait until the end-time judgement and trust God to take care of the judging.
The Gospel of Luke covers this same teaching against judging with a bit more elaboration, so we should keep it handy to help us understand what Jesus is getting at.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ~ JESUS (Luke 6:37-38)
Notice that Luke equates judging with condemning, which helps us distinguish between judgement as discerning verses judgement as damning. One is righteous and the other is unrighteous.
Also, Luke records this teaching immediately after Jesus' teaching on enemy love. Not judging is thematically tied together with actively loving, what Matthew covers in chapter 5. So it really does all hold together, with love as the binding force.
"Judging is the forbidden evaluation of other persons. It corrodes simple love." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)
"The thinking of another in a manner that is contrary to love is that judging which is here condemned." ~ John Wesley (Upon our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, 1872)
Notice Luke adds the positive corollary - our forgiveness of others will open our hearts to receive God's forgiveness of us. This is something that Matthew's version communicates in connection to the Lord's Prayer (as we discuss here).
Luke says God is ready to offer us more mercy - a huge measure, running over - if we just give what little we can. This certainly applies to the mercy and forgiveness we offer others, but Jesus warns us that it also applies to the judgement we dish out.
(Note: this line in Luke is often used by Prosperity Theology teachers to suggest that when we give money - usually to their ministry - God will give us more, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. But that is just not the context here.)
Finally, as far as context goes, if we read ahead we will see that in just a few verses Jesus will sum up his teaching with the Golden Rule. We should see Jesus' teaching here about not judging in a condemning way, but humbly helping in a compassionate way, as one way we can live out the principle of treating others the way we want to be treated. In this study we are examining one example of the Golden Rule:
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. ~ JESUS (Matthew 7:12)
CONSIDER
(Observations about the passage)
Do not judge. The Greek word for judging used here is krinó (verb) and krisis (noun). Krisis literally means to separate, to sort, or categorize, that is, to distinguish between right and wrong, to classify an action, attitude, expression, experience, or person as good or bad. Just like the English word "judge", krinó/krisis has a broad spectrum of meaning. It can mean to condemn or simply to discern. Jesus teaches it is always right to judge a problem, but never right to judge a person. Jesus usually uses this word to refer to judicial or divine judgement (Matthew 5:21-22; 12:20; 23:23, 33; John 5:22-30; 7:24). Used this way, Jesus and other Bible writers are clear: God, specifically Jesus, is the Judge and we are not (e.g., Genesis 18:25; Psalm 50:6; Matthew 16:27; Matthew 25:31-46). James uses the word krisis to mean the opposite of mercy (James 2:12-13) and he warns against ever doing it. In this regard, krisis means to judge negatively, to condemn, to write off another human being as beyond our efforts to redeem and restore. But, as mentioned, just to keep us on our toes, krisis is one of those wonderfully frustrating multipurpose words. Krisis is also used for making an assessment, a decision, what we might call a "judgement call", and in these cases it is used positively for humans (e.g., Matthew 23:23; John 7:24; and multiple times in 1 Corinthians 5-6). Every decision requires discernment or evaluation, that is, judgement (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22). Even Jesus' emphasis on forgiveness requires first judging something wrong enough to need forgiveness. So we are never to judge in a damning way, but we are always to judge in a discerning way. Put differently, we may judge or identify actions, attitudes, expressions, and experiences as good or bad, righteous or sinful, but we lack the spiritual X-ray equipment and wisdom to judge the human heart. Here then, Jesus is clearly talking about never sitting in the seat of judgement over someone rather than coming alongside them as a fellow fragile and flawed follower of Jesus to help them. In that sense, judging someone is the opposite of forgiving them, and that betrays a life that is not transformed by the Gospel. The verb is also in the passive imperative, so it could be translated "Stop judging!" Jesus knows we are always tempted to judge those around us. It is a constant mental habit he wants to help us break.
HOW (NOT) TO JUDGE
Krisis/Krinó
WHEN IT'S RIGHT | WHEN IT'S WRONG |
Assessing / Discerning | Condemning / Damning |
Focused on situation/problem/action | Directed toward a person/heart/character |
Assumes and hopes for the best | Assumes the worst |
Offered while coming alongside | Pronounced from a superior position |
Always face to face (when possible) | Declared from a distance |
Includes self-reflection, confession | Increases our blindness |
Goal is restoration | Goal is punishment |
Motivated by love | Motivated by justice |
Brings us closer | Divides and drives us further away |
So that you will not be judged. Is Jesus talking about God judging us for our judgmentalism? Or is this a wisdom proverb teaching that judgmental people will draw the judgmentalism of other people, while merciful people will likely draw mercy from others in their time of need? Most likely the former. Matthew often uses what scholars call "the divine passive" - a way of talking about God's activity while avoiding referring directly to God. Jesus speaks this way in the fifth Beatitude about mercy (Matthew 5:7; also see Mark 4:24-25). It's true that a kind, nonjudgmental, gracious person will often elicit better responses from people around them, but not always. Sometimes someone who teaches and practices the priority of mercy will still get crucified by others.
With the judgement you judge you will be judged. This is a literal translation of the Greek - all variations of krisis/krinó. Judgement is a boomerang, and we get back what we throw out. Jesus has already addressed this principle at the end of the Lord's Prayer, where he teaches that if we withhold forgiveness for another's sins, we are unable to receive God's forgiveness for our own sins. This is sometimes called the Principle of Reciprocity. The apostle Paul, obviously influenced by Jesus, affirms this principle, saying the following warning in the middle of a conversation about restoring rather than judging a fallen sister or brother:
A person will harvest what they plant. ~ The apostle Paul (Galatians 6:7)
"The slide rule that we apply to approved and unapproved behaviour is taken from our hands at the Judgment and applied to us. ... We sometimes think we have the responsibility to disburse disesteem in the measures we feel people deserve, and we think these disbursals contribute to social equilibrium. For with signs of disapproval we think the wayward are chastened. But this summary tells us to beware of our calculus." ~ Frederick Dale Bruner (The Christbook)
And with the measure you measure it will be measured to you. Again we see three variations of the same word used in succession (noun, metron; verb, metreó). The sentence is clear - we will get what we give (also see Mark 4:24). Sometimes the Bible illustrates this principle through what we might call "poetic justice": Samson lusts with his eyes, and gets his eyes gouged out. Absalom took pride in his hair, and eventually died hanging by his hair. (What is it with the Bible and guys with long hair?)
Fun Fact: Speaking of measures and judging, William Shakespeare based a whole play on the second verse of Matthew 7 - Measure for Measure.
How would you be
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
And mercy then will breathe within your lips
Like man new made. (Isabella in Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 2)
COMMENTARY
(Thoughts about meaning and application)
A fundamental teaching of Jesus and the early Church is that God through Jesus is the Judge, and we are not (Matthew 7:21-23; 16:27; 25:31-46; John 5:21-22, 30; 12:47-48; also Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 12:19; 2 Timothy 4:1).
We are to be like Jesus in compassion, kindness, and love, but not in judging. In the future we will be welcomed by Jesus to rule and reign and judge alongside him (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). While theologians debate what this judging might entail, all agree that that time is not now. When Jesus washed his disciples' feet, he told them to follow his example. When Jesus turned the tables in the Temple in judgment, he did not invite his disciples to join in.
The New Testament teaching that Jesus is the Judge of the world is meant to help us all put down the gavel. We can trust him to judge, so we don't have to. That is the driving message behind Jesus' parable of the Wheat and the Weeds:
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ~ JESUS (Matthew 13:24-30)
"But wait!", some religious zealots might protest, "We've got to weed out the impostors, the sinners, and the heretics!"
No, actually, we don't. Because we are not good at it. Jesus tells us that trying to judge other's hearts is trying to play God.
And yet the Christian Church has a horrible history of judgement, contempt, and condemnation toward everyone it deems deficient, morally or theologically. Today Christians judge non-Christians by Christian standards, we judge people of the past by today's standards, and we judge people who fail as though we could never. These habits of the heart are shriveling our souls. We need to hear these words of Jesus again and again: Stop judging!
So why is our human propensity to judge so prevalent, including and maybe especially among Christians?
Life is hard and there is much to be upset about. Our innate instinct for justice will drive us toward judgement of anyone we perceive as contributing to our hard lives. We love to judge because, in our twisted human logic, judging another feels in tune with truth, even lifegiving. Judging others feels like a cheap, self-administered therapy session to help heal our mad, sad, sick souls. And all it costs is the assassination of someone else's character.
So when someone comes along who does us wrong personally or messes up publicly - someone we feel the right to hold an opinion about - we often feel driven to lash out, to heap all our frustration and disappointment and discouragement and just plain mad-at-the-world-ness upon them. This is called emotional displacement. The "sinner" is no longer a fellow struggler or a spiritual sibling in need of restoration, but the scapegoat for us personally and for the community around us. They are the one who will carry all our negative emotions away into the wilderness and help us feel better about our own lives.
We see this happening all the time throughout history, and certainly in contemporary society. Pay attention and you will notice it everywhere. When people who don't have all the facts react with a disproportionate amount of outrage, condemnation, and contempt toward an exposed sinner or fallen sister or brother, we see emotional displacement in action. When a movie producer or politician or religious leader is caught in sexual scandal, notice how quickly an undeniable metamorphosis takes place in the Church that is supposed to hold love for all as it's identity-marker: suddenly a huge majority (or a loud minority) of people feel an almost primal urge to join the mob mentality of condemnation. Social media pile-ons, online posts of shock and outrage, and a verbally violent fury against a person we somehow feel fully qualified to judge is released into the ether. It's like a synchronized swim team of condemnation, except in this version, we are all drowning.
Humans feel an urge to categorize and condemn those who fail in particular ways. Social psychologists have long identified this pattern in human (anti)social behaviour. It is called the "Scapegoat Theory". First popularized by René Girard, the famed French historian, philosopher, and theologian. Girard focused much of his writing on Philosophical Anthropology (that is, what it means to be human). He pointed out that throughout history human societies have looked for a person or people group to blame for the hardships of life. That person or group of people could be innocent, like the Jews being scapegoated by Nazi Germany. Or a person could be genuinely guilty of some severe sin, and so they make a handy justifiable sacrifice on the altar of human self-righteousness.
Girard pointed out that for scapegoating to bring a person or society a real sense of relief or peace or a soothing sense of self-righteousness, people can't be aware that they are scapegoating. Instead, they have to feel like they are justified and that the blame lies 100% with the person or group being judged. Only this extreme yet blind blame will allow the emotional displacement to fully take place. And so the scapegoat must be declared as monstrous, almost sub-human, and certainly deserving of our condemnation. No other emotion (e.g., compassion, understanding, empathy, and hope for healing) can accompany the condemnation or else the emotional release of scapegoating will not work.
Jesus steps into this world of self-righteous judgement, contempt, and condemnation and arrests the entire process. He throws a wrench of mercy into the machinery of scapegoating, regardless of whether the chosen scapegoat is an innocent or guilty person. Jesus teaches extensively on the topics of forgiveness, face-to-face confrontation, repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. According to Jesus, no one gets to judge from a distance. And when we do get face-to-face, fully involved in one another's messy lives, our goal is restoration, not condemnation.
Jesus said that Christians should be known for how sincerely we love one another, not how severely we judge one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. ~ JESUS (John 13:35)
And yet, here's a fun party game to test the waters: Ask your non-Christian friends to complete this sentence - "Christians are so..." Odds are, the word that comes out of their mouth is likely not "loving". In fact, it is likely to be "judgmental".
Now, some of this reputation is because Christians have moral standards that sometimes conflict with our surrounding society, and whether we push those on others or not, the mere presence of a disapproving or disagreeing group of people can feel judgmental. We will just have to accept this. However, the reason for our reputation as Judgy Judgersons certainly goes deeper.
Christians have often acted like the morality police in Western culture. We can be loud in condemning moral trends we disagree with in society and people also observe how we eat our own when they fail. Judgementalism has become our brand. And we should repent.
Anabaptist theologian Scot McKnight explains that when humans read a story or novel, we tend to identify with the author's perspective because that is the perspective we are given in convincing ways. And when we read the Bible, we get God's perspective on everything. The problem comes when we tend to identify with God's perspective to the point of seeing ourselves in his position. This creates the ironic tragedy: religious people tend to be more, not less, judgmental. We want to judge from the throne like the Father, flip tables like Jesus, and smite every sinful Ananias and Saphira like the Holy Spirit. But this kind of divine cosplay is not our calling.
"Humans have a proclivity to judge, and they have that proclivity especially if they know God's will for society and have a zeal for God's glory. But Jesus urges us to posture ourselves as God's citizens in the kingdom, not as God." ~ Scot McKnight (Sermon on the Mount)
But ever since the Garden of Eden, God has made us to be like him in some ways - in love, care, and compassion - and not in other ways - judging like God. Our ancestors ate the forbidden fruit in an effort to become Godlike in all the wrong ways. They ate from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil", that is, "the tree of I know better so I'll be the judge of everyone, thank you very much".
And we have been reaching for the wrong tree ever since.
This straightforward teaching of Jesus - Stop judging! - is addressing the origin story of humankind's root problem. And it has taken great effort to apply this teaching of Jesus since the earliest days of the Church:
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? ~ James the brother of Jesus (James 4:11-12)
Jesus is the only one fit to judge, because only Jesus knows our hearts (Mark 2:8; Luke 5:22). The apostle Paul was obviously rooted in the teaching of Jesus. We see this throughout his writings, for instance:
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? ~ The apostle Paul (Romans 2:1-4)
God's kindness, grace, and mercy should change our hearts, and remove our judgmentalism toward others. If this change toward humility and away from judging others doesn't happen, something is deeply wrong with our hearts and God will hold us accountable, as Jesus makes clear in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35).
Dallas Willard reminds us that 1 Corinthians 13 - the "love chapter" - says that love is not easily angered (the emotion associated with judging) and simply refuses to keep a record of wrongs. In fact, love "believes all things, hopes all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). In other words, when uncertain about someone, love gives the benefit of the doubt rather than assume a judgmental stance. (Imagine how different our world would be, online and in person, if people practiced real love!)
In light of this, Willard argues that Christ-followers should always hope for and believe the best of others, unless confronted with hard evidence to the contrary. He writes:
"If there is any lack of clarity about whether the sin occurred, assume it did not. At least, don't start correcting." ~ Dallas Willard (Divine Conspiracy)
Even if/when we do find out that someone we love has sinned grievously, we do not judge motives or character, but assume confusion, waywardness, mental illness, or other sympathy-generating, hope-motivated motives. Then, if and when we do confront the behaviour, we will not judge the heart. This is a living out of agapé as expressed in 1 Corinthians 13 and the Golden Rule, which Jesus will teach as a summation of this topic in just a few verses. (More about this in our next study about the Plank-Eye-Process.)
In brief, Jesus takes the old adage "Kill them all and let God sort them out" and masterfully flips it into "Love them all and let God sort them out."
CONFESSION
(Personal reflection)
I confess that I love to judge. It feels good. It feels life-giving. Maybe because it distracts me from my own inadequacies and failures. Or maybe because I just love eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - that is, the tree of judgement. Maybe, like our original parents, I just want to be like God in all the wrong ways.
Maybe this is why lots of us love to judge. It just feels good, even god-like. And that's part of what Jesus is addressing in our passage. Judging over someone is idolatry, where we make ourselves the idol that takes the place of God. (See the Confession section of our article on loving like God for an extended discussion of why judging feels so life-giving.)
I want to learn how to do what Jesus teaches: assess, identify, and address bad behaviour without condemning a human soul. And I need to learn how to do this with myself as well as others.
I recently had a fascinating conversation with one of my therapist friends (ya, I am surrounded by therapists). We discussed the role of a therapist to identify unhealthy, even immoral, thoughts and behaviours without judging the person themselves. It felt like this is the call of Christ for every Christian.
This therapist had worked within the prison system. They could be offering mental health support to a thief, a rapist, a murderer, or a pedophile. And yet, they had to see the person in front of them as a person first and foremost if they were to be helpful. Society was taking care of the issue of justice, so my friend could focus on health, healing, and wholeness.
As they described their experiences as a therapist, it felt like they had gone through a kind of discipleship bootcamp in the school of Jesus that the rest of us missed out on. They had learned, through training and loads of practice, how to judge (assess) thoughts, attitudes, and actions without judging (condemning, distaining, dismissing) the person. This is the approach Jesus wants for all his followers.
There is an added challenge in our culture where outrage and contempt are becoming the acceptable and necessary ways to express disapproval of any behaviour. We are losing the ability to say "that is wrong and I am against it" without saying something like "I am horrified and disgusted! That person is absolute scum!" If someone identifies wrongdoing yet shows a modicum of compassion for the wrongdoer, people tend not to take their judgement of the wrongdoing seriously.
A classic contemporary social media back-and-forth:
Person A: "All paedophiles should be shot!"
Person B: "I am against anyone acting on their inappropriate attractions, but many people who struggle with paedophilia are people who need our help not our condemnation."
Person A (and a hundred others): "Oh so now you're in favour of paedophilia?! What about the children! You disgust me!"
We are losing the ability as a society to even hear/comprehend/register someone's disapproval until we hear outrage, disgust, and contempt in their voice or words. And this encourages more and more of us to express performative moral outrage in order to be seen as one of the good guys. And so goes the downward cycle, spiraling violently away from the love of Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus and Jesus People bring nothing unique to the equation if we only join the cultural chorus of condemnation and contempt for sinners. Any decently healthy society, with or without Jesus, cares about victims while condemning victimizers. What Jesus brings to the table that we cannot find anywhere else is a genuine care for all people - victim and victimizer, oppressed and oppressor, or in his context, Jew and Roman.
The Gospel is not just about finding justice for the marginalized. It is about redeeming rather than rejecting those who are doing the marginalization.
I used the example of paedophilia above for a reason. I remember years ago meeting with leaders in a Christian ministry called "Circles of Support and Accountability" or "CoSA" (https://www.cosacanada.com/). They help people who have been convicted of sexual crimes, often sexual assault of a minor, upon their release from prison by "assisting people who have committed sexual offences to lead responsible, constructive, and accountable lives in their communities."
I remember taking notice of my internal reaction while these amazing leaders talked about their Gospel-saturated work. Internally I was both encouraged and troubled. I sensed my internal conflict. Something inside me wanted to believe that these perpetrators they were helping should just disappear, decay in prison, or die, never to be thought of again. In my heart, I didn't have an emotional category to put their redemption into. I just never thought about it. I was hesitant to advocate for this ministry because I had been conditioned culturally to be so victim-centric that I was struggling to be gospel-centric. Talking about the care, compassion, and kind accountability offered to a convicted paedophile felt wrong to me, or at least it felt... I don't know, like I didn't have a feeling for that. It felt like my internal emotional filing cabinet simply didn't have a tab for "redemption of perpetrators". I was too used to only registering my own disgust I forgot there is a precious image-bearer of God behind the crime and the criminal.
This is the thing: The Gospel delights in helping victims AND redeeming victimizers. And Jesus won't settle for anything less in our advocacy. I'm so - I don't know the right word: proud? privileged? grateful? in awe? - to be a part of the Jesus Movement. There is no one like Jesus, and there is nothing like the Movement he began and still leads today.
This world needs more Jesus!
In Jesus' day, there was a lot to judge. The Romans subjugated the Jews. Men disparaged women. Adults marginalized children. The rich oppressed the poor. Religious leaders condemned the "sinners". And everyone excluded and avoided the lepers. Jesus was uniquely able to speak out against these examples of hurtful attitudes and actions while at the same time teaching and demonstrating the infinite value of all people and God's call to express universal love toward everyone.
Jesus' goal was to create a new community, a new society, where love not law was the answer to everything that divides us. He called it the Church, and it was supposed to be a foretaste of heaven on earth.
Part of what Jesus intended to make the Church different from its surrounding society was our radical commitment to turning enemies into friends. He began with his own disciples, bringing a zealot and a tax collector together and calling them brothers. Then he taught them how to offer the same love to their Roman oppressors in order to give them every chance to become part of this new family of faith. Anything we do that works against rather than toward this vision for the Church is out of sync with the heart of Christ.
For a more thorough examination of why we love to judge, see the Confession section in two previous studies:
CONCLUSION
(One last thought)
If all of this talk about NOT judging people has triggered your "But-what-about-isms" (But what about victims? But what about keeping people safe? But what about justice? But what about...?) then ask yourself why.
Why do we immediately move into defensive posture on this topic rather than joyful obedience? And why do we doubt that the way of love that Jesus lays out for us can do both - show compassion for sinners AND care and concern for those potentially or actually sinned against?
In the words of Jesus: Oh you of little faith!
Imagine a spiritual community shaped by this one command of Christ. A community of redemption for all. What a beautiful taste of heaven on earth! This is the vision for the Church that Jesus intended.
So whenever we are tempted to judge someone harshly, we should remember… i) We are not omniscient, so we don’t have all the information.
ii) We are not objective, so our self-interests affect us.
iii) We are not morally perfect, so our judging is hypocritical.
Jesus reminds us to stop playing God, because we are not good at it and the position is taken. Jesus assures us that God will take care of the judging, so we can focus on the forgiving.
CONTEMPLATE
(Scripture passages that relate to and deepen our understanding of this topic)
Matthew 13:24-40; John 8:2-11 (also see Brad Jersak's post about this passage here); James 2:12-13; 3:1-4:12
CONVERSATION
(Talk together, learn together, grow together)
What is God revealing to you about himself through this passage?
What is God showing you about yourself through this passage?
What is YOUR theory - why do you think we find it next to impossible to love people well while also disapproving of their sin?
What is one thing you can think, believe, or do differently in light of what you are learning?
What questions are you still processing about this topic?
CALL TO ACTION
(Ideas for turning talk into walk)
Resolve to Reject Scapegoating. Jesus is calling us to such a countercultural commitment on this topic that we will need a firm resolve and an equally committed social circle to help us buck the trend and kick the habit of judging. Commit to one another in your 1820 life groups to help each other replace anger with sorrow, outrage with grieving, and judgement with prayer for those who have failed. Together we can foster, fuel, and further a different culture, a kingdom culture, that actively works against against the contemporary condemnatory spirit that divides and destroys.
Practice on Public Figures. The next time you hear about a politician or movie star or other public figure failing morally, refuse to join the mob mentality of condemnation. Instead, pray for them and those around them. Tune into the emotions of sadness and grieving, rather than anger, outrage, and contempt. This will help us be better practiced and prepared for when someone closer to us fails in some significant way.
Ask Before You Act. When someone within your social circle fails morally, ask: Am I close enough to this person to confront or encourage them personally? If so, do so. If not, pray, and otherwise shut-up.
Keep Jesus in the Centre. Continue to study the Sermon on the Mount and applying what you learn within a group of likeminded sisters and brothers. This is a faith-defining act of monumental proportions. The Sermon on the Mount is not just a part of Scripture - it is the bullseye of the Bible's teaching. Immersing ourselves in the "the red letter words" is more important than ever because, to embrace the gavel of judgmentalism, a Christian or church or denomination must first find ways to marginalize the teachings of Jesus, often displacing the Jesus ethic with an Old Testament approach. Beware of anytime a church does not go to Jesus' teaching first when deciding how to act, and resist that same habit in yourself. Beware of any theologians, pastors, Bible teachers, and other Christian voices who seem to escort the teachings of Jesus out of the centre of our faith and into the quaint margins of our ethics. When that happens, notice that those who want to follow Jesus in the way of grace, mercy, and peace will be mocked as simplistic or explained away as naive. No surprise here: the Church has been doing this for centuries. But there has always been a resistance movement. There is always hope.
Listen and Reflect. Here is a song to help us drop our stones, lay down our gavels, and find peace.