192 How to Be Judgmental

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “How to Be Judgmental”, originally shared on February 21, 2022. It was the 192^nd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   Some Christians have a reputation for being judgmental. Is there a sense in which Christians should be judgmental? Yes. Today, we’re going to find out what that is.

   Why is it that the one verse people can quote, if they know nothing else about the Bible, is, “judge not and you will not be judged”, sometimes throwing in a “Jesus said” or “The Bible says” for extra impact?

   Is the world so in fear of any moral standard that none are allowed?

   I don’t think so. If anything, the world is becoming more puritanical and less tolerant every day. It’s just using novel standards.

   We certainly can’t judge who’s going to heaven and who is not. Only God can do that.

   We can live a Christian life in such a way that we recognize when a person has stumbled or is taking the wrong path, though.

   C.S. Lewis once said, “We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man (sic) who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

   Is it judgmental point out to others that they are on the wrong road, one we may even know because we have taken ourselves? Or would that be loving?

   Here’s the referenced passage, from what Biblical scholars call Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke 6:37-38,

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸ give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

   So, is that all there is? Karma? Do we live as Christians in order to not be judged or condemned, to earn our forgiveness and a get return on our giving investment? And in the end, do we all get what we deserve?

   Nope. That would be bad news.

   The good news is that God was in flesh and died for us. The great grace of God is such that we do not get what we deserve. Instead, we receive mercy.

   We don’t live in order to get good things. We live in response to receiving them as a gift. It is part of the transformational living relationship we receive in faith from the one true living God. That is the Christian life.

   Jesus, when confronted over his actions on the sabbath said, in John 7:24,

²⁴ Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

   What do we make of that?

   I think that we see it in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, where he is speaking about the commandments, in Matthew 5:19,

¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

   We are to teach one another to live in ways that please God, but we cannot judge one another unless we are ourselves free from sin. Which we are not. We are all sinners. All we can do is point out when we see others going down a path that is killing them, not in a superior, or holier-than-thou way, but in a way that reflects the love of God for us.

   The commandments and other religious laws are not meant to be burdens, but boundaries that guide us to living a good life, as is God’s will for all people.

   The passage above from Luke 6 on not judging is immediately followed by one that includes Luke 6:42,

⁴² Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

   I remember a colleague sharing an experience from when she had accepted a call to a church in a small town in Kansas. She attended one of their Bible Study groups, where they pretty much burned through the prefab lesson for the day quickly and then got down to their real purpose: coffee drinking and talking about members of the congregation. One of them mentioned that a teenage girl was pregnant and unmarried. She asked the pastor if she was going to do what Pastor (somebody) would do and make her stand in front of the congregation and confess her sin? The new pastor said she would think about that and, the next time the group gathered the new pastor said, “I’ve looked through the church records and it look like, about once a generation a girl gets pregnant without being married. I think having them get up in front of the congregation is a good idea, but before we do that, I want to call the congregations attention to a much more common sin around here, and that’s the sin of “gossip”. I think those who gossip should stand up in front of the congregation and confess their sin. All the participants look down and stared into their coffee cups. Finally, one lifted their head, cleared their throat, and said, “There wouldn’t be time.”

   We live from the inside out. We don’t judge appearances, but we seek understanding and forgiveness. The French have a saying that is translated, “To understand everything is to forgive everything.” God looks at the heart, the true self of a person, including ours. It is from our true selves that our actions come, including our judgments.

   The next passage in Luke 6 contains Luke 6:45,

⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

   The Christian life looks like something, but it doesn’t come from us. It comes from God.

   We have been transformed and the Law is now in our heart, and it tells us what leads to a good and righteous life. But our righteousness doesn’t come from us. It comes from God. That is the life that we offer the world, a life that provides a superior alternative to the selfish, power hungry, unimaginatively materialistic, vengeful, bullying, grasping of the world without Christ.

   Our life has been transformed, we are a new Creation, we have been born again, but we are at the same time saints and sinners. Who are we to judge? I think that we can make a distinction between destructive and constructive judgment.

   Paul takes a harsh tone in his first letter to the Corinthians, a difficult church. Here’s a part of it, in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13,

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”

   Those who don’t get it are a destructive influence in the Church.

   And yet, most of Paul’s writing takes on a conciliatory tone, as in Galatians 6:1-2,

6 My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 

   We are judgmental when we point to ourselves as the standard. We are the people of God when we point to God as the standard, and our need for a Savior, who we have in Jesus Christ.

   The Christian life looks like something that is different than what the world values. It comes as a gift of God’s love and grace. That is what we have to offer. If not, we have nothing to offer.

   We are to teach one another the things that reflect the Holy Spirit at work within us. Our genuine concern is always for the good of others, to help them get back to the right path, as we have been saved by Jesus Christ and helped by others.

   The Bible says quite a bit about how we should and should not be judgmental, about being gracious and putting the interests of others ahead of our own. In fact, that’s at the very heart of the Christian faith.

   We sinners have been reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. Let us live as people who have been reconciled to God and share that word or reconciliation with the world!

   We are being constructively judgmental when we humbly correct someone to help them return to the right path. It is how we show love for them.

   It is at the heart of what we mean when we quote Jesus in Luke 6:31, in response to those who say we are not ever to be judgmental.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”