Judging Others (Part II)…

For part I of Judging Others, please click HERE…

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What The American Culture Often Means By Saying “Do Not Judge Me!”

The Bible says that there is spiritual war going on. We don’t battle against people, whether Christian or non-Christian, but we do BATTLE—why else would God give us armor, shields, a sword, and a helmet (Ephesians 6:13-18)!? The Bible says that we battle against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:10-12).

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Telling others about Jesus—the third main reason that God created us [the first is Knowing Him and the second is becoming more like Him]—involves, at least implicitly, a kind of judgment—that’s why we are told to tell others in the Holy Spirit, with gentleness and respect, because telling them the Good News of Jesus is often painful/difficult for people to hear at first (1 Peter 3:15). Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, where God tells us of the importance of us telling others about Jesus, and read it from the perspective of some in the American culture:

• Verse 17: “So I have to be ‘in Christ’ to be new? I have my own way…”
• Verse 17: “So I have to get rid of my old self? Says who? I like me!”
• Verse 18: “Why do I need to be reconciled to God? He & I are just fine the way we are! We’re cool! He leaves me alone and I leave Him alone, or I believe in Him my own way.”
• Verse 18: “There you go again saying I have to be reconnected to God through Jesus–I have my own ways!”
• Verses 18 & 19: “Oh so God gave YOU Christians this ‘ministry’/message of pointing others to Jesus? RIGHT! Great job you all do with that…”
• Verse 19: “So now you’re saying that I’m a sinner? Who are you to judge?”
• Verse 20: “YOU represent Jesus? He speaks through YOU? HA!”
• Verse 21: “I can only get close to God through Jesus? There you go again…”

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Please forgive me for any ways that the statements above seem sarcastic or snarky; that is not my intent at all! Many people do respond lovingly and patiently as Christians imperfectly try to tell them about Jesus, and all of us Christians need daily help from God to be more loving, gentle and respectful. But my main point above is that, for many people, it feels judgmental when we share Jesus with them, when we do exactly what Jesus asked us to do!

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And so as important as it is for us as Christians to tell others about Jesus, I believe a misinterpretation of Jesus’ command to “not judge” is being used by the spiritual forces of evil in a distinct three step process to assault God, His Truth, and His people—to make it even more difficult for us to do what God made us to do–to tell others about Jesus with our words. When many in the culture say “don’t judge me”, they often mean:
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1. “Don’t tell me I’m wrong!”
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• Keep your beliefs to yourself! (only point your flashlight [your beliefs] on yourself—don’t point it at the ground in front of you [I don’t want to have to look at it!] and DEFINITELY don’t shine it on me!)
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• Nevertheless, Jesus says that we His people are the LIGHT of the world (Matthew 5:13-16), and that it is wrong to put light under a basket where it cannot shine. This doesn’t mean that we are to go around pointing out where others are wrong, but it does mean that we are to live out our beliefs openly through actions AND WORDS that show what we believe, what the Bible teaches, what Jesus is offering and inviting all people to.
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• “Religion is private—drop the subject/don’t bring it into other areas of life/society!” (My relationship with Jesus is PERSONAL, but God never intended it to be private/kept in the closet).

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So that’s the first step, and most/many of us Christians have been taught this step well—we basically NEVER tell anyone that they are wrong—ever, and thus without realizing we almost never tell them with our words about Jesus’ offer of grace, forgiveness and eternal life, because doing so often feels judgmental to the person listening.
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2. “Don’t even THINK that I’m wrong (e.g. my beliefs/actions)!”
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• Your belief that I’m wrong offends me, so you Christians need to change your beliefs!

-This happens around the world where all/part of being a Christian is illegal in one way or another. In China, for example, local Christian churches are granted “freedom” of worship but only if they are approved by the government, meaning that the local church gives permission to the government to tell them what they can and cannot teach from the Bible.

You can have cake…but you can’t use flour or eggs or oil–only the ingredients we approve of…RIGHT!

Thus, most Christians in China are in underground churches so they can teach what God reveals in the Bible and not only what the government/culture approves.

-Nevertheless, Jesus says that His people are the SALT of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16): melting the ice around us, preserving what is needed to live, adding flavor to life. Salt can do none of those things if it stays in the shaker—it needs to be spread! Salt loses its effectiveness when it is immersed in water—when we water down the Truth of God’s Word and change our beliefs to please others, we lose our ability to be the salt of the earth and we dishonor our Savior Jesus—He says that such salt that loses its saltiness is only fit to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

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The third and final core meaning/goal of the phrase “don’t judge me” is often this:
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3. “Believe & celebrate that I am RIGHT!”

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-“Encourage me to continue believing/doing what you used to disagree with!”

–Psalm 12:8—“The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.”

In a way, the full maturity of sin is when it’s CELEBRATED; not struggled against, not grieved over, not repented of, but ENCOURAGED to continue.

–Romans 1:32—“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things [ALL SIN!] deserve death [God’s Judgment at His hand], they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

–Judges 21:25—“In those days Israel had no king; the people did what was right in their own eyes.” When Christians & non-Christians do not receive & follow Jesus as our King, we too will do whatever we think is right.

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Because of a misinterpretation of Jesus’ command to NOT JUDGE, many/most American Christians do not tell others about Jesus…because doing so, in a way, is JUDGMENTAL, isn’t TOLERANT, isn’t ACCEPTABLE to the culture.

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Popular Opinion Also Turned Against Jesus

 

“Christians are so judgmental!” is an almost indefensible charge—it is true of Christians, but in the sinful sense of the term “judgment,” EVERYONE does it because EVERYONE is sinful! But it’s also like someone saying, “Stop being so defensive”—if you disagree you are being defensive!!! 🙂

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There will ALWAYS be people saying that Christians are judgmental because our very belief in absolute Truth is in itself a judgment/critique, even if we never verbalize it. Some die-hard fans of a particular team oftentimes dislike ANYONE wearing the jersey of/cheering for a rival—regardless of whether the other fan actually personally mistreats the other fan! So sometimes, just being CHRISTIAN is offensive/judgmental to some people…

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Jesus was PERFECTLY loving to everyone He met—and yet at the end of his three year public ministry most of the people were yelling, “Crucify Him!” Not just the Pharisees/religious officials, but the majority of the common people wanted Jesus dead—He wasn’t living up to their expectations, He wasn’t saving Israel the way they wanted to be saved, He was teaching things they didn’t agree with (John 6:35-71). Popular opinion—the CULTURE!—turned against Jesus even though He loved everyone perfectly, and so we American Christians need to know that it will happen to us as well even if we were somehow able to perfectly love people and always say/do the right thing in the right way at the right time with the right intentions (John 15:18-24).

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Does this mean we should not WORK HARD to be as loving, as gentle, as humble, as possible? NO! WE SHOULD work hard to be all of those things! But let’s not let negative popular opinion from the culture determine whether or not we are being loving or judgmental—let’s let God, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible determine that. Just because the culture says we are jerks doesn’t mean that we are!!! And as God grows our love for others, let’s not allow that love for others to cause us to change our beliefs about God and the Bible (1 Timothy 4:16). The best way that we can help others receive Jesus as their Savior is to, with God’s help, have actions AND beliefs that are TRUE/Biblical/loving! Loving people is NOT watering down/changing our beliefs so that they can feel better about themselves! That isn’t LOVE! Let’s not teach people to live with their limp; let’s introduce them to Jesus who wants to transform them to LEAP!!!

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2 Corinthians 2:14-17: we are the aroma of LIFE to those who will eventually receive Jesus as Savior and we are at the same time the aroma of DEATH to those who will not! WOW! This passage doesn’t say that we are the aroma of death when we are being unkind/unloving/judgmental—it says we are the aroma of death even when we ARE being faithful in spreading the knowledge of Jesus everywhere. How sobering to think that to some we smell like roses and to others we smell like corpses—even on our best days!!! And we must NEVER change our beliefs about God and the Bible in order to make ourselves smell better, in order to please others. We should daily submit our beliefs and actions and thoughts and plans to God and the Bible so that He can change us—YES! But we must not submit our beliefs to the culture, to popular opinion, etc.

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Closing Illustration: at a friend’s bachelor party, we hung out and then later on they said they were going to go to a strip club.

I knew I couldn’t go along, but I needed God’s help because I didn’t want them to think I was judging them. I didn’t say how terrible it was to go there…

But I also didn’t go there myself!!!

And even the act of not going was a form of judgment; by not going I was subtly saying that I believed what they were doing was wrong!

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THIS is how many people feel judged by Christians; even when we don’t beat them over the head with the Bible, our simple choices to not do certain acts judges them, our simple choices to believe the Bible condemns them! Hebrews says that Noah, by his simple act of building the ark, JUDGED/CONDEMNED other people (Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 4:1-5).

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One of the biggest dangers of “not judging” (according to the culture’s definition of that phrase) is that Christians either DO activities that the Bible is clear are sin (because we don’t want to offend people!!!) and/or we begin to think that Truth is relative/what each person decides is true. Thus we eventually never share God’s wisdom and/or rarely share with them Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, or we change our beliefs entirely in an effort to make others happy (you can get to heaven any way you want!) and thus we water down the Bible and eventually lose our ability to be salt–we cover our light because it offends and so we put bushel baskets over us and lose our ability to shine for Christ!

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May the Holy Spirit help us daily to be full of grace AND Truth, to gently/respectfully but BOLDLY share the Good News of Jesus, the ONLY name under heaven by which people can be saved (Acts 4:11-12) and spared from the Final Judgment Day of God…