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September 28, 2003
The Role of Judgment in the Life of a Christian
The Role of Judgment in the Life of a Christian
Psalm 27 / Job 8: 1-13
Luke 6: 37-38
September 28th, 2003
Last Sunday we remembered the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” This is one of Jesus’ all-time favorite sayings, even though we find it hard to treat others as we wish they would treat us.
Second to the Golden Rule among Jesus’ all-time favorite sayings is, “Judge not that you be not judged.” In a day when “diversity” is a popular buzzword, and “individualism” is flown like a banner, “Judge not that you be not judged” seems like a God-sent mandate to promote my freedom of behavior. It’s Jesus saying, “Live and let live.” It says to you, “Get off my case,” when I choose a way of life different from the ethic delivered to us by either the Bible or the wisdom of our forbears.
But let’s think again about this. First, let me remind you that the same Jesus who said “Judge not that you be not judged,” also gave us the parable of the Sheep and Goats. In this scary parable the Son of Man separates all people into two groups. To the right go the “sheep,” the ones who have fed, clothed, and visited in prison the least of these, His brethren—who are Jesus in disguise. To the left go the “goats,” the ones who in the course of life did not feed, cloth and visit in prison the least of these, His brethren. The sheep go to eternal life, the goats to eternal punishment. Does this sound to you like judgment?
Then, let me remind us all that the Jesus who said “Judge not that you be not judged” is the same Person who said, “Not an iota, the smallest piece of a letter of the law will pass away until all is fulfilled.” The laws of God are not temporary and optional. They describe right and wrong. We are accountable.
You and I are now being judged by how we live by God’s standards. We may not always realize it, but our consciences are monitors God has built into us. Like the black box in the airplane cockpit that records the conversations of the pilots, our consciences record what we do. You cannot turn off that black box. When our consciences are healthy, a self-correcting device is at work. We judge ourselves when we step over the line of the law, and respond by self-correcting. Mental illness is sometimes the roar of conscience protesting against our continuing violation of the law of God.
Conscience is the God-given tutor to help us prepare for the day that we will stand before God at the judgment day. Paul wrote, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.” The voice of conscience reminds us of that judgment day, however little we recognize this.
So, let’s be clear, when Jesus said, “Judge not that you be not judged” He was not telling us that there are no consequences before God on how we choose to live. Jesus is talking about something else here. He is continuing to explain the Second Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why does Jesus go on and on? Because we don’t get it. He is talking about the endemic human problem of mutual criticism, the judgmental attitude that festers, keeping us from loving our neighbor as ourselves. The Book of Job addresses this human problem.
The subject of the Book of Job is commonly thought to be the mystery of suffering. Why did a good God allow the good man, Job, to suffer?
But an equal theme in Job is the perversity of criticism. How perverse Job’s friends were in criticizing him. Without knowing anything about why he suffered, they condemned him and hung him out to dry. As they watched their friend lose all that he owned, his property, his children, and his health, they taunted him: “You’re getting what you deserve.” If there is any condition that can make suffering worse, it is to be told you’re getting what you deserve—whether or not it is true.
I suppose there is scarcely a topic more fit to discuss than “criticism” on a day when two people are going to exchange marriage vows. When two people live side by side for a long time, they become well acquainted with each other’s flaws. From the star-struck eyes I see in pre-marital counseling, you’d expect that all the wonderful traits of each other would grow like Banyon trees over the years. Unfortunately, it’s more often otherwise. Some husbands and wives become so aware of each other’s flaws that they wonder why they got married at all. Some go their separate ways.
Indeed, some marriages look like two people with logs in their eyes stumbling around the house annoyed with the splinters in their spouse’s eye. It’s a wonder that more vases and lamps don’t get broken, when we see how many log-eyed spouses stumble around in the home. An elephant’s nose sticks out from its face like a log, but is a delicate organ. The end of an elephant’s trunk is as delicate as a lady’s hand. It can pick up a teacup. But the business end of a log-eye is blunt. It is not delicate in the least. It’s no wonder. You and I weren’t made by God to have logs for eyeballs. The greatest problem of the human race is the evolution of log-eyes from eyeballs.
The spirit of criticism spills over into every nook and cranny of life. We’ve entered the moment in the cycle of our political system when candidates eye each other with acute sensitivity to each other’s flaws. Ostensibly, their purpose is to help us voters choose the perfect candidate for office, but we all suspect a smidgen of ambition may cloud their vision of others. But politics is only one arena in which lack of charity blooms.
A critical spirit ruins many friendships. Whom do you consider a former friend who was once your friend because of what he said to you? Paul urges us to “speak with grace, to let our words be seasoned with salt.” James reminds us that the tongue is like a match that sets on fire a forest.
Criticism stings like lemon juice squeezed on a wound. It contaminates many a workplace, many a church. How different it is to work together in the church when we know others are for us rather than against us. We love to quote the Scripture, “If God be for us, who can be against us,” and how good it is when God’s people are for us too. A critical spirit at work in a congregation takes away the joy. It undermines the Gospel. It works like a virus. The most painful problems we face in a church stem from a critical spirit. Few factors can stunt the growth of a church like the undertow of criticism.
Whereas the instinct to notice what is wrong is God-given, and is intended to help us distinguish the false from the true, it has been contaminated. A critical spirit leads us to snipe at others, to bring them down, to vent the harsh winds stirred by our own bad feelings. If only we could see ourselves aright.
We love to remember the most famous louse in history. Robert Burns, the beloved Scottish poet, describes in detail how a louse climbs through the hair of the lady in church, sitting so proper with her bonnet attractively perched on her head. She just knows she’s admired for her piety and proper dress. And all the while behind her someone sees this louse crawling in her hair. He cannot hear the sermon so entranced is he by that crawling little creature. Burns reminds us winsomely that we need to be able to see ourselves as others see us, which would free us from many a false notion. We laugh, but our laughter is uneasy. We rarely see ourselves as others see us.
We defend our stubbornness as resolution. He’s stingy, but I’m thrifty. I’m a man of principle; you’re judgmental. In me it’s good taste, but in you it’s snobbishness. I’ve got self-esteem; you’re arrogant. We harbor our false notions of ourselves uneasily.
When the spirit of criticism works on the global scene, it erupts so tragically. How much of the present crisis in the Middle East might have been avoided if the warring factions were self-critical rather than critical of the other side? Can such a thing happen between peoples? The Jews and Muslim Arabs are both descendants of Abraham. If each recognized in the other his neighbor if not his brother, and loved him as himself, how different our world would be.
Can you imagine a Middle East where every suicide bomber brought a gift of homemade sweets instead of homemade explosive to the other side? Can you imagine it if the bulldozers that destroy homes were replaced with trucks bringing building materials? If only the spirit of criticism of others were replaced with self-criticism! It’s easy for us to see this as we look at this tragedy deepen. Meanwhile, what we can see would work elsewhere we find hard to appropriate in ourselves.
John’s Gospel tells us, “The Son did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” But we seem to believe that one reason why we came into the world is to criticize others. It is to this instinct that Jesus says first, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” Then, in case we don’t get the idea He says the same thing in other words, “Do not speak ill of others and they will not speak ill of you.”
So important is this that Jesus goes on to put things in a more positive way, “Be generous, and you will receive generously.” Criticism may be generous, but in a way that steals a person’s good name. Be generous with others in a way that builds their good name.
As if that idea needed further embellishment Jesus said, “Measure out good to others, pressed down, shaken, and running over and others will give the same back to you.” This is not the graceless idea that we will give only to the one who will give something back to us. Instead, Jesus referred to a reflex that works among people. Children who receive encouragement, give encouragement. Adults who grow from children who received encouragement, give encouragement. It is a law of life. This is the giving and receiving Jesus had in mind.
Jesus wanted to be perfectly clear. In a world He was giving His life to save by grace, candidates for grace need to offer grace to each other. In Matthew’s version of the same teaching, Jesus says, “You will be judged with the judgment you give.” Think of this a moment. Not just, “Judge not that you be not judged,” as though it were a possibility. But, “You will be judged with the judgment you give.”
One way I think of Jesus’ appeal to us is that He has invited us to an adventure in largely uncharted territory. Cutting away a critical spirit is like opening the gate to the Kingdom of God. The well-traveled landscape of the kingdom of this world is criss-crossed with mutual criticism, backbiting, tit for tat, quid pro quo, all of that. This spirit of defensiveness and hostility infects every level of society, from the family to the family of nations. The instincts are well traveled to get even, to look out for myself, to cherish my kind of people, to be leery of those who are not my kind.
Jesus says to us, “There is a better way. And this is the gateway. Divest yourself of a critical spirit. You say, “I will if she will.” Jesus says, “No, you’ve got to walk through this gate first by yourself.” You’ll have to walk through the grace-gate by yourself because grace has to operate where it is not deserved. The Bible tells us, “We love because God first loved us.” God took the initiative. He asks us to take the initiative.
When you and I come to Jesus by faith to receive His grace, He enlists us to become little Jesus-es, extending grace. This is the beginning and summary of good theology. You want to understand the mysteries of God? Then study grace, and mimic it.
Grace chiefly looks like an uncritical spirit. I don’t think that people are bothered nearly so much by the fabled hypocrisy in the church as they are bothered by the criticism they expect to receive in it. Jesus says to you and me, “Don’t criticize. Instead, give generously, pressed down, running over.”
For those of you who have claimed Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, the starting point of sharing your faith comes in adopting the way of grace. Those who do not know Jesus as Lord need to see God’s grace illustrated. Grace is irresistible. This is why Jesus says to His disciples, then and now, “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, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” How often the word “you” appears here. Jesus is speaking to you—and me. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
O Lord, may it be so with us as Jesus has taught us. And may we find this way to be our own, that ushers into life the Kingdom of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, Indiana
Posted by faithpres at September 28, 2003 09:30 AM