There’s a Reason “Love” and “Judge” Don’t Rhyme.

“Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1.

“But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard others with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Romans 14:10.

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2.

“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.  “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”  They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.  But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.  Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” John 8:1-11

These verses bless me so much because I always know that when others judge me; God looks at me with love.  When others emotionally “drag me to the center of town” to be condemned; Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross literally covers me with forgiveness, mercy, and grace (Romans 4:7). His love is limitless, unhindered, uninhibited, and unchanged by the passage of time (Romans 8: 37-39). When I make mistakes, He forgives.  (I John 1:9) When I fall, He catches me and helps me to my feet again (Proverbs 24:16).   Through learning and embracing these teachings, I’ve realized that I’ve judged others, and I need to change.  It’s been something I’ve been working on the last few years as I’ve studied more about the sin and consequences of judgment toward others.

Growing up and into my early twenties, I was surrounded by evangelical legalism both at Church, at my Christian school ,and at the Christian colleges I visited and attended.   The form of legalism, which I lived in, involved rules for dress code, hair style, jewelry, tattoos, music style and choice, theater attendance, etc.  This legalism also made decisions about whether or not you could serve in church:  Are you divorced?  Sorry, we can’t use you.  Do you swim with people of the opposite sex or wear a swimsuit in public?  Sorry, you should know better.  Do you listen to secular music?  Well, that’s unfortunate because you are wrong.  Here are a few more real-life examples of the depth and breadth of the legalism, which surrounded me:

• One popular book which was read in my circle taught that a woman should submit to her husband even if what he asked her to do was wrong or illegal because God would protect her.  Multiple copies of this book were in the libraries of two popular colleges I visited.
• I had a friend whose father wouldn’t allow her to wear straight skirts because it revealed too much of her figure. I had friends who weren’t allowed to French braid their hair, get their ears pierced, or wear pants, even in the snow.
• I grew up around girls, who weren’t allowed to have Ken dolls, Cabbage Patch dolls, or Smurf toys.
• I was surrounded by many people who didn’t have televisions and who would never even walk into a movie theater or rent a video from a rental store.  Some of these families whom I knew when I was in elementary school actually had a ceremony together where they burned their television sets.
• One of my Pastors said that if any woman tried to attend a baby or wedding shower in the Fellowship Hall while wearing pants, he would stand at the door and ask her to leave, whether or not she was a church member.
• At least two of the popular Christian colleges in my circle collected your music at the beginning of the semester to approve it.  One of the colleges would put a sticker on the tape or CD if it was okay.  If it wasn’t approved, they would keep it until the end of the semester.  The other college was very specific.  As a teenager, I visited the campus and stayed in the dorm, one of the girls I stayed with in the dorm told me that they could listen to certain movie soundtracks as long as they skipped songs that weren’t instrumental.  She then rattled off the numbers of the songs they had to skip.
• Most of the Churches, Christian schools, and colleges I was in and around criticized and condemned any person who read or used a non-King James Version Bible.  I actually heard some people say that if you accepted Christ’s gift of salvation from reading any other version; you actually weren’t saved.

The most alienating part of the legalistic system I lived in was the judgments against anyone who disagreed with our group.  We weren’t “allowed” to fellowship with Churches that believed differently, not even to play softball!  As you can imagine, all of these rules, regulations, and judgments made things so that neither me nor anyone I knew could ever “measure up” completely; and most of us were exhausted and discouraged from trying and failing constantly, even if we would never admit it.  In the last 9 years, circumstances have occurred in my life which have caused me to study more, to pray more, and to seek God for answers out of my own desperation as I faced unbelievable challenges at every turn.  Through my questioning heart, I learned that God loves me and created me as a unique person, and that I did not have to strive for a perfection that I would never reach.  I’ve learned the meaning of freedom in Christ, and I’m blessed by the gift of His freedom in each new challenge that arises. I’ve learned that God isn’t impressed by all my good deeds and sacrifices–how many people I witnessed to, how many sick people I visited, whether or not I wear pants, how many casseroles I cooked, whether or not my ears are pierced, how many pages I read in my Bible, whether or not I have a television or attend a movie, how many services and Bible studies I attend in a given week; how many committees I serve on, how many showers and banquets I plan; whether or not my radio is tuned to the Christian station or oldies, how many children attend my Sunday School class; whether or not my CDs have an “approval” sticker, how many kids actually knew their memory verse and on and on and on. . .  I now realize that God only wants my love and devotion.  I don’t have to try to be good enough to earn His favor; I already have it because I’m His child!  God is not in Heaven checking off a man-made checklist or quota that I have to meet in order to be accepted.  I am accepted and loved just as I am (Yes, the song is right).  Please understand that I attend an evangelical Church in a different circle than how I was raised, that I share my faith, and that I serve and volunteer both in the community and in the Church; however, I don’t do these things to earn God’s favor or to gain approval from Him or others.  I serve God because I love Him.   Do I still love my brothers and sisters in Christ who remain in the same circle, which I left.  Yes, very much.  I love these precious people and fellowship with them online or in person as often as possible.  When we’re together, I will be wearing pants most of the time.  I guess we have an unspoken agreement to disagree on certain things.  God’s work in their hearts regarding their beliefs is His work not mine.  For these fellow-believers, I’m not worried about their relationship with God.  That’s God’s and their business not mine.  As to the Scriptural teaching regarding works, James, the brother of Jesus; addressed the topic in James 2:14-18  “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.  But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James is explaining to the early Church that saying you are a Christian and never acting on your faith is wrong.  He is encouraging Christians to give to others and to love others as Christ did as a way of demonstrating that one’s faith in God is genuine and sincere.  To use a well-known cliché, he’s saying, “Talk is cheap.”  Talking about loving God while judging others and condemning them is ungodly.  Ignoring the needs of the weak and suffering is not acceptable to God.  You cannot “work your way” into Heaven by being good enough.  You can, however, live a life of active faith in which you love and give to others out of a heart that loves God so much that you feel compelled to live like Christ and see people as He did–with compassion and understanding.

**Important note regarding Bible Study**  The passage above may seem confusing, but if you read and study the entire passage, you will have a clearer understanding (See also Matthew 7, I John 3,  and John 15 for more information on the same topic).  Please remember to study these passages in context, meaning that you should read the entire chapter, if not the chapter before or after, in order to fully understand what the writer is saying.  One verse or phrase of Scripture picked out of a chapter and quoted or “hurled” at someone can be just as damaging as adding to what the Bible actually says.  For example, the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament is a guidebook for Jewish worship, rituals, and daily conduct for both priests and citizens.  This guidebook was written before Jesus came to earth to free all people from both the Jewish Law as well as the rules and rituals of other sects.  In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Jesus explains that He came to fulfill the Law because no one could possibly keep all the rules on his or her own.   If I pick just the first phrase from Leviticus 10:7, “You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, or you will die…,” I could believe this to say that if I ever leave the doorway of my Church (the Old Testament Jews did not have church, but rather a tent called The Tabernacle), then I’m dead!  However, if I read the entire chapter, I will realize that this verse and others like it are very specific rules set up for the Priests of Israel and do not apply to me as a 21st century Christian.  I encourage you to study the Bible contextually by studying the entire chapter, the chapters before and after the chapter you are studying and the entire book as time allows.  Pray for God’s guidance as you study.  God will bless your study and show you His truth.** 

Now that you have read the aside regarding Bible Study, let’s get back on topic.  Legalism and judgment are dangerous.  The two combined have pushed many people away from God and the Church.  Over the years, I’ve seen many people whom I love run away from God and the church as soon as they were old enough to do so; and I believe we as brothers and sisters in Christ need to look honestly at ourselves and ask…

• Did I have a part in pushing them away? 
• Did I make them feel that they could never truly be good enough for God? 
• Did my own flawed human “mental accounting” of their Church/Bible Study/Visitation attendance, their commitment to serve in many areas, and their personal growth help them or hurt them?

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) said, “By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”   Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Pastor who stood against the Nazis and their policies, which ultimately led to his imprisonment and death in a concentration camp.  Arguably, he could have judged the Nazis for all the evil they did; but instead, he felt they deserved the same God-given grace that he had received.

Corrie ten Boom (1892-1983), a “righteous Gentile,” who helped hide Jews and Resistance workers from the Nazis, was imprisoned along with her father and sister in a concentration camp; however, she alone survived of the three and went on to write her well-known book–The Hiding Place.  In her book, she recounts how difficult it was to avoid judgment and to forgive the seemingly unforgivable:

 “Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him….Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness….And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”  

Forgiveness, love, and non-judgment were central themes for both of these believers, and I have learned much from their example.

My desire is to look at others as Jesus does–seeing only their humanity, not their faults; seeing only their souls; not their habits; seeing only their needs, not their mistakes.

“Father God, please help me to love people like You do with an open heart and an unending love for all.  Amen.”

**All Scripture is in bold-type and is from the NASB**