Judging
- daveingrey3
- Jan 19
- 2 min read
“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 (Matthew 7:1-2).”
If Matthew 6 addresses our worries about basic needs, what we will wear and eat, Matthew 7 turns to our tendency to worry about what others are doing. This does not mean we should not judge between right and wrong. But Christians have a well-earned reputation for seeming “holier than thou”, one that we would do well to live down. This, again comes back to being “poor in spirit” and having a “humble and contrite heart.”
What do we say to non-Christians? Paul wrote to the Romans, “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law (5:13).” If we don't know something is wrong, we are not held accountable. I believe Paul’s statement, along with many other verses I could cite, indicates that God will grade us on a curve, so to speak. If someone is born into a Muslim family, or Hindu or Atheist, and are taught things contrary to the Gospel, their ability to find Jesus must be much more difficult.
I think many of the people leaving organized Christianity today know there is more to life than the physical world. But they do not see Agape, the love of Christ, being lived out in their churches, so they vote with their feet. But we who have heard the Good News are without excuse. I wonder, in today’s age with access, not just to the Bible, but to dozens of different translations, many scholarly works explaining the text, and even software that can help get to the original language, what does God expect of us? Do we not have a responsibility to seek him?
And so, continuing on the theme of not being a hypocrite, we should work on our own sinfulness before we start in on someone else (see Philippians 2:12-13). Or perhaps, if we are compelled to speak to another, start by admitting our own faults. If we can be honest about our own struggles, that is an amazing witness to the power of the Holy Spirit. I think we too often want to take shortcuts. We all want to be Billy Graham and start a revival leading everyone to Jesus and we all live in his Kingdom in peace and harmony. In my estimation, we can only really "make disciples of all nations" one person at a time, the person right in front of me.
How do you reconcile grading on a cur e with John 14:6, Romans 1 and particularly 1:20 where Paul says the ungodly are without excuse (NIV). Would love to see a blog expanding on your thoughts on these passage and others like Is. 45 that seem to address this conundrum. To me, these passages give us a literally grave responsibility to spread the gospel truth and bring it to the ends of the earth so all may know with clarity and in full beyond what Creation reveals.