Being Judgmental

Last week I mentioned that we Christians sometimes come off as judgmental, and that we put too much emphasis on what a person outside the faith is doing or not doing other than coming to Christ. I neglected to mention that when a person (whether they are of the Body or not of the Body) commits sin, and we just stand by, as condoning that sin, then we become partakers of that sin. We have been commissioned to warn people about the wrath to come.

When the adulterous woman was taken before Jesus, He did not (directly) prevent her stoning, although he was certainly more compassionate towards her than her accusers; He did tell her to go and sin no more, which made it clear that her earlier behavior was not acceptable (although one would hope that her narrow escape from a death by stoning would have made that point abundantly obvious). At the same time, He didn’t browbeat her about her past sins, in fact, He said, “Neither do I condemn thee.”

When he was at the Pharisee Simon’s house for dinner, and the woman (was it the same woman? I suspect that it was, but the Scriptures don’t say) anointed His feet, Simon found fault with Jesus, supposing that Christ didn’t know what sort of woman was touching Him. Of course, Jesus did know what she had been, but, unlike Simon, He was aware that her repentance was genuine; she was no longer what the Pharisee thought she was. Unfortunately, even those of us that call ourselves Christians often have more in common with Simon than with Christ. We are very limited in what we can see and sense. Many of us have been fooled more than once by people who have offered repentance as a pretense in order to gain, and then betray, our trust. I can forgive such a betrayal, but it is very hard for me to ever again extend trust to such an individual. We look at people with our human eyes, and we see their human faults, and, well, let’s be honest about it, we pass judgment, even though we know we aren’t supposed to. What we are supposed to do is meet people where they are, and help them to see what they could be.

I have talked before about Rahab the Harlot; out of all the people living in Jericho, she was the one who showed some measure of righteousness, if only because she feared God. When the two spies went into Jericho, they didn’t pass judgment on her for her profession, they understood that she was in the same predicament as the rest of the people of Jericho; if they didn’t repent, they would all die in their sins. Of course, Rahab showed by her actions that she feared God, and she was ready to change her entire life.

I’m trying to show that there are ways to convey that certain behaviors are not acceptable (most people have a pretty good understanding of what those behaviors are anyway) without being judgmental. People outside of Christ don’t need judgment from us, they will face righteous judgment in the next life anyway; what they need is mercy (hasn’t God showed each of us more mercy than we deserve?). They do need to be warned, but that should be done as compassionately as possible. Having said that, let me also point out that some people are going to need their cages rattled before they will be ready to accept a warning. Sometimes the most compassionate thing to do is to let compassion go by the wayside and let the sinner have it with both barrels, but, that’s the exception rather than the rule. We seriously need to pray that God would allow us, and help us, to see people the way that He sees them.