Jesus said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”1 When He taught us to “judge not,” it was clear that He was referring to the wrong attitude of condemning and criticizing others. He also censured the self-righteousness of spirit that is present when we are critical and judgmental of others.
My Uncle Dave often spoke against self-righteousness, which he considered to be one of the worst sins for Christians:
A critical spirit and a harsh, condemning attitude toward others come from self-righteousness! But if you know you’re a mess yourself, then you don’t go around looking down on and criticizing other people for their mistakes. But if you think you’re so righteous, that’s when you start picking on others.
That’s one thing I’ll say for my mother who was an evangelical speaker, she always tried to speak well of people. She was one of those people who cast a veil over countless sins.2 ... So try to have a little sympathy, a little empathy with others; put yourself in their shoes and try to think how you would feel if you were there. Remember that scripture, “Love covereth a multitude of sins!”3 …
The drunks and the harlots, the publicans and the sinners didn’t go to the harsh, rigid, self-righteous, unyielding, unforgiving, critical, and condemning church leaders, who told them to be perfect or go to hell, and laid on them religious burdens that were more than they were able to bear.4 But they came to Jesus, for His love and mercy, forgiveness, encouragement, and patience! And He treated them tenderly, kindly and forgivingly, and gave them hope, love, and strength! Do you?
So what we all really need is more love! And less pride! Love is humble! Love is humility! And humility is the absolute opposite of critical, self-righteous pride! …
Please give us love, Lord! “Above all things have fervent love one toward another.”5 Let us not condemn in pride; let us not be as the Scribes and the Pharisees: “I thank Thee, O God, that I am not as this man,” the publican, the sinner. If we’re lifted up in pride and glad we’re not like the sinner, Lord, then we’re even worse! We’re self-righteous and hypocritical! Help us, Lord, to know that except by Your grace we wouldn’t even be here! We would be worse off than those we are tempted to look down upon, except by Your love and Your mercy and Your grace!
You said, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” We must spend time alone with You to learn what this means! Give us great love, great patience, great humility, littleness in our own eyes. Help us to mete unto other men’s bosoms as You have meted unto us. Help us to forgive other men’s sins as You have forgiven us, to have mercy upon others as You have had mercy upon us.6—David Brandt Berg
Jesus condemned the harsh judgmentalism and self-righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders of His day. This was the one group of people that Jesus spoke against repeatedly in the Gospels. He took them to task for the heavy burdens they imposed on the people, and for preventing others from finding the way to heaven.7
Jesus was angered at how they had commercialized the faith by allowing merchants and moneychangers in the temple. The only recorded time of His manifesting anger so visibly was when He drove the moneychangers from the temple and told them to stop turning His Father’s house into a marketplace.8 He even said that the tax collector who acknowledged his sin was more righteous than the Pharisee.9 Considering that tax collectors were viewed as extortionists and traitors to their people, it was clear that the self-righteousness of the Pharisees didn’t rank highly with Jesus.
Many conservative Christians today pronounce judgments on people that are often harsh and lack in respecting the fact that God loves all people, even the people who seem to reject Him or haven’t understood His message. We believe that He is “not willing that any should perish,” and that He wants to redeem all people and bring them into a close, loving relationship with Him.10
Showing love and tolerance for people, and respecting the fact that they were created by God and have an inherent right to be treated with dignity doesn’t necessarily mean that you condone their actions or embrace their beliefs. For instance, as Christians, we don’t believe that it is right or godly to perpetrate wars on other nations. We don’t believe that governments should impoverish their people and neglect the vulnerable. We don’t believe that it’s right that countless lives are harmed through the drug trade. And yet, when we interact with people who are either caught up in such moral wrongs or don’t believe them to be wrong, we are still called to treat them with respect as individuals created in God’s image, and offer them truth, salvation, hope, and God’s love.
Of course, at times we’ll feel called and convicted to speak up against wrong or evil. The key in doing so, however, is to bear in mind that, as Christians, we are first and foremost to show Jesus’ love and forgiveness to others. Jesus repeatedly taught by His words and example that mercy and forgiveness must be part of the equation in judging people and situations. He set that example in the case of the adulterous woman who was to be stoned for her transgression, or in healing people on the Sabbath, which was not in accordance with the way the Ten Commandments were enforced in His day.11 He showed the religionists of His day that right judgment also included love and mercy.
We don’t condone or support the wrong, and the Lord may lead us to speak out against it in certain situations. But there’s a difference between speaking the truth in love and giving way to judgmentalism.
Intolerance, judgmental and critical attitudes, prejudices or animosity toward people of other races, religious beliefs, color, or sexual orientation, or feelings of superiority or that we have the right to criticize and condemn others, are not compatible with the teachings and example of Jesus. Our beliefs and mission are rooted in God’s Law of Love. We are called to love, and judgmental attitudes or prejudices should have no place in our hearts or our faith.
Judgmentalism is one of the primary manifestations of self-righteousness. We may not agree with people’s beliefs or actions. We may have the conviction that someone’s actions are not good or godly, but we are still called to love, even as we stand up for our convictions and strongly held beliefs. We are called to be faithful representatives of Jesus’ love when interacting with others, and to consider how He would respond in such situations.
Let’s always be known for our love. Let’s not be hasty to judge people. God’s love is the greatest power in the universe, and He can take even the most challenging situation or circumstances and somehow use it for a witness.
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
… They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”—John 8:3–11 NLT
Originally published August 2010. Excerpted and republished November 2013.
1 Matthew 7:1.
2 1 Peter 4:8.
3 1 Peter 4:8.
4 Matthew 23:4.
5 1 Peter 4:8.
6 Originally published March 1986.
7 See Matthew 23, Luke 11:37–54.
8 John 2:13–17.
9 Luke 18:9–14.
10 Matthew 18:14; 2 Peter 3:9.
11 John 8:3–11; Matthew 12:10–14.
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