Judging

This post was sparked by this post from friend and fellow blogger, Jessica.

First, some Scriptures:

Jesus said:
Mt 7:1 - Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Lu 6:37 - "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Paul said:
Col 2:16 - Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

1Co 5:12 - What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

1Co 6:2 - Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

God said:
Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

I pulled just a few Scriptures on judging - trust me, there are many more. As you can see, they are kind of a mixture. Jesus seems pretty absolute: "Do not judge." Paul says "Don't allow yourself to be judged." However, then he says that we are to judge those inside the church (while adjuring us to not judge those outside the church). He then later says that we are to judge things of this life.

So why did I include the Scripture from Genesis 2?

My theory is that our propensity to judge goes back to the original sin. I think that the knowledge of good and evil drives us to judge - to divide everything into this black and white thinking of "this thing is good, this thing is evil." We weren't meant to handle this ability, and that's why we mess it up so much.  I think that it is because of this propensity to judge that Jesus made the strong statements that he did.

Paul, on the other hand, is talking to the church, and part of his concern is church administration. In this context, it is appropriate to judge what is right and wrong, so that correction can be brought. How can a church leader speak against lying or stealing or slander if he or she is not allowed to judge these actions to be wrong? Isn't it necessary, then, to judge in some contexts?

Here is how I reconcile these ideas. I think that as a Christian that we are to discern right from wrong. But I think that what Jesus is saying is "Love, do not despise."  I think that he is speaking against is the separation of our heart from a person that we have judged, but not against recognizing what actions offend God. This is similar to the idea of judging the action, not the person.  The sin, not the sinner.

Easy to say, in theory. Very difficult in practice. What I have found is that the roots of the original sin are so deep in us that we fall into the practice of judging very easily. How easy it is to just dismiss a person, to classify them in our minds as "one of those people."  How easy it is, too, to spread these judgments to other people for noble ends, "to warn them, to protect them." How often do we see prominent or not-so-prominent Christian leaders or sites on the web rendering a judgment on this or that person, to inform their viewers? How often they claim to be doing this for Christian reasons! Sometimes I think that if these discernments want to be seen as Christian that they should include a disclaimer, like:

"WARNING: The preceding discussion is given for informational purposes only, to inform your prayer. You are not to judge the person or persons named therein. Judgment is a sin. If you say to the object of this message 'You fool!', you will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matt 5:22). You are not to use this information to gossip about this person(s), defame them, or despise them. Instead, your goal should be to pray for this person(s) and to love them. Again, love them. Anything less is unworthy of Christ."

Another thing that Jess's post brings up is our American concepts of what a spiritual life looks like.  To many, a spiritual life is one spent in total service to the church. Anything else is second (or third or fourth) best. I think that the person that wrote to Jess probably saw her as someone who was on a trajectory to have a career in the church, and that she "settled" or got distracted into something less. Want to be a dancer or an actor or a screenwriter or a computer support person? Do it for the church!

I confess that I fall into this trap as well, sometimes concerning other people, but mostly concerning myself. I judge myself as being less spiritual because I work a corporate job. But really, I, like Jess, feel that God opened doors to get me to my current position. And I do not see a precedent in the New Testament for every person who became a believer to give up their current occupation to do Christian ministry. Instead, there is an admonission to remain in your current situation (1 Corinthians 7:17-21). Truth is, Christians can be true Christians without working jobs within the church.