Upsidedown Kingdom: Do Not Judge

When I attended grade school, guys wore Levi jeans. People looked closely: cool kids wore “red tab” jeans. Classmates teased you if you wore orange tabs: you were out of fashion, you were poor, and probably, your parents didn’t love you enough to get you proper jeans.

My brother was more clever than I. He used a marker to colour his orange tabs red. It saved him some grief.

I don’t know what kids get bullied about in grade school these days. There’s always something to determine the pecking order. It’s this self-righteous attitude Jesus is warning against when he said, “Do not judge or you too will be judged.”

Sadly, it’s not just school. People use all kinds of standards to determine how you stack up against others:

· I-phone or android?

· Who designed your shoes, your glasses, your bag?

· What kind of education do you have?

· What brand are your tractors?

People are judgmental about all kinds of things.

Unhealthy judging of others happens when the critical skills of identifying people and recognizing their distinctive looks, choices, and abilities crosses a line and difference become a reason to treat them differently – an excuse to be less loving, less kind, or less generous to them – or to feel inferior, intimidated, unworthy.

Sometimes being judgemental arises from pride. Sometimes it comes from insecurity. True confession: I catch myself being judgemental at times too.

It's not right. It’s not healthy. Every person you encounter is created in the image of the Lord God Almighty. Everyone has the same flesh and bones as Jesus does.

In one NT letter to Christians, the apostle Paul reminds his readers of their new identity in Jesus:

You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:9–11 (NIV)

For those who have faith in Jesus, old standards of judging others are gone.

Jesus tells his disciples that God holds people accountable for being self-righteous, judgemental, and overly critical. Jesus says:

In the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 7:2 (NIV)

It’s a sobering thought. The way you “dish it out” judgement on others, is the way God will dish out his judgement to you.

It reminds me of how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. It’s often called the Lord’s Prayer. There is one petition in which God’s forgiveness is tied to the way we forgive others.

Jesus taught us to pray:

Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12 (NIV)

Put together like that raises some questions:

· How would you God to judge you?

· How would you like your sins forgiven?

Here’s the amazing thing. Although I have a tendency to be judgemental, opinionated, and even hypercritical of others – among all the other ways I fall short of loving God 100% and my neighbour as myself – I find God to be extremely welcoming and forgiving. Our Creator welcomes us with love and compassion.

It takes a while to get used to because it's so different from what we’re used to in our culture. God’s acceptance and forgiveness is celebrated in Ps. 103:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,

nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103:8–10 (NIV)

Because humankind was lost in sin and wrong-doing – incl. being judgemental – humanity was cut off from life with God. But God doesn’t harbour that anger forever: he does not always accuse. One of my favorite definitions of forgiveness is the willingness to let go of anger that you have a right to.

God has a right to be angry at me for my disobedience and wrongdoing. Instead, does not treat me as my sins deserve, but he lets go of his anger. This is the good news!

In the New Testament, Paul unpacks the gospel of Jesus’ amazing grace and acceptance of sin-stained people:

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6–8 (NIV)

God is so loving and generous that Jesus – God the Son – entered his own creation and became human.

At the cross, God the Father put the punishment for our sin on Jesus. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. 3 days later he rose again. The empty tomb is our assurance that our sin is forgiven and we are raised to life with Jesus.

God the Holy Spirit helps us believe all this. The HS helps us hang on to all God’s promises. The HS helps us experience something of the deep, deep love God has for us.

By reading the Bible, spending time in prayer talking to God, and participating in the LS, the HS assures you that you are included. You are God’s dearly loved child. You’re not loved because you are worthy, but you are worthy because you are loved!

If that isn’t enough, the HS helps us take up Jesus’ challenge to live as citizens of his kingdom. He lets you live the counter-cultural life of his Upside-down Kingdom.

As I mentioned earlier, part of life as God’s dearly loved child involves not judging others. Not being judgemental. Not being hypercritical. Not making people feel unwelcome and unworthy.

For the record, I want you to know that you’re doing well in this area – especially towards newcomers and visitors to Crosspoint. It’s one of the perks of my position. After worship and in New Members’ classes, at Jack & Jill and other ministries, I hear people’s compliments. I frequently hear how kind, how welcoming, how gracious you are. People tell me they generally feel welcome, comfortable, and at home at Crosspoint. They don’t feel judged. Well done, Crosspoint. Keep it up!

Keep it up, because this is one of the characteristics that distinguishes the Kingdom of Heaven from the rest of culture. It’s true, we encounter kind and friendly people almost everywhere you go – it’s a gift of God’s common grace. But Jesus’ followers are supposed to be above-average in generosity and welcoming people warmly. The church is supposed to be the least judgemental community.

Not first and foremost because God will judge us for being judgemental, but because we have received generosity and acceptance from God. As God’s dearly loved child, you demonstrate that you are part of God’s family, a citizen of the Upside-down Kingdom, by being generous, welcoming and accepting of others.

Old song: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

I could stop here. The problem is sometimes we mistake Jesus’ meaning when he says “Don’t judge.” Here’s how one author describes the mistake:

[The] words, “Do not judge,” have been taken by some to mean that good Christians must never exercise any critical judgment. Some believe model Christians are totally accepting, whatever the situation. Christlikeness is equated with a suspension of critical faculties—a pious, all-accepting blindness.

He goes on:

The ideal Christian, … is an undiscerning, flabby, indulgent, all-accepting jellyfish who lives out the misinterpretation of “judge not.”[1]

That’s not a proper understanding of Jesus’ instructions “Do not judge.”

It is important to understand one verse in the context of the rest of the Bible: “Interpret Scripture with Scripture.” If you read through Matthew’s gospel, you might notice that, just a few paragraphs after Jesus says “do not judge,” he also says:

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Matthew 7:15–16 (NIV)

There is no way to watch out for false prophets without evaluating whether the prophet is false or not. Jesus’ disciples need to make a judgement call. We need to use critical thinking.

One evaluation we need to make is the difference between being judgemental and being discerning. Christians need to exercise discernment. We teach and hold each other accountable. There are times to evaluate:

· Is this young believer ready to be a leader?

· Does that person have the gifts to serve as a deacon?

· On Tuesday, there’s a Classis meeting: delegates come from all the CRCs between Windsor and Woodstock. Two exams are scheduled for this meeting. Delegates need to evaluate if Nick VanderPloeg is qualified to be a Minister of the Word and if Stephanie VanRooyen is qualified to be a Commissioned Pastor.

Let’s be clear: there’s a difference between being judgemental and being discerning.

Don’t be judgy but do use your God-given skills of discernment.

[1] Hughes, R. Kent. 2001. The Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.