What If Jesus Was Serious: Judging, Asking, Blessing

Intro: “Judgmental”

About 6-8 times a year, I either hop on a plane or in a car and head out to a different part of the country to work with other churches. I know I’ve talked about this before - but I’m part of a group of church ministry consultants called the “Unstuck Group.” Our church (Prairie Lakes) hired them back in 2016 and they really helped us out on a few things. I’ve been on their team since about 2017 or so.

And it’s a really cool thing to be a part of—because you’re in the room for a couple of days with a team of church leaders, some staff/some non-staff, just working through some tools and exercises designed to bring clarity, direction, and alignment around what God has next for them.

Some of those exercises are designed to help them really dial into who they’re trying to reach. Like, the people who live next door to you or the families in your school district who aren’t going to church… who are they? What are they like? What do you know about them? What’s important to them? What’s their story? Stuff like that.

And as a resource for them, we always commission a couple of reports about their specific community—one that collects some more basic demographic data, but another that collects some specific “life” or “spiritual” data—

For example: within a 20 minute drive of your church, for people who were surveyed and who’ve indicated that they don’t currently go to church and aren’t planning on it, what are their top reasons for not going?

So: here’s where I’d like to play a little guessing game with you. Here’s your question:

Nationally-speaking, what would you guess is the most common reason that most Americans who don’t go church give when explaining why they don’t to go church? What’s the #1 reason non-churchgoers give for not going to church?

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The most common reason non-churchgoers give for not going to church is that the church is too judgmental (61%).

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61% of non-churchgoers say that the reason they don’t go to church is that the church is too judgmental.

The next 3, by the way, if you’re curious, are: 2) the church is too focused on money; 3) they don’t trust organized religion; and 4) they don’t trust religious leaders… with each of those reasons given by 50-55% of respondents.

But the most common reason the people who don’t go to church give for not going is that the church is too judgmental.

So hey: if you’re one of those people who feel like the church is too judgmental, but you’re here | or you’re listening to this—maybe because a friend invited you and they seemed (mostly) normal, or maybe because you’re just open and took a risk in coming… if that’s you:

Get ready to be judged you dirty sinner! Your worst fears are about to be realized...

No.

In all sincerity I would like to talk to you if that is you. What I want to do is pull back the curtain a little bit and give you an insight into how the rest of us “insiders” feel when we saw that stat:

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We churchgoers have a complicated relationship with the word “judgmental.”

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When we get called judgmental, we don’t all react the same. We don’t all hear it the same. We don’t all feel the same way. It’s kinda complicated.

When some of us get called “judgmental” we kind of wear it like a badge. It’s like when you’re a fan of the visiting team, and you wear a visiting team’s jersey to the game. You know you’re gonna get booed by the home crowd… but it’s kind of a badge of honor, or a test of your loyalty.

And that’s how some of us churchgoers feel when we get called “judgmental,” especially by non-churchgoers. Some of us wear it like a badge—because the things we get called “judgmental” about are sincerely held beliefs, informed by the Bible, which we believe is God’s Word.

So if we get judged for believing and living out what God said... maybe that’s something to be proud of. In fact, we just read a part of the Bible a few weeks ago in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where he says: you’re blessed when you’re despised or rejected or persecuted for your belief in me or your obedience to me. You’re blessed.

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We churchgoers have a complicated relationship with the word “judgmental.”

Some of us wear the label of “judgmental” like it’s a badge of honor.

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But others of us have a very different reaction to that word.

We don’t wear that label like a badge at all. In fact, we push hard away from that label. We don’t want to have a whiff of “judgmental” on us at all.

Because why? Well, because the two Greatest Commandments are to love God and love others. And our mission is to go into the world and help others see and meet this loving God and know what he did through Jesus.

And oh, by the way, let’s talk about this Jesus guy for a second:

Jesus seemed to have the biggest problem with judgmental churchgoers, who judged him constantly for spending time with non-churchgoers.

He invited himself over to the dishonest tax collector’s house to hang out for dinner.

His first miracle was turning water into wine at a party that ran out.

He counted a prostitute as one of his closest followers.

Jesus put a stop to the hypocritical stoning of the woman caught in adultery.

And so if we start to be known for anything more than our love for God and others—if the world we’re trying to reach sees us first and foremost as judgmental—then we’re probably doing something wrong.

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We churchgoers have a complicated relationship with the word “judgmental.”

Some of us wear the label of “judgmental” like it’s a badge of honor.

Some of us avoid the label of “judgmental” like it’s the plague.

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Because we know that in our culture, once you get the smell of “judgmental” on you, you’re not gonna get anywhere with anybody. People won’t trust you. Won’t talk to you. Won’t open up to you. Won’t feel safe around you.

And you know what the really funny thing is? A lot of us feel both of these, or we’re a mix of both of these.

It’s complicated.

Transition: What If Jesus Was Serious?

So here’s where we’ve been the last several weeks at Prairie Lakes: we’ve been journeying through a literal sermon that Jesus preached that was recorded in Matthew. It’s come to be known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”

And we’re getting to a part in Jesus’ sermon that has to be one of the most often quoted | but most often misunderstood sayings of Jesus | of all time.

Grab a Bible or open up the Bible app on your phone and turn with me to Matthew 7.

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Matthew 7

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Matthew 7 is where we’re gonna be, starting in verse 1. We’ll have the verses on the screen here for you as well.

But verse 1 in Matthew 7 just might be the most often quoted | but most often misunderstood saying of Jesus. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it might be the most often quoted but most often misunderstood saying in the entire Bible.

Exegesis: Matthew 7:1

Here’s Matthew 7, verse 1:

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Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

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And usually when Jesus is quoted today, he’s quoted in the King James version or language, which is:

“Judge not, lest ye be… judged.”

So that’s what Jesus says. Right there. In black and white (and yellow… or red if your Bible has Jesus’ words in red letters).

Pretty straightforward, right? I mean, if we’re wondering who’s camp Jesus is in—would he wear the label of “judgmental” like it was a badge of honor, or would he avoid it like the plague? Which camp does he seem to be in?

Well, he’s in the plague camp, of course! Jesus says to not be judgmental. It’s right there in plain English.

Well… here’s the thing:

Jesus didn’t speak English.

I know. I was just as surprised as you were. He looks pretty American in the pictures I’ve seen of him. But no.

Turns out, Jesus was a Jewish man who lived 2,000 years ago. He probably spoke Aramaic, which was the language of his region at the time.

But the region Jesus lived in was ruled by the Roman Empire, and Greek was the written language of the Empire—which is the language that the New Testament was originally written in.

And so the word that Jesus spoke here in Matthew 7:1 was translated as krino into Greek, and from krino to “judge” in English.

So here’s what the Greek word “krino” means:

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Greek “krinō:”

To “judge” as in to analyze, evaluate, or discern: “Judge for yourself who was right.”

To “judge” as in to pass judgment or condemn: “I felt judged in that interview when they found out I had a criminal record.”

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So before we ask which kind of “judging” Jesus was prohibiting here, let’s make sure we understand the difference.

If Jesus is prohibiting #1, he’d be speaking out against anyone who tries to discern right from wrong, good from evil, moral from immoral, truth from falsehood. He’d be saying that you shouldn’t evaluate someone’s convictions or analyze someone’s beliefs.

Essentially, Jesus would sound an awful lot like a lot of people today:

That you can believe whatever you want to believe as long as you don’t push your belief off on someone else (and as long as your belief doesn’t hurt anybody). No discernment. No evaluating. Anything of that kind is just plain judgmental. Let everyone believe whatever they want. Don’t judge.

But if Jesus wasn’t prohibiting #1, and instead was prohibiting #2, he wouldn’t have a problem with absolute truths, or categories of right vs. wrong, moral vs. immoral. He wouldn’t shy away from analyzing someone’s beliefs.

What he would have a problem with, however, is people who think, talk, and act like they’re better than someone else because of those beliefs.

He’d have a problem with people who thought it was not only their place but their right and responsibility to condemn someone else for who they were or what they’ve done.

He’d have a problem with people who shout other other people down.

He’d have a problem with people who use their right belief as a weapon against those they disagree with.

He’d also have a problem with people who prop up their belief as a fortress to shut everyone else out.

See the difference?

It’s kind of important that we do—and, that we interpret Jesus’ meaning correctly. If it’s #1, Jesus is kind of a soft, universal, “let’s just be kind to one another” guy.

If it’s #2, he’s not that way at all… but he’s got some very strong things to say about how people who want to follow him ought to live.

So here’s the question for us: which sense of “judge” was Jesus referring to when he told us not to do it? #1 or #2?

Well… it’s #2.

Exegesis: Matthew 7:2-5

And you can see that pretty clearly in the next few verses. Take a look at verse 2:

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Matthew 7:2 “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

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Which makes a lot more sense if Jesus is talking about condemnation | than if he is about discerning what’s right and wrong or having beliefs about it.

Gets even more clear in the next few verses. Verse 3:

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Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

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So Jesus is actually encouraging us to judge between what’s right and wrong, good and evil, moral and immoral… in ourselves, first. Then, and only then, are we in any kind of position to “judge” someone else—or to be helpful to them in discerning what’s right from what’s wrong.

And I hope you caught his illustration there—the picture of a speck of sawdust vs. a plank of wood. The lunacy of someone with an entire 2x4 jammed into their eyehole trying to get the speck of sawdust out of someone else’s eye. “Alright… hold still…”

The truth of the matter is this—and this is true for all of us, from the best to the worst:

If we all had to wear a phone strapped to our foreheads that streamed video of all of our past, present, and future sins...

I don’t know that any of us would have a lot of time to tell the rest of the world about theirs. “Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know what you’re seeing. But listen...”

I think we’d have a lot of time, however, to tell them about how much Jesus has forgiven us—and how he can forgive them as well.

All of that to say, and simply put, here’s what Jesus is saying

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Judge right from wrong.

Judge yourself first.

But don’t be judgmental.

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Now, listen:

I know that we in a world that says any kind of judgment | or any kind of discernment | between what’s right and wrong | is just plain judgmental.

They’d disagree with even that statement. They can get behind the “don’t be judgmental” part. They can get behind the “judge yourself first” part. But probably not the “judge right from wrong” part. Because:

What does it really mean to judge “right” from “wrong?” When it comes to religion, or faith, or what those say about sexuality or life or life after death… any kind of judging who’s right or who’s wrong is still “judgmental.” I know that’s the world we live in. That’s how most people see it these days.

And that label of “judgmental,” like we said previously… it’s a pretty effective weapon in our culture today. Lots of us as followers of Jesus get called judgmental—not because we’re condemning others, but simply because of what we believe:

Maybe about sex and sexuality.

Maybe about life at conception.

Maybe about Jesus being the way.

But whatever it is:

Once we get that arrow of “judgmental” shot at us, it kinda sticks. It stays with us. It may even wound us. We start to feel attacked, dismissed, and defensive.

And that is the place, my friends, when we’ll be tempted to live up to that label.

You want to call me judgmental for what I believe? Fine. I’ll find a bunch of other people who feel the same way as me, who believe like me, who feel attacked like me, and who are sick and tired of it.

If we’re gonna get called “judgmental” in this world, we might as well be judgmental about this world.

You know: I think...

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A lot of times our faith is tested in ways that have less to do with what we believe and more to do with how we live that belief out in an unbelieving world.

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Application: “No Matter”

One of the phrases we say a lot at Prairie Lakes is that we’re a “No Matter” church—a church where (and a lot of you have heard it so often that you could recite it yourselves, maybe in your best “I’m a teenager who thinks that what you’re saying is stupid” kind of voice): “no matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or what’s been done to you… you can look for God here.”

But I think when you see that “No Matter”mission of ours through this lens, you can see why we say it all the time and hold so tightly to it:

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When we’re a “No Matter” follower of Jesus, we will not respond judgmentally to being called judgmental.

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That’s what I meant when I said that our faith gets tested these days in ways that usually have less to do with “what” we believe, and more to do with “how” we live that belief out.

Let me just paint a picture for you here—and it’s a sharp, sharp contrast.

There’s nothing more damaging to our witness then when we’re known mainly for what we’re against and who we’re against.

And:

There’s nothing more powerful to our witness than when we’ve got every reason to respond with judgment… but don’t.

Friends:

Why do you think the cross is such a powerful, transformative, life-giving picture?

It’s because the one, holy, righteous Judge of the living and the dead, instead of screaming the truth at his accusers, took their judgment upon himself.

Not responding judgmentally is Jesus 101.

Don’t underestimate its power. It’s who Jesus is at his core. It’s the essence of the gospel—of Jesus’ good news.

How is it that you don’t respond in kind? How is it that you can be called judgmental and labeled as such, and yet you don’t get angry or get even?

Why don’t you play by the same rules that the rest of the world does?

I’ll tell you why:

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2 Corinthians 5:18-21 “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

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When you and I don’t respond judgmentally, even when we’re attacked, even when we’re baited, even when we have every right to do so—what we’re doing is pointing a watching world to a God who, because of what Jesus has done, because he’s placed all of his judgment for all of our sin on Jesus, no longer judges us.

When you and I get judgmental of others, it’s like we’re saying: “Nope. Whatever you heard about Jesus… it’s not really true. Too good to be true. Old rules still apply. Eye for an eye. Tooth for tooth. You come at me, I come back at you.”

But when we refuse to respond with condemnation—when everyone expects us to be judgmental, but we’re not—we’re pointing them to a God who no longer counts our sin against us, because Jesus paid it all.

What grounds do I have to condemn you when Jesus was already condemned for me?