Judgment Day

Dear Bob,

Had enough yet? It's tough being the object of the criticism of another. But you have it worse, you have to face it in print. Of course, cry for me as well. Sometimes I think my attempts to help you are akin to so many crash test dummies throwing themselves against a wall. If you are as worldly as we fear you might be, no doubt you've built this wall, and have been meditating on at least one section of the Word. There are parts of the Bible that the pagans love, and perhaps none more than that catch all of the world, Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount, "Judge not lest you be judged" (Matthew 7:1).

And if you are meditating on that verse as the world so often does, no doubt you are violating it just as the world does. Have you noticed this? You gently point out to someone that the Bible calls this or that a sin, and the response you get is a look of sheer hatred, or smug piety, and a reminder, "Judge not." Telling a sodomite God takes a dim view of his actions is judging. Telling a judger they are guilty of judging is not. And worse still, in the man made calculus of sin, my judging is the greatest of all sins. All this from the mouth of Jesus.

So what is this judging that Jesus really warns us against? This is the same man who, a few verses later, warns us to not cast our pearls before swine. Am I off the hook if I call the sodomite a pig instead? He tells us that we will know them by their fruits.

Jesus is not here creating a moratorium on judgments. If all judgments are out of bounds, how are we to judge whether we are guilty of judging? He tells us, through His apostles, that we are to exhort and rebuke one another. Paul boasts of his rebuke of Peter, reminding us that he did it to his face. Do you suppose Peter responded, "Now, now, Paul, judge not"?

So we are told it's not so much calling a sin a sin, but calling a spade a d@#% shovel that gets us in trouble. That is, if we would only wring our hands enough when confronting our brother, then it would be okay. Such is getting closer to the truth, but we are still not there.

Jesus is reminding us of two critical truths. First, we should practice a judgment of charity. We can't read people's minds, though we expect them to read ours. We need to not be junior high school girls, and make up offenses out of whole cloth. When, for instance, your wife is late for an appointment, it is not wise to assume that she plotted this aggravation last night when you were asleep. Perhaps she wasn't as considerate as she should be. Perhaps it couldn't be helped. But it is very unlikely that she secretly did it on purpose to get your goat. Take it easy Don't be so sure that your neighbor saw you wave when they didn't wave back. Maybe he wasn't wearing his contacts. Don't assume the worst

Secondly, remember your own sin. Not all sin is equal. James' argument that when we break a part of the law we break all of it, or Jesus' argument in this same sermon that hating your brother is a violation of the sixth commandment is not the same thing as saying that all brother haters are as guilty as brother killers. That's like saying because apples and oranges are both fruits that they're really the same thing. Remember that Jesus said, again in the same sermon, "You neglect the weightier matters of the law..." That, in fact, gives us a clue as to what He is talking about. We are enjoined here against haranguing our brother about his comparatively petty sins while we ignore our weightier sins. We "judge" when we say to our brother, while we're busy resenting him, or having gossiped about him, "You wicked so and so. How dare you damage your temple by eating that Twinkie?" Remember that there is a love that covers a multitude of sins. That means we need to be somewhat easy going, not picking at each other over every little thing (remembering of course that "every little thing", from a cosmic perspective, is cosmic treason).

As an example, you may not know that I'm one of the few remaining people in the world that believes that women should cover their heads in worship. Yet I never say anything to anyone in our congregation about it, unless they ask. I figure that in the time it would take me to even mention that neglecting to do this is a sin, I probably would commit an even greater sin myself.

And we need to remember, even when dealing with the really big sins, there but for the grace of God go I. The Pharisee who prayed, "I thank you God that I am not like other men" may have been accurate in the assessment of the sins he didn't commit. And he did thank God for that. But his tone belied the thanks. He didn't really believe that it was by God's grace that he was able to avoid the sins he catalogued. But we are none of us beyond any sin. Without the restraining hand of God, not only is it possible, but it is certain that I too would be a murderer, an adulterer, even a sodomite. And the same is true for you.

Everything in this issue that we challenge you on, Bob, we either do, or have done, or could do. We're guilty too. And we no doubt do worse every day. We know that, and hope you do to. Even so, it would be still more sin were we to stop exhorting and rebuking. We hope you understand.