Don’t Judge Me!

Daily we are marginalized in this culture because we hold certain views on certain subjects, like life and death, right and wrong, good and evil. When we take a stand on certain issues, we are wrong, because now it is wrong to judge. Some folks take their cue from Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, lest ye be judged.” But as the Spaniard of the Princess Bride is fond of saying, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

What does it mean to judge? And is it as wrong as its implied? As human beings we practice judgment all the time, from picking a movie we want to see, a car we want to buy, to people we want to know. There are necessary relationships, like work and service relationships. You don’t really pick the person who works the cash register, but you develop a relationship with them, even if it only lasts until you walk out of the shop. These kinds of relationships we don’t have much say in. But then there are the people you would invite into your home. For these you might practice a bit more judgment, having spent more time with them. What about the person you are married to. You surely didn’t just pick them out of a lineup and agree to marriage. We all practice judgment in human relationships in order to achieve the best possible results, like a lifetime of happy marriage.

But the cry of “don’t judge me!” often comes from an assumption that you, not them, are going to pass a negative judgment on their behavior. And so they head off that judgment by implying you have no right to judge them.

If Jesus Christ will sit on the great white throne at the end of time and judge all humanity, and if the basis for that judgment will be their acceptance or rejection of Jesus’ freely offered forgiveness, and if we, as the body of Christ, are tasked with telling people about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, do we not have a right to tell people about Jesus? And does that right extend to be watchmen to our culture, to tell them the Enemy is approaching? Or to warn our culture of sins and evils that must be avoided if they give themselves up to Jesus?

Do we have a right to evangelize? And are there better ways to do that that others, better times, and better places? I believe there are. And like the sons of Issachar, we ought to be aware of the right times and the right places, that we may spread the gospel in the best way possible.