Who's the Judge?

Who are you to judge the servant of another...?

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14:1)

It occurred to me yesterday yet another aspect of this question to a person who finds themselves judging someone else. If I believe that I can justifiably judge someone, whether it be their opinions, their doctrines or especially their motives, then very clearly I consider myself adequate and capable enough to fill the role of a judge. But in doing so I am attempting to supplant God as the only one qualified to accurately judge and evaluate a person created in His image.

It also occurred to me that far too much evangelism for the church is conducted along these very lines. I realize that we recoil with anger or disbelief if this is proposed, but the fact is that much of our evangelistic techniques is to point out other people's faults and false beliefs in contrast to our own beliefs and then attempt to convince them that ours are better and they should come over to our side, they should join our church.

This kind of approach has made me feel very uneasy for many years and I now see one of the reasons why. I believe that instead of focusing on our differences and trying to coerce others by arguments or threats of punishment by God if they refuse to agree with us, we should be seeking to look for the good in others, look for where God is already at work in their lives and hearts and affirm that connection of the Spirit that even they may not yet be aware of. Then as we earn their trust and confidence we can, by example and genuine, selfless love and service, attract them into a deeper connection with the God who is crazy about them and loves them passionately and desires more than anything else to restore His lovely image in their lives no matter how messed up they may appear to others.

Some might become frightened at this evangelistic proposal, believing that it would fail to properly indoctrinate people, which in the back of most of our minds is the only purpose of evangelism in the first place. But I strongly believe that we must challenge our assumptions for our own selves as to what it really means to be a Christian and be willing to be far more vulnerable, transparent and open about our own need for healing and growth and our own dysfunctions and problems. We must become much more aware that true spirituality has much more to do with the condition of our spirit and our relationships with both God and with others than it has to do with what list of doctrines we happen to be able to memorize.

I can't remember anywhere in the Bible where God's people were supposed to subscribe to a list of doctrines in order to please God and belong to a church. But I do see a great deal in the Bible about emphasis on attitudes, on the way those in the body are to relate to each other and the picture of God that we project to a very skeptical world. So how is it that we have now come to assume that religion primarily consists of a list of doctrines instead of focusing more on the way we treat each other and our implicit trust in the righteousness of Jesus and the power of God to transform our inner beings?

Maybe it is because we are caught up in the heady, deceptive, self-focused obsession of acting like a judge and doing so somehow helps us to avoid facing our own issues, triggers and problems. Most of us have been caught in the trap of believing that appearance is everything, that attending church regularly is more important than attending to our hearts, that intellectual beliefs are more important than the spirit that permeates the atmosphere around us. Maybe acting as a judge is so addictive that even when we begin to see that maybe it is wrong we just can't let it go because it is the biggest thing that helps us cope with our pain, it prevents us from having to face our own problems head-on, it makes us feel valuable and important and even better than others. And because we all desperately crave feeling valuable we are terrified of facing these practices for what they really are because they have such a long, successful history of growing the numbers of our church and making us feel good about ourselves.

Am I falling into the very trap that I am describing here? Am I judging those around me in a self-righteous spirit while holding myself aloof? I pray that God will keep my eyes open and that I will not be caught in the very sins which I can see in my own church, but I know that I am equally very vulnerable. Refraining from describing a problem does not make it disappear. But equally true, condemning another person for being caught in that problem does not give them great motivation to admit their condition. I should know, I have lived under condemnation and judgment for much of my life.

I am all too aware of the example of my own father who was quick to point out sins in the lives of other church members but equally quick to deny that what he was doing was judging them. I always found this frustrating and very hypocritical on his part. It seemed that it was much easier for him to simply change the definitions of the words that described what he was really doing than it was for him to admit that maybe he was wrong in his attitudes and resultant actions. Over the years he caused far too much damage in the hearts of many people around him, especially in the local church, and much of the bitterness that was produced still lingers in some hearts yet today that I am left to deal with in his place. So I have a very real example of the results of judging and the ill effects that result from this kind of false activity within the body of Christ.

So what are the true answers to the questions that Paul poses for me here?

Who are you to judge?

I am a person who thinks I am capable of passing judgment on someone else's motives because I want to make myself look better in the eyes of people and of God. Of course I can't admit that this is my motive, but the evidence betrays that. In doing this I am really supplanting the role of God in their lives.

Why do you judge your brother?

Because I want to keep the focus away from my own faults and the easiest way to do that is to keep attention on other people's faults and sins. But in doing so I am setting myself up as the standard by which to measure their lives. That really means that I am trying to replace Jesus' role as the only example to follow.

The last statement in verse ten is the real wake-up call to shock us into reality if we are willing to believe the truth implicit in it. Every single one of us is going to have to appear before the judgment seat of God. Now, the immediate reaction of the heart whenever we hear that summons is always determined by the opinions you have about what God is like and how He feels about you.

My dad believed that appearing in judgment meant that he would be carefully cross-examined as to whether he successfully point out other people's sins sufficiently to avoid being liable for them. One of his clarion passages that guided his activities was Ezekiel 3:17-21. He lived in so much fear about God from these verses that he felt compelled to point out other's faults whenever he thought he perceived them in order to avoid God's condemnation on himself. His assumptions about what these verses mean were far more important for him than this passage in Romans 14.

But the fruit of all that fault-finding was not more righteousness in the church but an overflowing of bitterness and resentment in the hearts of all around him while his own heart overflowed with bitterness. While denying that he was judging he would accuse others of judging him whenever they suggested that maybe his course was not conducive to real growth or was the true will of God for His children. But as the fruit of his labors matured it became clear to many around him that this was a path very different from that of Jesus' example for us. For myself, I determined that I would try to avoid at all costs following in his footsteps in this area and it has served as a sharp warning for me for many years.

And that warning is very much needed, for I have many of the same tendencies that my dad displayed. It is far too easy for me to judge others for whatever reasons I may have, known or unknown to me. But the warning has also helped me seal my lips many times when I feel the urge to criticize others in the church. I have seen firsthand the terrible effects of unbridled criticism and fault-finding and I want my life to become an example of a better way of relating to others and obedience to the Word of God. I have been under a lot of conviction in this area for a long time and it is something that I have to keep a constant check on. But God is faithful and is ready to warn me each time my flesh rises up to point out sins in other's lives. He also reminds me of how much of those same faults still are active in my own life.

This chapter of Romans is coming to be much more than I expected for me personally. But I am very glad that the Spirit is convicting me through the Word, because it means that I can grow, can transform, can escape the traps and pitfalls that caused previous generations to create so much heartache and trouble in the lives of many around them. I look to the faithfulness of God to transform me into His image. I do not have to remain stuck in the sins of the fathers, even if they are deep ruts that I find myself following in. God is powerful to save and I choose to have Him in charge of my destiny and as my daily mentor. I choose to accept His authority for me today and seek to discover His more perfect, loving ways to spread the truth about Him among those I meet.

(next in series)