Friends: When our commitment to Christ is total, we may not have time to judge others. See the column below. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #917

June 11, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Lapse in Judgment

By Bob Walters

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.” – Jesus, Matthew 7:21

I’ve written often that I believe the most over-quoted and under-comprehended verse in the Bible is Matthew 7:1: “Judge not.”

What I know is that it is our God-given, human judgment that keeps us alive, allows us to appreciate sunrises, flowers, and thunderstorms, and animates our quest for the divine good in life while stirring our wariness of the eternally bad and the evil.  

“Judge not” is a healthy prescriptive: trust Jesus and stay in your lane.  Popularly, though, “Judge not” instead is often meant as, “Shut up and leave me alone.”

What we should read is “Judge well, and know the fruits of the Lord.” God is love, heaven is good, and Jesus guides our path along his Father’s will. As broken as our road may be in this life, judgment is critical to accepting God’s grace and love.  What I ought not do is judge how God views another’s salvation. What I must do is discern the Father’s will by both the truth of God’s word and my loving relationship with Jesus.

Even Satan recognizes Christ; what Satan lacks is sacrificial love.  What Satan has in abundance are sowable seeds of doubt, fertilized by judgment masquerading as condemnation, which grow into mistrust of Jesus and rejection of His promises.  Our defense against Satan’s lies is bedrock trust in Christ’s truth. Faith is total commitment.    

That said, my brain is still stirring about a bit I shared in this space last week, about Canadian psychologist, contemporary philosopher, and best-selling author Jordan Peterson’s wise thoughts on “Pride Month,” but more specifically my ponderance as to how close Peterson is to being a believing Christian.  He sure sounds like one.

And when it comes to the bedrock, practical manifestation of faith, and recognizing that faith is real and God is real and Christ matters, Peterson said this:

“God isn’t something you believe in.  The way we conceptualize belief in the modern world is … shallow.  To believe in God is to commit your life.  That’s what the belief is.  It isn’t the statement, ‘I believe in God.’  The statement can get in the way, it does all the time.  It says in the Gospels, Christ himself says, ‘not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.’ …

He continues: “People say all the time, ‘I’m a believing Christian.’  It’s like, that’s hard, there buddy.  That’s the most difficult possible commitment, by definition, because it’s the hoisting of the cross.  Here’s what you’re committing to: painful, unjust death, accompanied by betrayal, and the perfidy (deceitfulness) of the mob, and the dominion of the tyrant.  And you’re going to welcome that? And that’s not all, because Christ harrows hell.  That’s just where it starts; full confrontation with malevolence.

“You’re going to commit to that, are you?”

I think Peterson has it right: the full impact of God’s love and the action of Christ’s sacrificial love bring to this life’s front porch the reality of the greatest possible triumph over the worst possible enemy for the greatest possible purpose: restoring our relationship with God.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the model for that.

That is the will of the Father. That is the arena of Christian judgment. And that is the mystery of Christian life: love that will confront death. That is the key to heaven.

You want the truth of God? I’d say we’re too busy to judge others.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) received a delivery update on his Butker jersey (see last week’s column) … it was sent in an NFL email celebrating Pride Month.  Perfect.