We don’t do Christianity well. And when I say, “we,” I’m including myself.
I was already thinking along these lines when I saw the meme below. The whole point of the meme is is the poster wants to make the point that the Bible does tell us to judge others, despite the oft quoted (and abridged) admonition to “judge not.” More on that later.
We want to fight for God and defend the faith. We want to march onward as Christian soldiers and win converts and maybe own the left a little along the way. If we can’t convert them, maybe we can at least control their behavior.
The problem is that God didn’t tell us to do most of that stuff. He did tell us to spread the Gospel, but I haven’t found anywhere in my Bible where he told me to go fight for him. In fact, it tells me the opposite. In Romans 12:19, Paul says, “Do not take revenge” and quotes Deuteronomy where the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine.”
So what does God want us to do? The Pharisees asked Jesus a similar question two thousand years ago. Jesus answered them, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
So there you have it. Jesus wants us to love God, and love our neighbors. He went on to explain in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that a neighbor can be anyone who shows mercy, but then he went further, saying, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
The greatest commandment is easy. It’s easy to love God, especially when things are going well. Maybe we get frustrated and scream at God at times, but for many of us, we even love God when times are bad. When it’s all falling apart, that’s when we really cling to our father in Heaven.
It’s loving others that is the problem. Other people try our patience. They get under our skin. They betray us and let us down. They have minds of their own and don’t do what we want them to do.
What does it mean to love others? Some would argue that telling unbelievers they are going to Hell is a loving act. I’ve often heard it said, “Speak the truth in love,” but in the real world it seems that the love part gets lost pretty quickly when the truth bombs start dropping.
What did Jesus do? Jesus sat down with the tax collectors and prostitutes and pariahs and criminals. When he did, he didn’t thump a Torah scroll and yell, “Turn or burn!” Instead, Jesus showed them love and compassion. He lived out God’s love.
Casting off sinful behavior is good, but biblically, the change in lifestyle comes after repentance and salvation, not before. Jesus used love to draw people to repentance, not a harangue.
We have turned judging people into an act of love, at least in our minds.
Getting back to the meme, it’s right. There are passages in the Bible that either tell us to judge or show favorably where the church fathers judged others (and I’m not counting the Old Testament Judges or kings). The rub is that if you read the verses in the meme, it doesn’t refer to judging nonbelievers. In those verses, other Christians are being called to account. The Matthew 18 passage gives a very specific process for this that is calm, controlled, and discrete, not a Jerry Springer-style kerfuffle,
And the verse that says “judge not?” In the full verse, Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” He then continues with an admonition against hypocrisy.
In context, the verse is a warning that we will be judged by the same standard that we use against others. It’s not an outright prohibition against judging, but it is cautionary advice that we should be fair and cut others some slack. Otherwise, we may be hoisted by our own petard.
The Bible does describe Jesus dropping truth bombs and owning debate opponents with his rhetoric. Interestingly, he didn’t take that approach with his lost sheep. Jesus reserved his verbal barbs for religious hypocrites, who he likened to whitewashed tombs and a brood of vipers.
That’s not what I want Jesus to think of me.
I’d say that loving others goes back to the Golden Rule, which is also a Jesus truth bomb. The Golden Rule is often bastardized as “treat others the way they treat you” or “do unto others before they do unto you,” but what Jesus actually taught was, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”
That’s pretty simple, but also pretty tough, especially when you are being lied about and mistreated. When you’re dealing with hypocrites and sadists and crooks and rapists and murderers.
The world says, “An eye for an eye.” Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek.”
When they go low, we go high. That wasn’t Jesus, but you get the point.
How would you want to be treated? For starters, I wouldn’t want to be yelled at and judged by some stranger. I wouldn’t want anyone lying about me, or bearing false witness. I wouldn’t want to be stereotyped, whether as a member of an ethnic group, a nationality, a political party, or whatever. I wouldn’t want someone to insult me, threaten my family, or take away my rights.
I would want to be treated fairly. I’d want to be respected. I’d want to be shown love and compassion. More than that, I’d want to be shown mercy.
Too often, we Christians have not done a good job of that. We’ve often been more like the Pharisees than Christ. If Christianity is sometimes synonymous with hate, it isn’t just because the world hates God. A fair share of that hate has been earned.
Loving our neighbors, especially neighbors that we happen to see as enemies, isn’t easy, but Jesus said it’s impossible to love God if we don’t love our neighbors. So the greatest and second greatest commandments are wrapped up together.
I don’t claim to be holier than thou. I’m as self-centered and selfish as anyone. I look down on certain people. Moreover, as an introvert and a guy who tends to see the world in terms of black and white, I’m not the most touchy-feely and outreaching person around. Not even close.
I’m trying though. As Aerosmith sang, “Life’s a journey, not a destination,” and part of my journey has been the realization that God wants me to show people his love, not try to bend them his (or my) will.
I think a great prayer for Christians is to ask God to help us see people as he sees them, to help us love others as he loves them, and to help us to forgive them as he forgives them… and us.
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