One of the most common accusations against Christians and Christianity is that they are too judgmental.
Recently, Hillary Clinton said, “ A lot of young people are leaving the Church, in part because the way they understand what Christianity has become is so judgmental, so alienating, that they think to themselves, ‘Well, I don’t need that. I don’t want to be part of that.’”
You hear this accusation all the time. Yet I find it very interesting that when people like Hillary say that “Christianity is too judgmental”, they themselves are guilty of being judgmental by the fact they are judging us as Christians by saying we’re judgmental. So when Hillary said, “Christianity has become is so judgmental, so alienating”, she was doing exactly the same thing herself: being judgmental and alienating of Christians.
I also find it interesting that she herself, as a politician, does nothing to avoid judgmentalism. In one campaign speech Hillary stated, “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables’.” If that’s not “judgmental and alienating”, I don’t know what is…
And so by saying that of her, I must admit that I too am being, by this definition, “judgmental”. So, how do we work our way out of this quandary, this conundrum?
In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke about this topic and this is what He said: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” So, what did Jesus mean when He said, “Do not judge”?
First of all when He went on to say,“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 was reminding us that one day we’ll be judged by God by the very same standards we expect of others.
Then He next asked, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” In this humorous illustration, Jesus likened us to a guy trying to take a speck of sawdust out of another guy’s eye, when all the while, he himself has a plank in his own eye.
Jesus continued, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye.” What He meant is that when I am tempted to pass judgment on someone else, I should first check myself out to see if I am guilty of the same thing myself. The impulse to judge within ourselves is oftentimes a signal to us that we “do the same thing”. The traits we are so quick to observe in others are often the ones we have ourselves. As they say, “It takes one to know one.”
If I don’t first check myself out and deal with it in my own life, then Jesus said that I am a hypocrite. Why is it hypocrisy? Because when we go around and see all the problems in other people’s lives and totally ignore our own sin, we are hypocrites because we say we care about righteousness but we really don’t. Because if we did care about righteousness, we’d check out our own eyes first.
Note what Jesus said next: “and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” After we’ve removed the plank out of our own eye, dealt with that same issue in our own life, we are then to go, with compassion, to that brother and help him with his speck.
This is clearly what the Bible teaches elsewhere: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted” Galatians 6:1.
Thus we end up ministering to those who have a need in their life and in so doing, are truly fulfilling Jesus’ command to “Judge Not” and His reason for drawing our attention to it.
Be a plank remover out of your own eye first and then become a speck remover out of other people’s eyes.
