[This is reposted as part of our Best-Of Revelife Week. It was originally posted on February 10, 2010.]
By Dean LuskIn one of the men's bathrooms at Wall Highway Baptist Church's sanctuary building is
a sink that will not dispense hot water. In the past I've turned the water on and let it run for a full minute (which is a pretty long time if you just want hot or warm water) without feeling so much as a slight increase in temperature. This is surely a discouragement from washing one's hands, but I always do that regardless. I promise.
Some time last year I heard the facilities maintenance guy comment that there is not a hot water line running to that sink. I immediately felt personal embarrassment that I'd never bothered to look underneath to see that there was only one pipe running from the wall to the sink.
No matter what I tried and no matter how long I let the water run, I would never have been able to get warm water from that spigot. On the surface, though, since there are two valves on each side of the faucet, one would think that one side would produce hot water and the other cold. Its appearance is completely deceptive.
Have you ever wondered how
Jesus could say, "
Do not judge others and you will not be judged," and
just a minute later say, "
Just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions" (or maybe a faucet by its water)? This is far more harmonious than many people care to see, though the first phrase is used, often incorrectly, as ammunition by people who want to attack Christ-followers as hateful, vengeful, or unloving.
Any thoughts on the fact that those two statements are not mutually exclusive?
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Comments (8)
lol aint this whole site dedicated to the judgement of others?
the Bible is full of contradictions. this is just one of them.
Living in the South, many churches are full of some of the most judgmental people I've ever met.
But I do know several Christians who are very tolerant and accepting of others. They just seem to be in the minority.
That is why Paul said "what business do I have judging those who are outsiders? Do you not judge those who are inside?" (1st Corinthians 5:12). I have no business judging the outside world because they have been judged by God. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God are supposed to lead us with wisdom for admonishing, exhorting, encouraging, strengthening, and rebuking our brethren in Christ Jesus. Therefore, I must judge with righteous judgment my brethren.
Where I see the church struggling the most with this comes on two fronts: 1) she does not use the love and compassion of Christ when carrying out her judgments towards one another- Jesus was both firm in the Truth and compassionate. Or 2) the church has altogether rejected the idea of judging each other based on reactionary tendencies towards the 1st error.
Therefore, we must judge one another with both the firmness of Christ in the Truth and His compassion as we are controlled by the Love of Christ.
The second can be taken to mean that people will reveal what is within them. You just have to observe. He was quite okay with judging the Pharasees. Not the best example to set if you don't want people to judge.
Just the tip of the iceberg of a dilemma the Holy Spirit is testing me on this year!
@dustysojourner cited a key verse: "What business do I have judging those who are outsiders? Do you not judge those who are inside?" - 1 Corinthians 5:12. This is where most of us followers of Christ totally drop the ball. Our condemnation of other people is pretty darned sweeping, whether in the Church or outside of it, and in practicing that we totally ignore some of the things we say we believe.
People stereotype Christians as judgmental. Unfortunately, as a group, that fits us quite well. And as stereotypes go, I think we've earned it.
When we "judge" someone, we're projecting assumed motives onto them, and we rarely give them the benefit of the doubt. There's an old saying: "We tend to make rules for other people and exceptions for ourselves." That seems to be true, and it's illogical and terribly hypocritical.The two statements of Jesus in the post tie directly into what Paul wrote years later in his letter to the church at Galatia: "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are Godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself." - Galatians 6:1 (NLT)
The statements Jesus made aren't contradictory.
When Jesus tells us not to judge others, I believe He means not to judge them based on appearance alone. He then says that by a person's works, we can judge them. So if I see a person who wears old, worn-out clothes, messy hair, dirty, etc., it's not my place to judge and think, "Oh, that person must be homeless." If that same person starts cussing someone out, flipping them the bird, and just being a jerk, then I can assume that they're not a Christian.