I’m always intrigued by social media friends who identify as believers yet post statements or graphics that display some of the most vulgar and offensive messages imaginable. Some of those posts are even preceded or followed by another post presenting a Scriptural or spiritual thought. Why is it any wonder that kind of incongruency raises questions & concerns about the mindset behind them?
I recently made this Facebook post – “If you can continue to post vulgar words & graphics on your social media with no sense of shame, remorse, or the desire to do differently, then you should seriously consider that you are not the Christ follower you claim to be (Hebrews 12:8).” This was not a comment made directly in response to any other post, just one I made independently on my own newsfeed. Even still, the post generated a lively comment string mostly around the “judge not” theme.
We live in a culture that is becoming more and more permissive, supported by the ever-expanding values of social progressivism, which inherently ignore or conveniently negotiate the truths & commands of Scripture. That leaves behavioral & lifestyle choices to whatever whim a person feels is right for them at any given time. If anyone dares to question the integrity of that mindset, the “judge not” rebuke is sternly and immediately applied.
In the second volume of my book series, Dismantling Doctrines of Demons: Defining the Doctrines, I write about the distortion of semantics surrounding our culture’s use of words like love and judgment, especially among persons in the religious community. The way these Biblical values are misinterpreted and misapplied contributes to the division & degradation already rampant in our culture and society.
I’ll bet you’ve likely heard someone say, “All we are called to do is love people the way Jesus loved them and leave the judging to God.” Their flagship verse is – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34). How are we to love one another? Jesus specifies the standard – even as I have loved you. It’s not just the fact that God loves us but the way in which God loves us. The culture does not set the standard, nor do the legislative bodies of government & the judiciary. God does. How does God love us?
The Greek word Jesus used in this command is AGAPE, a divine and pure love with which God loves us. Paul defines this love in I Corinthians 13:4-8. Among its many attributes, AGAPE love does not act unbecomingly, nor does it rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. The truth, of course, is God’s Word of truth (the Bible). Any value, ideology, behavior, or lifestyle diametrically opposing God’s Word of truth is unbecoming and unrighteous. While AGAPE love can be patient, hopeful, and enduring with those things, genuine love can never approve, accept, or accommodate them through complacency and compromise. Yet, we see that very thing happening all around us today and being justified in the name of “love.”
Jesus never hesitated to call sin what it was. He called the evil Scribes & Pharisees of His day hypocrites (Matthew 23:13) and a brood of vipers (Matthew 12:3). He even rebuked His own disciples for their unfaithfulness (Matthew 8:26, 16:8, Luke 12:28). He also never failed to call people to God’s higher standard. Even though He assured the adulterous woman that He did not condemn her, His strong imperative to her was, Go and sin no more (John 8:11). That is the way Jesus loves us and the way in which He commands us to love one another.
How much do you really love people? Complacent and compromised love simply says, “I don’t condemn you for being what you are. Always know that you are loved and accepted by me. You have the right to choose your own way of life, and I don’t have the right to judge you.” If you can sit back and watch sinful & destructive behavior in the life of a person that will eventually lead them to destitution, destruction, and death without ever challenging or confronting them with Godly truth, then you don’t really love that person at all. If you can live & work among lost individuals and never confront them with the sinful state of their life for fear you might offend or alienate them, do you really love them? Would real love cold-heartedly watch a person die and spend eternity separated from God in hell? Love cares enough to confront, and Jesus never backed down from doing that very loving thing. Neither should we!
Sinful behavior cannot be confronted without being judged. Something must determine that any given behavior is sinful and opposed to God. That “something” is God’s Word. Confession of sin (I John 1:9) means agreeing with God. If God’s Word condemns any behavior as sinful, genuine confession agrees with that verdict. It is not argued. No excuses are made for it or efforts exerted to justify it; it simply agrees with God. If God’s Word calls this behavior sin, and that behavior is in my life, it is sin…period!
Agreement with God is often jeopardized with the commonly offered excuse, “No one is perfect.” No one would argue that. Even the Apostle Paul described his imperfection inherent in the battle between his flesh and his spirit (Romans 7:14-25). Despite this real struggle which all of us can identify with, Paul would quickly rally behind Peter in reminding us that God calls us to live holy & Godly in all our behavior (I Peter 1:15).
After the confession of sin follows the command for repentance – go and sin no more (stop doing it). Strive as best we can with the help and power of God’s Spirit dwelling within us to live holy in all our behavior. That’s repentance. Will we succeed? Sometimes yes, mostly no, but the commitment is in the effort. That effort is defined by both desire and determination. Do you desire to live a holy life? Are you determined to put forth your best effort with God’s help to do so? Holy living is, after all, a choice of your will. Obedience is always a choice. Loving each other encourages obedience and holy living. That will eventually necessitate confronting unholy living when it is evident.
A person with no desire or determination to walk in obedience to God’s Word, will, and ways is manifesting a dead faith. What does that mean? James declared that faith without works is dead (James 2:26). In other words, a living faith produces behavioral choices and a lifestyle that demonstrates righteousness. Jesus affirmed – you will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:20), because he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit (John 15:5).
A dead faith produces nothing. The lost condition of a man is described by Paul as being dead in your trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). He is referring to the condemnation of spiritual death separated from God for eternity. Jesus declared, He who believes in (Me) is not condemned; he who does not believe has been condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18). How can I be saved if I don’t first come to understand that I am a lost sinner? How can I realize my lost condition unless someone loves me enough to point that out to me? (Romans 10:14). Today’s “woke” and “progressive” culture would call that judging me, displaying bigotry and antisemitism. Jesus calls that compassionate love!
So, if we are never to judge, why are we called in Scripture to baptize and make disciples (Matthew 28:19)? Both of those mandates require distinguishing between right and wrong. Why does Paul instruct the church – if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1)? To restore means to mend what is broken. That requires judgment. Why did Paul demonstrate that kind of judgment against the man in the church at Corinth who was having sex with his stepmother (I Corinthians 5)? If judging is wrong, why did Jesus provide specific instructions for how to deal with a wayward brother or sister (Matthew 18:15-17)?
The flagship verse hurled in rebuttal is, Do not judge so that you will not be judged (Matthew 7:1). Do you think you will escape judgment simply because you refuse to judge anyone else? I have news for you - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
(2 Corinthians 5:10). That constitutes the judgment of Christians. For those who are lost - Then I saw a great white throne…and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds…and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). No one will escape judgment. We will all give account to God for the behavior of our lives.
Jesus was not teaching that we should never judge, but warning that the judgment we pass on others is measured by a standard that will apply to us as well – for in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:2). What is your standard of measure? Your opinion? The values of the secular culture? Washington politics? Hollywood entertainment? You will hang by that same noose if that is the best you can do.
The only holy, righteous standard against which we measure the behavioral choices of our lives is God’s Word. It applies to all of us equally the same. We live according to God’s Word, will, and ways in our own lives, and we hold one another accountable in the family of faith to do the same. Jesus did not command us never to judge but to judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24), pointing us again to the only credible, reliable standard – the righteous Word. Paul admonished each of us to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith in order to ensure that Christ is in us unless we fail the test (II Corinthians 13:5). When our vocabulary, behavioral choices, attitudes, values & mindset characteristically disregard the truth of God’s Word, will, and ways, we should honestly consider that we have failed the litmus test and Christ is not really in us at all. When we are genuinely saved, old sinful ways have passed away, and we are a new & different person (II Corinthians 5:17).
James says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16)…if anyone among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death (5:20). God issues a stern warning through the prophet Ezekiel - When I say to the wicked, “You will surely die,” and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (Ezekiel 3:18). The woke culture of our day and the progressive mindset of many in the church would rather minimize or accept unrighteous & unbecoming behavior among people rather than lovingly confront evil living. Lots of blood-guilt will drip from the hands of people on the day of judgment who thought the accommodation of diversity & inclusion was their best approach to evangelism.
Rick M. Smith
Pastor, author & Speaker
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