{"id":22054,"date":"2021-04-15T11:45:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/?p=22054"},"modified":"2021-04-15T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:46:04","slug":"the-subtle-sin-of-judgmentalism-and-how-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/the-subtle-sin-of-judgmentalism-and-how-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"The subtle sin of judgmentalism and how it works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not judge, lest you be judged\u2026. Why\u00a0 do you look at the speck that is in your brother\u2019s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?\u201d (Matthew 7:1ff.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If you are prone to criticism and judging others, chances are you will be the last to know it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that kind of sin. I see it in you; but it\u2019s just part of who I am.<\/p>\n

I find it fascinating that after issuing the warning about not judging others, our Lord followed with the caution about specks and logs in people\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

This is precisely how it works.<\/p>\n

My judgmentalism of you appears so normal and natural that it never occurs to me that I am actually condemning you.\u00a0 So, while your rush to judgment is a log in your eye\u2013one you really should do something about!\u2013my human tendency to speak out on (ahem) convictions is merely a speck in mine and nothing to be concerned about.<\/p>\n

One thing about me, I’m no hypocrite, right?\u00a0 I call it like I see it, right?\u00a0 You know what you’re getting with me, right?\u00a0 (yuck!)<\/p>\n

Consider this conversation\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You: \u201cWhat did I have for lunch? Well, I was in a hurry, so I ate a banana, a handful of nuts, and a soft drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your co-worker: \u201cThe banana and the nuts are okay, but the soft drink is fattening and poisonous.\u00a0 It is suicidal.\u201d<\/p>\n

You say nothing in response, but sit there wondering, \u201cWho asked you? You wanted to know what I had for lunch and I told you. Does that give you a right to sit in judgment on my actions?\u201d<\/p>\n

It happens all the time, and just that subtly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Your critic would say he\/she was just sounding off, saying what came to mind, even doing you a good turn, actually.\u00a0 But this one needs to install a mouth-monitor and not issue such pronouncements on the actions of other people just because \u201cI thought of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The critic was being judgmental.<\/p>\n

This one happened to me\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I posted online a piece about vengeance belonging to God (based on Romans 12:19). One reason we are not qualified to judge others, much less to get revenge, is we know so little about their motives. To illustrate, I told of the time a young African-American teenager ran a traffic light and broadsided my car, almost totaling it and killing me.\u00a0 I said how furious I was with him until I overheard him telling the policeman that his sister\u2019s baby was sick and he was rushing them to the hospital. That completely changed how I felt toward him.<\/p>\n

A reader took me to task for saying the kid was black.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was irrelevant,\u201d he said, insinuating that adding that detail said something negative about me.<\/p>\n

I replied that as a matter of fact I had given a good deal of thought to that detail, and decided it was one of several aspects that drove my anger at the moment, and so had chosen to leave it in.<\/p>\n

My critic could not leave that there. He came back with a short essay in which he analyzed whether I had done right or wrong leaving it in. Eventually, he decided that my saying the kid was black revealed that I was a racist and he surely hoped that I had repented of it.<\/p>\n

I was amazed at the sheer impertinence of this guy. I don\u2019t know him and we\u2019re not Facebook friends.<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cThank you for your analysis of my motives.\u201d<\/p>\n

I doubt seriously whether he will pick up on my cool response to his judgmentalism.\u00a0 He\u2019s probably too busy ferreting out racism and impure motives from other people\u2019s writings to return here and read my note.<\/p>\n

These days, what that guy did to me has been elevated to an art form.\u00a0 A large segment of our culture seems to be dedicated to ferreting out racism wherever it appears.\u00a0 Often, they seem to manufacture it where none was found or intended.<\/p>\n

Judgmentalism occurs when we elevate ourselves into the judgement seat and become critics of the words, behavior, and motives of others.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably no scripture has been more misinterpreted than Matthew 7:1 which commands us not to judge lest we be judged.\u00a0 The obvious meaning is not to condemn people. The Lord Jesus is not asking His disciples to tolerate anything and everything, or to use zero discernment.\u00a0 That would contradict half His teachings and violate all common sense.<\/p>\n

We who are His disciples have not been sent into the world to issue pronouncements on others\u2019 behavior.<\/p>\n

–We have not been sent to point out where people are in the wrong.<\/p>\n

–We have not been commissioned to catch people in the act of sinning.<\/p>\n

–We have not been sent as the moral compass of the community.<\/p>\n

–We have not been sent as judges and condemners.<\/p>\n

We are evangelists, sent to share the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> Lose sight of that for one moment, and we slip into the pattern of pointing out sins and failures, slights and fattening foods. And that\u2019s when we position ourselves as hypocrites and legalists instead of good-news-sharers and ambassadors for Christ.<\/p>\n

We have been sent as Jesus was sent (see John 20:21) to bless people, to preach the good news to the poor, and to set free those who are downtrodden.<\/p>\n

In Luke 10’s story of the Good Samaritan, God\u2019s people must not identify either with the priest or the Levite who turned up their noses at the bruised and bleeding guy in the ditch, nor with the thieves who put him there in the first place, but with the Samaritan traveler who crawled down in the ditch with the fellow and did everything he could to rescue him.<\/p>\n

The last thing in the world the poor victim needs is another attacker.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we good news-bearers (and do-gooders) are so afraid someone will misinterpret our kindnesses as approval of all they are doing in their personal, private lives that we feel it important to point out that we do not approve of what they are doing.\u00a0 What a miserable way to minister to the hurting and needy.<\/p>\n

Let us love and give and bless like Jesus did. Just do it!\u00a0 Let Him do the convicting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not judge, lest you be judged\u2026. Why\u00a0 do you look at the speck that is in your brother\u2019s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?\u201d (Matthew 7:1ff.) If you are prone to criticism and judging … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love","category-spiritual-maturity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22054"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22067,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22054\/revisions\/22067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/joemckeever.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}