To Judge or Not to Judge

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. (Matt 7:1-5 ESV)

What is Jesus really trying to say here? Is it okay to judge, or can we not? Well, clearly the text says we can't judge, but it is also very clear in other parts of the Bible that we are to judge between right and wrong. What's going on?

Well I think it might be helpful to introduce two(-three) terms: condemnation and discernment(/evaluation). I will argue that this passage makes sense when we understand the verb "judge" used here with the former meaning (to condemn), and not the latter. After we are called to discern and seek out Wisdom. Not to do so would be wicked. Indeed, we are not to call good what is evil, nor to call evil what God says is good. We are not moral relativists.

Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount warns us not to be our own Arbiters/Judges. We do not take matters into our hands in terms of a judgment of condemnation; we cannot be vigilantes. And lest we become puffed up in self-righteous pride, we ought to remember our wretched state before God, and that if it were not for God's grace freely given on Jesus' cross, and the crediting of Christ's righteousness unto us by the Holy Spirit, we would not even dare to demand justice be done to ourselves and receive our just deserts.

If we took matters into our own hands, it would be as if we were kids at a friend's house for his birthday party and a mutual friend broke the host family's vase, and we decided to make him pay for it (whether monetarily or receiving discipline from us). You see, we are unqualified to condemn the guilty party, because it is not in our place. We do not lay claim to what he has damaged; that's none of our business. It's a matter to be dealt between him and the hosting family.

We must remember that sin is ultimately an offense against God. We are not the center of the universe! God is. And no one belongs to themselves. Non-believers belong to God because he is their Maker. Believers belong to God, doubly-so!, because God is both their Maker and their Redeemer, having bought his beloved with the death of his Son.

So when someone sins, especially to us, we must not forget the log in our eyes - we are like criminals who were pardoned, and when we are sinned against, let us remember that we got we didn't deserve in Jesus' grace and mercy. But that does not mean we say it's no big deal. Sin is a big deal, even if it's just a small sin. We do not trivialize sin. Sin is evil; it is wicked; it is loathsome. We must not make it out to be any less evil than that. We discern what is good and acknowledge what is evil. But we are not to condemn it in the sense that we play God and replace him as the Ultimate Judge.

Now I can't even pretend to understand what's going on completely, but we must balance other parts of the Bible, where salvation is understood not only as the exaltation and vindication of the Righteous/Elect, but also the defeat of Evil! Done with wisdom and humility, we can ask God to punish injustice and even the wicked! Going back to my example of the broken vase: we cannot demand the guilty child to pay for the vase, but, done without spite, we can and even should "tattletale" and report the deed to the parents of the birthday boy. In other words, we can "tattletale" on God and demand that his justice be done. To demand justice to be done is most certainly to recognize injustice first and call it out for what it is. But we recognize that 1) we are the ultimate injured party and 2) we have no right to judge (in the sense of condemnation) the guilty party. All these are reserved for God, the Ultimate Judge.

But let's back off a bit. A lot of the time, we may actually be the guilty party. We are the ones who hurt others (or ourselves) and ultimately offend God. Let us be careful not use Jesus' words in Matt 6 to justify ourselves. We cannot use the excuse, "Oh, but you're not perfect either; you have a plank in your eye" to release ourselves from any responsibility or guilt. Jesus wouldn't have us do that. Because if you belonged in Christ, you are called to be perfect, for he was perfect just as his heavenly father was perfect.

Image and Likeness: A Quick Reflection* on Gen 1:26

I was recently thinking about Gen 1:26 (thanks to Old Testament History and Theology I class, perhaps...). And I cannot help but share what I've learned. I really shouldn't, because maybe I could file this away for possible sermons to preach in the future. Ha! No, I must be generous...

Here is Gen 1:26. I will use the NIV, as that is the familiar version for many:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

I'm sure we've all heard a lot about being made in the image of God, but we don't hear much about the likeness...why? Because likeness = image, right? Basically, Gen 1:26 is repetitive. We get the point...or do we?

Image actually has a very concrete definition: the Hebrew is used in Daniel to refer to Nebuchadnezzar's idol. Also, in the Ancient Near East, the Hebrew word translated image refers to idols, i.e. concrete representations of God.

So perhaps that's why we have the second commandment. We aren't to make images of God, because he has already made them himself: humans! We are his concrete representations!!! And of course, Jesus Christ is the human image of God par excellence!

So the image of God in us really means that we are to represent God to his creation. That's we are to subdue and have dominion over creation. We are to be as "divine" kings over creation. This is the human to creation aspect.

Also then, as God's physical representation, Israel (or the Church) is called to represent Yahweh to all the peoples so that through God's chosen people and ultimately through his perfect image, Jesus Christ, all peoples may see and know Yahweh.

Okay, so that was image. How about likeness? Well, I may be splitting the difference between image and likeness too much, but look at where it shows up next: Gen 5. In Gen 5:3, "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth" (NIV). Image crops up again, but I want to zero in on likeness.

Here we see that likeness has a "sonship" connotation. Sons take after the likeness of their fathers. So when humans are created in God's likeness, they are, in a word, sons. So from the beginning, we were to be the sons of God. That is why we will inherit the earth and all of the good creation of God. (Of course, humans fall from grace and into sin, and so we will need the true Son of God to come and redeem us from the cosmic powers/terrorists of Sin and Death, but that's for another day, as important as it is).

And from the biblical backgrounds, we know that sonship is a big deal. Sons inherit. So it's not a bad, outdated, sexist thing for both men and women to be called sons of God. For God created humanity male and female. But it is not only the men who will be sons, but also the women. God's children will all be sons, in the sense that all God's children (*clarification: not all people...those who are adopted by God through his Son, Jesus Christ), male or female, will have an inheritance.

So when we read that verse in Genesis, let us thank our heavenly father that he has chosen us to be his representatives to all of creation and to those who are still prodigal sons. We represent God both as his concrete image of who he is and as his son, unworthy recipients of his glory and majesty and all that he has to offer. We lost all this in the Fall, but God, in his providential love, has provided us with his true Image and true Likeness, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And those who are united to Christ by faith will also be adopted as royal sons, given an unimaginable inheritance! May we live up to our call (indeed, our reality) of being his image so that through our lives and our actions, we may represent God faithfully, that all peoples will see Him in all his exalted glory and know that he is Yahweh!

*Update (12/15/11): Thanks to Dan for this - In the title, no pun intended.

Jesus Doesn't Guilt-Trip!

Mini-rant!

I saw this on facebook (where some people had this status):

Jesus: Santa.
Santa: Yes?
Jesus: I'm sad.
Santa: Why are you sad? It's Christmas right? It's your birthday!
Jesus: Yeah. That's the point
Santa: Why?
Jesus: Because whenever its Christmas the kids only wait for you and not me! They only celebrate Christmas because of you! Why Santa, why not Jesus? - Dec. 25 is for Jesus not for Santa. Repost if You Believe in Jesus! P.S He Knows You Looked - deny me in front your friends and I will deny you in front of my father.

Look, I think most of the above exchange is cute (and slightly stupid and pointless...you won't convert anyone, and you don't get brownie points for "standing up for Jesus"...He'll do that himself at his second coming). I would never post the above exchange, myself, but heck, it's okay if you said Jesus was mad at Santa. Whatever.

However, what grinds my gears is the postscript (P.S.). That is so manipulative and guilt-tripping. What the heck! "P.S He Knows You Looked-deny me in front your friends and I will deny you in front of my father" WOW! I mean seriously. Is that really who Jesus is? Will he turn his back on you because you didn't "redeem" your facebook post? Is he that petty?

Now I don't want to be confrontational, especially with my friends on facebook, but I couldn't help myself. I commented on one of these statuses: Jesus doesn't guilt-trip.