Judgment

 If mercy triumphs over judgment, does this mean we should never judge? Are we to keep silent, turn a blind eye, and pretend as though we are not witness to what we are seeing and go about our lives indifferently, disconnected, and unaffected?

The Bible never says we ought not to judge; the lukewarm, duplicitous, and godless just want you to think it does. What the Bible does is warn that we will be judged with the same judgment we judge with. If you judge righteously, then you will be judged righteously. If you judge biblically, using the Word as your plumb line, you likewise will be judged biblically.

We will all be judged one day. No man can escape judgment, and when we stand before God and His throne, everything will be laid bare, and one of the things that will be taken into account is the judgment with which we judged and the measure we used to do so. This does not mean that if you’ve never judged righteously or otherwise, you get a waiver and go straight to the feasting. The whole process begins with separating those on His right from those on His left, those who knew Him from those who pretended to.

Matthew 7:1-2, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

That’s what Jesus said, but we only like to quote that first part because it immunizes us from responsibility or defending righteousness. Well, yes, Bob came to church in a dress and expects everyone to call him Brenda now, but you know, judge not. Is that what Jesus said, though?

Are we to turn a blind eye to perversion, depravity, and sin because calling it out might be construed as judging? Are we to stop preaching the gospel because some who might hear it being laden with sin will conclude that they are being judged?

Jesus isn’t condemning judging righteously; He is condemning hypocrisy. Jesus isn’t saying the church shouldn’t have a standard; He is saying the church should hold itself to the standard it has first and foremost before pointing out the shortcomings of others.

I don’t know how we got it this twisted, but I do know it all began when unscrupulous men started to make the narrow way wide and the straight way crooked because it meant more bodies in the seats, which translated to more cash in the coffers. Wouldn’t you know it if you tell sinners that rather than repent of their sin, they can just throw a few bucks in the plate, they’ll throw the few bucks in the plate every time.

We built monstrously large ministries on a foundation of lies because no matter how warm and fuzzy it may sound to your flesh if the Bible is not that which forms the construct of a work, it is doomed to crumble and fail. We’ve seen an entire generation come into maturity who is no less broken, no less lost, no less hopeless, and no less disenchanted than the world, the only difference being a few less dollars in their pocket because if they got anything drilled into them, it was the indispensable necessity of the tithe.

What many failed to realize when they were building these monstrosities is that once you build a monster, you have to feed it, and in order for it to get fed, greater and greater compromises must be made to incur the favor of more and more lukewarm souls.

If the gate that leads to life is narrow and the way difficult, and few find it, how is it that we can broaden the definition of what is to be saved to the point that if you walked by a church on a given day and they were holding service inside you were saved by osmosis?

You’ve got fully grown adults playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but instead of Kevin Bacon, it’s Jesus. They know someone who knows someone who was in church that one time, so they’re pretty much guaranteed eternal security.

If you dare to mention what Jesus said about the gate being narrow and the way being difficult, you’re just a mean old meany who’s seeped in legalism and doesn’t understand that this is a new Christianity for a new generation, rebranded and streamlined.

I’m sure you’re just exaggerating or misquoting Jesus about the way being difficult. That would mean our evangelists have been lying to us all this time, and that doesn’t seem right to me.

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

But I thought Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light. What’s this talk about the way which leads to life being difficult? Getting to that point of walking through the narrow gate or journeying in the way that leads to life is difficult. It requires breaking ties with all the old things that were comfortable and had become habitual in nature. It requires the thorough cleaning out of the vessel that new life might be poured in. Once you’ve found life, once you’ve received it, and He resides within, his yoke is indeed easy, and His burden light.

It’s like hunting for the greatest treasure known to man, following maps and directions, being diligent and not giving up when others have, then finally unearthing what you’ve been searching for all that time. You don’t remember the blistered feet and the sore back. You don’t remember the cold nights and the hot days. All of that seems long forgotten because you’ve claimed what you’ve been searching for.

Another apropos illustration is childbirth. I was in the room when both of my daughters were born. If my wife’s screaming is any indication, the process is not a walk in the park, and that’s putting it mildly. Once it’s over, once that first cry breaks the silence, and the baby is laid on its mother’s chest, all the pain is forgotten instantaneously.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.