So often as Christians we are locked into a ‘judgement cycle’. Our primary default position is that we judge others. This leaning toward judging is the direct result of the outworking of original sin in our lives. Our desire to be like God by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has given us a predisposition to divide the world between what we judge to be good and what we judge to be well less than good!! An intriguing writer called Greg Boyd says, this ‘judgement is the primary thing that keeps us from doing the central thing God created and saved us to do, namely, love like he loves.’
Bonhoeffer maintained that “The knowledge of good and evil seems to be the aim of all ethical reflection. The first task of Christian ethics is to invalidate this knowledge”. Boyd suggests that we have failed to sufficiently integrate the biblical teaching of original sin and its implications in our lives.
“Because we do not usually understand and internalize the nature of our foundational sin, we usually think our job as Christians is to embrace a moral system, live by it, and thus to be good people in contrast to all those who are evil. [however] God’s goal for us is much more profound and much more beautiful than merely being good: it is to do the will of God by being loving, just as God is loving”.
Ever thought about why we so readily judge others, why often our first response to somebody is to sum them up in some way, to categorize them, assess them, and then to make judgements. We all do it, all the time for it is far easier to judge than to love.
The bolded excerpt from the quote is great stuff….. the goal is not goodness, but greatness; not being right but being righteous; not just being, but beauty!!
Judging others is a failure of love, a direct result of original sin, and it keeps us bound to ‘religion’, not to real loving relationships - perhaps this is one of the reasons why Jesus spoke so often and so harshly about the sin of judging.
Choose love, over judgement today….
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