This is the age of grace. Judgment has it's time, and it isn't now. These are sweeping statements, but they are essential if you are to represent Christ in a way that gives honor. In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a parable about a field that is planted with wheat by a farmer. In the night an enemy plants weeds in it. As both grow up together, the farmer's workers ask if they should pull up the weeds. The farmer's response is, "No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."
Jesus tells us that this is the reality of the present age. Jesus has scattered good seed, but Satan has also spread bad seed. We live in a world where both good and evil grow up side by side. That's not much of a revelation. What follows is. The religious of Jesus' time would have said that we should avoid and shun those who do evil. We should not only keep them at arms length, but try to remove them from society. Jesus disagreed.
There will be a time of judgment at the end of this age, but until then, this age is about reaching out in grace to everyone around us that they might know forgiveness and redemption. Judgmental attitudes and actions separate us from those who most need the touch of grace. We don't fear the weeds because we believe that God's Spirit within us is greater than the Spirit of this world (1 John 4:4). We are careful about how we speak about those who don't believe because they are made in the image of God (James 3:9) and God loves them. And we don't avoid those caught in the world because we are obedient to God's desire that we go into the world to minister to those who are without hope (John 17:18).
This does not mean that we are passive. This is the age of grace, and we have been called to extend that grace. God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world that we might know salvation (John 3:16). Jesus so loved the world that he called us to be fishers of men and empowered us with his Spirit to be witnesses to the gospel (Mat 4:19; Acts 1:8).
The opposite if judgmentalism is hope. Judgmentalism tries to label people, freeze them in amber, and discards others as unworthy. Hope believes that Jesus can transform any life. Hope inspires us to pray, serve, and speak to others. It is the recognition that we were hopeless until Jesus entered our lives. Out of gratitude, we spread the blessing.
This doesn't mean that we don't judge at all. We are also called to stand up for the oppressed. That means opposing the oppressors. That's righteous. It also means that we communicate truth and argue against evil, but we do it with gentleness and love. We are trying to persuade others with the truth, not merely shut them up. If our arguments do not exhibit love, dignity, and grace, if they are designed to prove our righteousness while degrading others, then we are not representing Jesus. Instead we are only exhibiting our fallenness.
Too much time is spent by American Christians trying to separate the wheat from the weeds. Too often people who do not yet believe are ridiculed and reviled in a way that kills love and hope. That's not our job. It never was our job. It will never be our job. In fact, it's sin.
God will bring proper judgment when the time is right. Now, we are to be active in making Jesus known through our words and our actions. We are to be the light in the darkness, the city on the hill, the hand extended to a world in need. In the end, it is our love that proves we have been touched by Jesus.
Interestingly, we have been called to a double standard when it comes to judgment. I'll address that next time...
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