June 19: Judge Not

"You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'" So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. " Romans 14:10-13 (NIV)

It's human nature. We all do it. And we do it about everything. We love to critique and criticize. We are a very judgmental culture. Some christians even justify the behavior by saying, "I'm not judging, I'm just being a 'fruit inspector'." Whatever. Same thing.

The above scripture passage is sobering for several reasons. I like the last line about "stop passing judgment on each other...and not to put a stumbling block in your brother's way."

One way the church places stumbling blocks is by giving the impression that once we become followers of Jesus we should automatically be immune to depression, despair and struggles with sin. The message is sent that if we struggle we are somehow defective. A friend recently shared a story with me about how a minister suggested that her child was dying because she didn't have enough faith. Another friend was once told that his son was born mentally challenged due to the parents' sin. That's not only sad, it's sick.

I often hear stories of people feeling condemned by other Christians over struggles with depression. People can be so hard on themselves because they feel their lives don't measure up to some elusive target set by some of the Christians around them. Over and over the issues of guilt and shame and feeling judged come into play.

Life is tough enough without the added pressure of "trying to be a good Christian". This burden is not necessary and not from God. What makes this even more tragic is that the added pressure is coming from those who should be a source of hope. When the unconditional love of God has strings attached, conditions for acceptance, then it's not God's love that's being offered.

One of my favorite writers, Jon Fischer observes, "We need to come alongside each other and help -- no questions asked -- not run our spiritual Geiger counters up and down everybody's faith." We need to become aware of how judgmental we can be and when we're doing it--learn to "catch ourselves in the act". Then ask God to help change our hearts.

~ Father, help me to be a "path-clearer" for others and not a "stumbling block-placer". Help me to live out the grace I have received from You. Amen.