Christian Judgementalism

Jesus Himself identified the issue of judgementalism and warned people to avoid it.

¹ "Judge not, that you be not judged. ² "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

It is quite alarming that the Body of Christ seeks to judge people according to their behaviour and lifestyle, and yet Jesus Himself told believers not to judge. Only Jesus is qualified to judge people and He will judge people at the end of time.

What often defeats us with sin is that we mistakenly believe that we are always consciously aware of our sin and that we always have the power to be able to overcome it with an effort of the will. The unredeemed nature can be terribly deceiving to the point whereby we are judging people according to what they do or don’t do, yet we are just as guilty as them concerning our own conduct. If a person lives in denial of his own faults and failings, he is more likely to seek to demonise the sinful practices of another person.

What the Pharisees did was that they were diligent with their religious, ceremonial practices – yet they did not think twice of murdering someone because they disagreed with them.

A person’s holiness can be nothing more than denial and repression. We think that if we are able to ignore and repress wrong thoughts, desires and feelings – then we are making a conscious choice to be virtuous and acceptable to God. But repression will just make more problems. A person is still guilty of sin if he harbours ill-will towards his neighbour. We often criticize and ostracize those people who express their sinful nature – yet we are just as wicked as they are if we have the same wrong nature but seek to repress the expression of it.

Colossians 2:18-23 has something to say about people who live their lives according to a set of rules and making taboos out of things.

¹⁸ Don't let anyone declare you lost when you refuse to worship angels, as they say you must. They have seen a vision, they say, and know you should. These proud men (though they claim to be so humble) have a very clever imagination. ¹⁹ But they are not connected to Christ, the Head to which all of us who are his body are joined; for we are joined together by his strong sinews, and we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God. ²⁰ Since you died, as it were, with Christ and this has set you free from following the world's ideas of how to be saved--by doing good and obeying various rules--why do you keep right on following them anyway, still bound by such rules as ²¹ not eating, tasting, or even touching certain foods? ²² Such rules are mere human teachings, for food was made to be eaten and used up. ²³ These rules may seem good, for rules of this kind require strong devotion and are humiliating and hard on the body, but they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person's evil thoughts and desires. They only make him proud.

Colossians 2:18-23 TLB