164. Bible Questions: Are Christians Judgmental?

E164:  Bible Questions:  Are Christians judgmental?

An episode of the Simpsons Bart Simpson's neighbor, a Christian describes why she went to Bible camp. I was learning to become more judgmental in this episode, are Christians judgmental, and should they be there's two meanings for the word judgmental. One is to use critical judgment. The other is to be quick, to be excessively critical to judge others, especially on moral issues. I was recently asked to teach an adult class with the question, how should Christians handle difficult issues though? I commented on a couple of these areas in episode 1 54, the Bible question, am I my brother's keeper?

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I want to expand on that with a few principles I gave to this class, should Christians address difficult issues? And if so, how? Here are a few principles. See them as bumper pads laid down on a bowling alley principles to keep us in the proper God honoring lane. The first and perhaps most important for followers of Christ is laid out by Jesus. In Matthew 1128 through 30, we looked at this invitation of Jesus to all believers in episode 89 in verse 30, Jesus uses his own word, picture a yoke. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

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I described an episode 89, what Jesus meant. He was a carpenter carpenter's would custom fit a yoke that would bar that went over the shoulders of two cows. They would be fit perfectly to that pair of ox. And the older ox would then teach the apprentice ox next to him or her, how to pull a plow. The older ox would provide most of the power and all of the direction. The younger ox, the apprentice would learn within that yolk to yield to the direction of the older ox and to do his or her part of pulling the plow in this metaphor. Jesus says, if you are in an intimate apprenticeship beside me, I will provide the direction and most of the power when it comes to handling critical issues of this world, those places, God has called us to be salt and light.

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The place to start is to make sure we're in the yolk next to Jesus, that we are intimately connected to him or in the new Testament term that we are filled with his holy spirit. Then when we come to these difficult issues in our world, we can ask Jesus next to us for the directional nudge. We need to know if we should speak to difficult issues. And when I should just mention quickly the difficult issues, why should Christians speak up at all? Well, as we'll learn in a moment, sometimes we're told not to, but Jesus also answers the question. Are we to give guidance to our culture with the resounding yes.

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In his sermon on the Mount, Jesus said you are to be the salt of the earth followers. We think of salt as seasoning, but salt in Jesus' time was a preservative. For example, you pack those fish caught on the sea of Galilee and salt to preserve them until they got to market rotting. Fish are not a real hot commodity. So bumper pad number one is ask Jesus for a nudge for the guidance to know if or when we should be salty to those difficult issues around us, which leads to scriptures. Second point treat difficult issues as difficult because they emerge in this broken difficult world.

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And as we learned in the word pictures series, even God's guidance for our culture and how to be salty is difficult often to understand. So what does that mean for us? Well, two things. We need to do our homework to understand an issue in our culture. And second, we need the humility to realize we could be seeing the issue or the application of God's word incorrectly, which brings me to my next bumper pad. Our attitude about ourselves before we use judgment in this world is critical. Paul writing to the Galatians says this. If a brother or sister is overtaken in a fall, you who are spiritual restore, such a one in the spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself, less YouTube, be tempted now on to make three observations.

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First of all, this is addressing issues in the world with fellow Christians. We're told to speak up second, notice you who are spiritual. I would argue that refers us back to the yoke beside Jesus. He's saying those of you who are in the yoke with Jesus and have asked for a fullness of his spirit, you're the ones prepared to speak into this situation. And the third thing is, notice the attitude. This reminds me of a nurse caring, compassionately for a patient that nurse realizes that he or she could be in that bed the

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Next day, needing the care of others.

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Isn't it easier to hear someone who comes to us, not as a moral guide, but as a fellow traveler who could fall into the same pothole bumper pad. Number four comes from the first letter of Peter chapter three, verses 15 through 16 here. Peter says, be ready at all times when someone asked to give a defense for the faith, that's in you and do it with gentleness and reverence, all this is a big one. When my students ask about difficult issues in our culture, it seems like I always come back to this first Peter chapter passage. When Christians are asked about our beliefs, about a difficult issue, we should be ready to explain it so we can concentrate on how

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We say it. Not what we're going to say.

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That means we need to prepare for these hard issue discussions ahead of time, with a cover to cover biblical study, asking God all the way along to illumine the truth. These issues are not a place to wing it. I hope you caught that. It'd be far better to say, you know, bill, I'm sure scripture speaks to this issue, but I just haven't done my homework. I'll do that. And let's get back together. A second observation is the default is to wait to be asked. Did you catch that in Peter's passage? When anyone asked you to give a defense of your convictions from this, I would suggest we're not to go around looking for people to be salty with we're, to listen for openings in the other person's conversation or attitude, and be very,

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Very slow to initiate these conversations.

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And third in this passage, if once we speak our convictions, the other person doesn't receive it well. And often Jesus said they won't. We should work hard to treat those folks in Jesus' words, as bruised reeds and smoldering wicks, they should go away feeling that we still have heard them and care for them. Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners. They went away feeling valued by Jesus, a fifth bumper pad. I touched on in episode 1 54, am I my brother's keeper? We should consider the audience. We need to discern teachability.

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What do I mean by that? We need to ask ourselves the question. Does the other person appear to be able to receive our explanation of our convictions? This is fleshed out in Proverbs 26. Remember Proverbs are general trues. They're not doctrinal application. They're saying in most cases, you'd be wise to follow this in back-to-back verses Solomon tells folks to rebuke someone who's acting foolish or they'll become embedded in that lifestyle, in his words wise in their own eyes. But in the very next verse, he says, don't rebuke someone who isn't teachable. They'll just hate you.

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What's the difference teachability. Again, I point back to being in the yoke with Jesus. Jesus knows their hearts and their trajectory. So we need to pray for discernment. And since the sign of Jesus in the yolk of whether we should speak or remain quiet, and I'll remind you from episode 1 54, the principle, we need to be careful how we treat Christians. And non-Christians in general, we should be more quick to speak to Christians about moral issues than non-Christians often with non-Christians were told not to address the issue at all.

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And the final bumper pad I'll give is our emotions. Don't act when anger is present in James chapter one verses 19 through 20 James writes, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteous purposes of God. Here are two quick applications. The first is God gave us two ears and one mouth. It should remind us, seek to really see the other person's side first. Even if it sounds really broken to us, maybe especially if it sounds really broken to us.

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And the second application is we should never engage our mouse or our keyboard or our cell phone. When the primary emotion present in us is anger. I'll point you to episode 1 56. Is there such a thing as righteous anger? There's no question Christians are to be a preservative in our broken world. They are to speak into as God's mouthpieces, difficult moral issues, but how we do that is critical. We could have the right answer, but damage people when we give it at the wrong volume or I would add at the wrong time.