I'm glad you mentioned this. Great piece. I won't get into my personal political views, but dehumanizing others is never acceptable behavior. I agree with that! ❤️
Any attempts to discern in a biblical context between these two types of judgment (discernment vs. condemnation) should include at least a reference to the episode with Simon the sorcerer (in Acts 8). The passage is a fascinating mixture of what would appear to be both - and with a tantalizingly, (and typically unrecognized) open-ended ... *dropping* - one can hardly call it a 'conclusion' - the story just stops. One can imagine most western readers today thinking "Well - I guess that wicked bloke got what he deserved!" since Peter's opening line to him is: "May your money be condemned to hell along with you because you believed you could buy God's gift with money..." And we readers immediately consign Simon to the same "loser" side of that ledger where we had just freshly dismissed Ananias and Sapphira a few chapters earlier. Good guys, and bad guys ... and Simon is now one of the latter. Would Peter's judgment qualify as the 'condemning' kind of the two kinds of judgments discussed? It's hard to imagine it any other way. But that's before we continue reading: Simon risks being condemned because his ..."heart isn't right with God. Therefore change your heart and life! Turn from your wickedness! Plead with the Lord in the hope that your wicked intent can be forgiven, for I see that your bitterness has poisoned you and evil has you in chains." And for the record, Simon goes on to do just that - or rather he asks the apostles to "plead with the Lord" for him so that none of what they have said will happen to him. ...And the story just stops. Is Simon ever delivered from his toxic bitterness? We're not told, but the modern evangelical imagination (I think) feels too free to finish this story with a cynical condemnation of finality beyond what Luke finally writes for us. Which may reveal more about us than about the real Simon of the story. What is apparent, though, is that for Peter at least, somebody being condemned to Hell was not a final word about considering them as eternally beyond hope. No, it seems that such apparent condemnation was to be a hopeful doorway toward repentance and redemption. (As it was for Paul too - who is quite free with his turning people over to Satan *that they may be taught a lesson*!) Perhaps our distorted modern 'Christianity' has only picked up on the condemning side of this equation while abandoning the possibility of redemption that we ought to wish and pray for - even, and especially for our enemies. Maybe it's even left open-ended on purpose (like the older brother in the prodigal story) - where we are to see the choice put to us: "So what will it be ... are you willing to drop your judgments of the unworthy and come in to join with God's joy?" Or is your condemnation of the unworthy more important to you instead? Any forthcoming foreclosure on hope and redemption in that story is attributed only as the (possibly) ongoing and unfortunate choice of the older brother in that story. But the prodigal's Father ... his is the long-suffering hope of redemption that remains on offer.
I struggle with this notion of judgment. A lot. I have a lot of 'favorite' authors, books, or influencer blogs that I would love for other people to partake and discuss with me (even with any pushback) - and you lot are included among those voices for me. But some of my friends remain ... 'opaque?' ... 'oblivious' ... deliberately and stubbornly committed to their own bubbles and newsfeeds. They just don't respond to anything that may disturb their locked-in perspective. But here's the rub - they would probably say the same thing about me. And they would feel like their judgments are just being "the discerning" kind (the same way I defend mine). No - of course we aren't *condemning* each other. And yet the rehearsed and unspoken scripts on constant replay in my head would sound very condemning to them (or would be received that way) if I once voiced even a tenth of all that narrative out loud. Did Peter feel like it was 'condemning' judgment at the time when Christ called him Satan? When Paul turns various members of the Corinthian church over to Satan so that 'they may be taught a lesson' - we can observe that Paul wasn't literally wishing for them to be lost forever. But would they have felt condemned by Paul's words? It's all fine (and correct I think) in theory to recognize the difference between condemnation and discernment. But almost impossible to not take it as condemning when those 'discernments' are leveled against us personally.
I have tried to employ this in an area that seems to pull followers into Christian Nationalism into a wrong direction for the Church in our country. But does get a lot of backlash. It feels like it is an important warning for people … but also seems to easily turn into a supposed judgement. Off we love the church is it wrong to point this out?
What a lovely prayer! Thank you for the article. You are correct that this is the judgment Jesus forbade, and we would do well to discuss it more in our churches.
This gives word to how I've felt about not just immigration but the other areas the church has drawn boundaries around the Kingdom
I'm glad you mentioned this. Great piece. I won't get into my personal political views, but dehumanizing others is never acceptable behavior. I agree with that! ❤️
Any attempts to discern in a biblical context between these two types of judgment (discernment vs. condemnation) should include at least a reference to the episode with Simon the sorcerer (in Acts 8). The passage is a fascinating mixture of what would appear to be both - and with a tantalizingly, (and typically unrecognized) open-ended ... *dropping* - one can hardly call it a 'conclusion' - the story just stops. One can imagine most western readers today thinking "Well - I guess that wicked bloke got what he deserved!" since Peter's opening line to him is: "May your money be condemned to hell along with you because you believed you could buy God's gift with money..." And we readers immediately consign Simon to the same "loser" side of that ledger where we had just freshly dismissed Ananias and Sapphira a few chapters earlier. Good guys, and bad guys ... and Simon is now one of the latter. Would Peter's judgment qualify as the 'condemning' kind of the two kinds of judgments discussed? It's hard to imagine it any other way. But that's before we continue reading: Simon risks being condemned because his ..."heart isn't right with God. Therefore change your heart and life! Turn from your wickedness! Plead with the Lord in the hope that your wicked intent can be forgiven, for I see that your bitterness has poisoned you and evil has you in chains." And for the record, Simon goes on to do just that - or rather he asks the apostles to "plead with the Lord" for him so that none of what they have said will happen to him. ...And the story just stops. Is Simon ever delivered from his toxic bitterness? We're not told, but the modern evangelical imagination (I think) feels too free to finish this story with a cynical condemnation of finality beyond what Luke finally writes for us. Which may reveal more about us than about the real Simon of the story. What is apparent, though, is that for Peter at least, somebody being condemned to Hell was not a final word about considering them as eternally beyond hope. No, it seems that such apparent condemnation was to be a hopeful doorway toward repentance and redemption. (As it was for Paul too - who is quite free with his turning people over to Satan *that they may be taught a lesson*!) Perhaps our distorted modern 'Christianity' has only picked up on the condemning side of this equation while abandoning the possibility of redemption that we ought to wish and pray for - even, and especially for our enemies. Maybe it's even left open-ended on purpose (like the older brother in the prodigal story) - where we are to see the choice put to us: "So what will it be ... are you willing to drop your judgments of the unworthy and come in to join with God's joy?" Or is your condemnation of the unworthy more important to you instead? Any forthcoming foreclosure on hope and redemption in that story is attributed only as the (possibly) ongoing and unfortunate choice of the older brother in that story. But the prodigal's Father ... his is the long-suffering hope of redemption that remains on offer.
I struggle with this notion of judgment. A lot. I have a lot of 'favorite' authors, books, or influencer blogs that I would love for other people to partake and discuss with me (even with any pushback) - and you lot are included among those voices for me. But some of my friends remain ... 'opaque?' ... 'oblivious' ... deliberately and stubbornly committed to their own bubbles and newsfeeds. They just don't respond to anything that may disturb their locked-in perspective. But here's the rub - they would probably say the same thing about me. And they would feel like their judgments are just being "the discerning" kind (the same way I defend mine). No - of course we aren't *condemning* each other. And yet the rehearsed and unspoken scripts on constant replay in my head would sound very condemning to them (or would be received that way) if I once voiced even a tenth of all that narrative out loud. Did Peter feel like it was 'condemning' judgment at the time when Christ called him Satan? When Paul turns various members of the Corinthian church over to Satan so that 'they may be taught a lesson' - we can observe that Paul wasn't literally wishing for them to be lost forever. But would they have felt condemned by Paul's words? It's all fine (and correct I think) in theory to recognize the difference between condemnation and discernment. But almost impossible to not take it as condemning when those 'discernments' are leveled against us personally.
I have tried to employ this in an area that seems to pull followers into Christian Nationalism into a wrong direction for the Church in our country. But does get a lot of backlash. It feels like it is an important warning for people … but also seems to easily turn into a supposed judgement. Off we love the church is it wrong to point this out?
Oh really!
Thanks btw
I suppose you haven’t read all the Bible says on the subject of judging.
Thank you
What a lovely prayer! Thank you for the article. You are correct that this is the judgment Jesus forbade, and we would do well to discuss it more in our churches.