Judgment (Another Note to the Church)

I feel like there’s something more. I think that this life is too important. What if, maybe, we’ve been going about this all wrong?

Listen to Christians. Listen to them define what it means to follow God. Listen to their definitions of salvation. Listen and see if you can find meaning behind “getting saved.” Because I can’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christians. I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for them. But what if they’re wrong?

I am taking a (required) evangelism class at the conservative Christian university I attend. The theme and attitudes of the class are staggeringly disappointing; it fails to go beyond the “notches-on-the-belt” ideas of Christianity. It might as well be titled “How to Beat People Up with the Bible.” Yet, the even sadder truth: these ideas come from the wellspring of traditional Christian thought and are among the most prevalent ideas in modern Christian culture.

This is not just bothersome to me—it goes beyond that. It is detrimental to the very foundation that Jesus laid down.

I’ve heard it said that, when Adam and Eve first took a bite of the fruit in the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t that they were gaining knowledge of good and evil. In contrast, they already had such knowledge; good and evil merely represented God’s ideal (which they understood) and anything that separated them from that Godly ideal (which they also understood). When they ate the fruit, what happened was an actual clouding of reason: they began to take it upon themselves to judge between good and evil. The Original Sin was not one of knowledge-gaining. Rather, it was the beginning of an infection that subjected humans into a constant battle of judging the things around them based on their own intuitions and fears.

So what is sin? Sin can be defined as any kind of personal judgment—when we make a judgment on how “good” or “bad” someone is. It goes beyond that, however. For Christians, not only do we choose (and often enjoy) making judgments on how good or bad a person is, but we take it many steps further by thinking that we have God on our side. So not only do we classify people as good or bad, we classify them as “Christian” or “nonChristian, lost, unsaved, ungodly, etc.” And we back it up with Bible verses that often don’t have any application to this idea of human judgment.

Isn’t it possible that we are never meant to judge whether or not someone is “saved?” Because when we start believing that we can judge when someone is “Christian” or not, then we inevitably try to draw some line. We inevitably try to create some classification. We try to create categories: “This person is saved, that person isn’t.” Or “you can do this to be saved, but you can’t do that.” And once this happens, it’s Christians who are the most sinful of all.

When we try to draw a line of salvation, when we try to classify people as “saved” or not, two terrible things happen (and I’m not overstating it when I use the word “terrible,” in fact, I’m understating how negative this action is.)

First, we play God. The Bible is very clear that He is the ultimate judge, not us. But, beyond being this “Judge,” he is the ultimate Love. He loves people so much that only He has the grace that would cover people we’d never think of extending grace to. For all we know, he could end up extending grace to everyone (after all, he loves people more than anyone could.) So who are we to decide? Why do Christians think that we have cornered the market on discerning whether or not God is extending ultimate grace and compassion over His creation?—especially since He always surprises us by extending compassion over people that don’t meet our human requirements.

Secondly, drawing this line of salvation creates complacency. Once people have crossed this made-up line, Christians tend to be hands-off. Making disciples turns into signing people up for reservations to heaven. What if it’s about so much more than just escaping hell? What if Jesus wants to make people whole now—a wholeness that goes beyond just praying a prayer and agreeing on a list of Christian truths? What if Jesus wants to rid people of this infection of judgment? It is easy to say that belief in Jesus equals a life changed. But what if the life doesn’t look any different?

If someone “prays the sinner’s prayer” and then continues living a life infected with judgment, how do they make the cut? Does this person cross that imaginary line of salvation that so many Christians want to draw?

And what about a person who genuinely loves and lives free of judgment, and yet hasn’t gotten “saved” by Christian standards? What if this person looks more like Jesus than most of His followers? Does this individual not make the cut?

If all love comes from God, then isn’t a person who lives a life of selfless love a Godly person, even if they don’t recognize who the love comes from?

Maybe it’s time Christians stop trying to categorize people. Maybe it’s time we allow ourselves to be rid of the infection of judgment. Maybe we can start accepting all people as beautiful images of their Creator. Maybe then we can stop doing more harm than good.