Loving Just Because
Do not judge, or you too will be
judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the
measure you use, it will be measured to you.—Jesus, Matthew 7:1–21
*
And as they continued to ask him, he
stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first
to throw a stone at her.”—John 8:72
*
As for the person who hears my words
but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the
world, but to save it.—Jesus, John 12:473
*
Finally, all of you, have unity of
mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay
evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this
you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love
life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from
speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace
and pursue it.—1 Peter 3:8–114
*
And he said to them, “You yourselves
know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of
another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common
or unclean."—Acts 10:285
*
With all humility and gentleness,
with patience, bearing with one another in love.—Ephesians 4:26
*
Judging others makes us blind,
whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own
evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.—Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
*
If there is any great secret of
success in life, it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other person's
place and to see things from his point of view.—Henry Ford
*
When you judge another, you do not
define them, you define yourself.—Wayne Dyer
*
If you judge people you have no time
to love them.—Mother Teresa
*
One night Rick [a pastor] showed up
sort of beaten-looking. He had been to some sort of pastors’ reception where a
guy spoke about how the church has lost touch with people who didn't know about
Jesus. Rick said he was really convicted about this and asked us if we thought
we needed to repent and start loving people who were very different from us. We
all told him yes, we did, but I don't think any of us knew what that meant.
Rick said he thought it meant we should live missional lives, that we should
intentionally befriend people who are different from us. I didn't like the
sound of that, to be honest. I didn't want to befriend somebody just to trick
them into going to my church. Rick said that was not what he was talking about.
He said he was talking about loving people just because they exist—homeless
people and Gothic people and gays and fruit nuts. And then I liked the sound of
it. I liked the idea of loving people just to love them, not to get them to
come to church. … So we started praying every week that God would teach us to
live missional lives, to notice people who needed to be loved.—Donald Miller7
*
We don’t have to embrace everything
about a person in order to appreciate the good that they do. We don’t have to
agree with all their lifestyle choices, or everything that they believe, in
order to recognize and appreciate and even use one aspect of something they
have done or said that is good or beautiful or the truth. We can choose the
good, appreciate it, use it, be edified by it, and also recognize at the same
time that we probably wouldn’t want to embrace absolutely everything about the
person.
We accept the good and beautiful and
inspiring things that many people do or have given us, even though some of them
may also do things that we don’t agree with or support, or may have even
committed very great sins. If we judged on the basis of some of these specific
sins that we abhor or can’t accept or agree with, then we wouldn’t accept the
Psalms, because David was a murderer.8 And we couldn’t appreciate Moses or
his example of leadership, or the first five books of the Bible that were
authored by him, for that matter, because he killed a man in anger.9 We
wouldn’t appreciate and benefit from a good deal of the New Testament, because
Peter denied Jesus, and Paul was previously Saul, and he caused terrible
trouble for the early church.10
We would have little to no inspired
music if we started to dissect the lives of those who wrote or produced each
song. For that matter, we’d have very little in life that we could appreciate
or benefit from, because no one is perfect!—Maria Fontaine11
*
Whoever in prayer can say, “Our
Father,” acknowledges and should feel the brotherhood of the whole race of
mankind.—Tryon Edwards
*
The opportunity for brotherhood
presents itself every time you meet a human being.—Jane Wyman
*
In everything, do to others what you
would have them do to you.—Jesus, Matthew 7:1212
*
Let nothing be done through selfish
ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better
than himself.—Philippians 2:313
*
As for the one who is weak in faith,
welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat
anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats
despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on
the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the
servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he
will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.—Romans 14:1–414
*
But in your hearts honor Christ the
Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you
for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and
respect.—1 Peter 3:1515
*
People come to Jesus in all sorts of
ways. Sometimes people bump into Jesus, they trip on the mystery, they stumble
past the word, they drink from the rock, without knowing what or who it was.
This happened in the Exodus, and it happens today.
The last thing we should do is
discourage or disregard an honest, authentic encounter with the living Christ.
He is the rock, and there is water for the thirsty there, wherever there
is.
We are not threatened by this,
surprised by this, or offended by this.
Sometimes people use his name; other
times they don’t.
Some people have so much baggage
with regard to the name “Jesus” that when they encounter the mystery present in
all of creation—grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness—the last
thing they are inclined to name it is “Jesus.”
Second, none of us have cornered the
market on Jesus, and none of us ever will.
What we see Jesus doing again and
again—in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following
him, living like him, and trusting him—is widening the scope and expanse of his
saving work.
His disciples want to shut down a
man healing in his name in Luke 9, but he says sharply, “Do not stop him, for
whoever is not against you is for you.” He praises the faith of a Roman
centurion, a “sinful woman” wastes a ton of money on perfume and he calls it
worship, and when he encounters a despised tax collector, he wants to have
dinner with him.
Whatever categories have been created,
whatever biases are hanging like a mist in the air, whatever labels and
assumptions have gone unchecked and untested, he continually defies, destroys,
and disregards.
Third, it is our responsibility to
be extremely careful about making negative, decisive, lasting judgments about
people’s eternal destinies. As Jesus says, he “did not come to judge the world,
but to save the world.”[16] We can name Jesus, orient our lives
around him, and celebrate him as the way, the truth, and the life, and at the
same time respect the vast, expansive, generous mystery that he is.
Heaven is, after all, full of
surprises. This world is being redeemed, the tomb is empty, and a new creation
is bursting forth right here in the midst of this one.—Rob Bell17
*
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they
will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.—Jesus,
Matthew 5:3–1018
1 NIV.
2 ESV.
3 NIV.
4 ESV.
5 ESV.
6 ESV.
7 Blue Like Jazz (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003).
8 See 2 Samuel 11.
9 Exodus 2:11–12.
10 Matthew 26:69–75; Acts 8:1–3.
11 http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/appreciate-good.
12 NIV.
13 NKJV.
14 ESV.
15 ESV.
16 John 12:47.
17 Love Wins (New York:
HarperCollins, 2011).
18 NIV.