Get Judgmental
The people of God have work to do in this country. First task: we need to get better at judging each other.
The trouble, though, is that far too many in the Church wrongly think we’re not supposed to judge anyone at all. To be fair, I understand where we might get this idea. Since “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” we make much of Jesus’ warning that if we judge others, the same judgment will be turned back on us. Putting these ideas together, we can quickly justify the position that we have no right to condemn others’ actions.
While often kindhearted, this belief is wrong for two key reasons. First, it represents an incomplete reading of Scripture. Yes, Jesus urged us to be extremely careful with how we judge. Later, however, Paul helpfully clarified when the people of God are right to pass judgment. In 1 Corinthians, Paul emphasizes we are not to judge those outside the Church—God will handle that. Yet Paul is beyond clear that we must judge those within the community of God, even going so far as to invoke Deuteronomy in a call to “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
With this in mind, American Christians’ hesitancy to judge leads to another key problem: the Church too readily abandons the task of holding people accountable. If we believe we are not supposed to judge each other, it becomes extremely difficult to receive a call to repent of sin. My years in ministry make me confident any pastor you ask has plenty of stories of congregants refusing to hear personal calls to repentance. Many of those stories likely include someone boldly declaring, “Who are you to judge me?” By wrongfully believing Christians aren’t supposed to judge, we directly limit our ability to call each other to the holy living God expects of his people.
The Church should, after all, stand as a beacon of moral integrity. Since Scripture explicitly calls us to live like Jesus, we need to be willing to call anything less than that what it is: sin. As Jesus instructed, doing this begins with a private, loving conversation in which we bring someone’s behavior to their attention and invite them to repent, escalating the conversation only if someone chooses to ignore this initial call to correction.
To be clear, the importance of this willingness to be held—and to hold others—accountable goes far beyond personal holiness. As Paul makes clear in his letter to the Corinthians, this work is essential if we are to have any integrity as servants of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Reading through 1 Corinthians shows that the church in that community was an absolute mess. Flagrant incest; petty lawsuits between believers; gross selfishness; utter chaos in worship: this behavior defined the Corinthian church. In all these issues, Paul was most concerned with what non-believers would think when they saw all these heinous habits. He was deeply afraid people might think such conduct was appropriate for the people of God. By their unwillingness to hold each other accountable, the Corinthian church failed to clearly show what it means to follow Jesus.
Last Tuesday, far too many American Christians committed the exact same sin by electing Donald Trump to a second term as President. By championing this candidate, American Christians have violently wounded our integrity as people who claim to stand for Jesus and the way he calls us to live.
In case there is any doubt, let’s be clear: Donald Trump is not a godly man. He is a liar, an adulterer, and an abuser, as confirmed by multiple court cases. More importantly, he is utterly unrepentant of any of this behavior, even going so far as to brag that being found guilty of such conduct only helped his chances in his presidential bid.
Most tragically, I think—and it seems at least one prominent pastor agrees—that much of Christian’s willingness to support Trump comes from our aversion to holding each other accountable. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten as angry at an article as the one linked above. This pastor—whose preaching influences thousands of believers—seems to think that since “we’re all messed up people,” Christians are supposed to “look at the platform, not the person.” Regardless of a person’s character, as long as their platform aligns with ours, they deserve our support. According to this pastor, “like it or not,” that means backing Donald Trump. I have a hard time imagining a more blatant, tragic declaration that the American Church should abandon our biblical call to judge those within the body of believers.
Some might be thinking that Donald Trump falls outside that group, that he makes no claim to godliness. Unfortunately, Trump himself disagrees. On top of taking up a side gig as a Bible salesman, Trump explicitly called himself a Christian during his most recent campaign. Contrary to what the President-elect might think, claiming that identity doesn’t just get him votes. It means he’s held to the same expectations as any other believer: repent of sin, and live like Jesus. Unless Donald Trump is willing to shoulder that responsibility—with all the help of the Holy Spirit available to any true believer—Scripture says he deserves to be judged by his brothers and sisters in Christ.
But instead, American Christians helped elect Donald Trump in a landslide. I don’t know how we can stand before non-believing America with any shred of integrity if we are willing to elect this ungodly of a self-proclaimed believer to the highest office in our nation. We have utterly failed in our task to judge those within the Church, and it will directly harm our ability to spread the name of Jesus to those who do not know him in this country.
With all this in mind, the people of God have a lot of work to do. We can start by being held—and holding other Christians—accountable to our call to live like Jesus. We must repent of our own ungodliness, and insist that other believers do the same. Anything less is simply a betrayal of our duty as followers of our Lord.