Didn’t Jesus say we shouldn’t judge?
The next time you bring up some aspect of morality and someone tries to shut you down by saying “Didn’t you know Jesus told you not to judge?”, I’d invite you to share this video…
Tag: Judging
PWJ: S1E16 – MC B3C4 – “Morality and Psychoanalysis”
Is Psychoanalysis in competition with Christianity? Or are they, in fact, complementary? In today’s episode Matt and I will be unpacking what C.S. Lewis has to say about where psychoanalysis fits in with Christian morality and along the way we’ll learn some important lessons about not judging other people…
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Episode 16: “Morality and Psychoanalysis” (Download)
Scriptural Iceberg
Judging Others
In Scetis a brother was once found guilty. They assembled the brothers, and sent a message to Moses telling him to come. But he would not come. Then the presbyter sent again saying, “Come for the gathering of monks is waiting for you.” Moses got up and went. He took with him an old basket which he filled with sand and carried it on his back. They went to meet him and said, “What does this mean, abba?” He said, “My sins run out behind me and I do not see them and I have come here today to judge another”
– De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
Judging
In objecting to the Church speaking out on moral issues, a friend recently quoted the “Judge not…” line from Scripture. It made me think of this…
Jesus, Friend Of Sinners
My favourite band, Casting Crowns, just released a video of a song from their new album “Come to the Well”. The song is called “Jesus, Friend Of Sinners”:
This is definitely one of my favourite songs from their most recent album Come To The Well. It has a few lyrics which I find devastating:
Jesus, friend of sinners, …we cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing…
A plank-eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided…
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers…
…and finally…
Nobody knows what we’re for, only what we’re against, when we judge the wounded…
It is this last line which I find the most powerful. Before hearing this song I had never really thought that when I judged someone, I was judging someone injured. We’re all wounded, of course, both by the Fall and our own personal histories.
Until I heard these words I had never really considered that when someone does something which disappoints or hurts me, it might be due to a wound which that person had previously sustained, so rather than judging and condemning that person, I should instead see him as someone in need of healing.
Over the past few months I have, on occasions, remembered this song and the resolution it inspired: Be More Gentle With People. When I have done this, and managed to set aside my indigence and anger, and tried to “look for the wound”, the results have been quite surprising. I have found my heart softened and the reservoirs of compassion and patience which I had long thought empty, refilled.
Now, if only I could remember this resolution a bit more often…
