Judgment for the Judgmental (Romans 2)

I get to have lots of conversations with people who are (1) not Christians, (2) stuck in sin, and (3) feeling judged by Christians. Many of them have stories of being judged, some of which turn my stomach. One of the things I usually say is something like: From my understanding of the Bible, every person has sinned and is sinning and so we’re all on equal ground. So I don’t think any Christian has the right to judge you. In fact, in the Bible I only find one sin that seems to be worthy of a special kind of judgment, and that’s being judgmental!

To back that up, I typically point out that Jesus met all kinds of sinners, and He did instruct people to stop sinning, but we never see Him condemning people except for the religious leaders who … condemned people.

Today’s reading (Romans 2) also backs up my theory. After all the harsh words about sin in Romans 1, which must have had many of the readers nodding their heads in agreement, it had to cause whiplash when Romans 2 opens with, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

So, harsh introspection time: Do you pass judgment? And, when you do, do you realize that you are condemning yourself? And, if not, ummmm, you might want to figure that out fast.