Good news: You don’t have to live for your critics anymore.

John Ortberg looks ahead to Lent and invites us into a bold, freeing experiment: giving up condemnation altogether; the kind we receive, the kind we rehearse in our own heads, and the kind we quietly pass along to others. Drawing from the apostle Paul, John explores the reality that we all live with three critics:

- Other people
- Ourselves
- And God

The surprising twist? Freedom doesn’t come from silencing the first two, it comes from a category shift in how we understand the third.

Today's Resources:
Lewis B. Smedes, How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?

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There is now no condemnation. Which is especially good news for our closest relationships.

In this conversation, John Ortberg is joined by longtime friend and clinical psychologist Rick Blackmon to explore how condemnation quietly shows up in marriages, families, and friendships—and what actually helps break its grip.

Drawing from relationship research, clinical practice, and lived experience, they talk about why “constructive criticism” often backfires, how negativity ratios shape relational health, and the Four Horsemen that predict breakdown (with stonewalling doing more damage than we realize). Along the way, they offer practical wisdom for telling the truth without being harsh, starting hard conversations gently, and learning to calm the soul when emotions run hot.

This is an honest, hope-filled conversation about becoming people who can face conflict without crushing one another—and learning to live, even in our relationships, from a place where grace has the final word.

Today's Resources:
John Gottman, Why Marriages Succeed or Fail

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John Ortberg asks a surprisingly practical question:What should I be looking for in people (especially the ones I disagree with) if I want to stop the cycle of condemnation?

Along the way, John draws from:
- Arthur Brooks on how contempt corrodes our culture (and inboxes)
- Social psychology’s painfully accurate idea of motivational attribution asymmetry
- A dramatic moment in the Gospels where religious leaders look right at suffering… and somehow miss it
- The difference between a hermeneutic of suspicion and a far rarer hermeneutic of charity

You’ll hear why:
- We assume good motives for ourselves and bad motives for “those people”
Social media makes us feel morally informed while quietly shrinking our souls
- Jesus keeps asking a question we’d rather not answer: What are you actually looking for?
- The invitation here is deceptively simple and genuinely difficult:Look for the image of God.Not agreement. Not ammunition. Not confirmation that you’re right.
- When we see people the way Jesus does, contempt loses its grip—and condemnation doesn’t get the last word.

Also included: academic shade, Gospel-level tension, and a timer reminding John when it’s time to stop talking.

Today's Resources:
Arthur C. Brooks, Love Your Enemies

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Good news: There is now no condemnation.
Awkward news: Christians still manage to find ways to do it anyway.

In this episode, John Ortberg sits down with his wife (and favorite guest) Nancy Ortberg. Along the way, they explore: 

- Why condemnation doesn’t just live in our words… but in our eyebrows, tone, and jawline. 

- How Jesus consistently gathered the people everyone else had already dismissed. Why the parable of the sower would have sounded wildly irresponsible to first-century farmers

- How anonymity (hello, freeway driving 🚗) turns normal people into moral commentators

- Why learning not to condemn others starts with learning not to condemn ourselves

This conversation is honest, funny, deeply human, and quietly transformative. It’s not about pretending truth doesn’t matter. It’s about discovering that grace is far more generous than we imagined—and that Jesus really meant it when he said he didn’t come to condemn the world.

Also included: accidental theology, body-language confession, and at least one future t-shirt idea.


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Why are Christians so mean to each other? Jesus said, “Do not judge.”
So why does judgment feel so common, especially inside the church?

In this episode of No Condemnation, John Ortberg explores one of the most uncomfortable and honest questions facing followers of Jesus today. Drawing from the life of William Tyndale, the insights of Dallas Willard, and the words of Jesus himself, John uncovers how condemnation quietly takes root among people of faith and why being “right” can slowly replace being Christlike.

Today's Resources:
Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart
William Tyndale, Preface to the New Testament

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There’s no condemnation for me.But if I’m honest… there’s still plenty of condemnation in me.

So today we’re looking at one of the strangest, most uncomfortable, and most liberating stories in the Bible—a deeply messed-up family story involving betrayal, hypocrisy, sex, judgment, and a shocking reversal that exposes how condemnation actually gets broken.
It’s the story of Judah and Tamar.It’s awkward. It’s painful. It’s absolutely not a children’s Bible story.And somehow, it turns out to be a Jesus story.

This episode explores the moment when a man who is fully prepared to condemn someone else is forced to recognize his own heart—and how that recognition becomes the beginning of freedom, humility, reconciliation, and blessing. Along the way, we discover why the Bible keeps including deeply flawed people in God’s story, why self-righteousness collapses under honest self-recognition, and why Jesus’ family tree is far stranger—and more hopeful—than we expect.
If you’ve ever felt judgment rise up in you toward someone else…This story might be exactly what you need.

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The world feels like it’s falling apart and it’s tempting to think condemnation is the only honest response.

But what if God sees the world very differently?
In this episode, we step back and look at the big picture: not just what’s broken, but what God is actively doing to heal it. Drawing on insights echoed by Dallas Willard, Robert Putnam, and a striking story from positive psychology, we explore why humans become trained to see what’s wrong—and why God refuses to give up on the world.

Jesus didn’t come to label the cosmos “condemned.”He came to save, heal, restore, and redeem it.

If you’re worried about the state of the world—or the people you love most—this episode invites you to release the burden of condemnation and rediscover a deeper, steadier hope: Jesus is very good at saving the world.

Today's Resources:
Shaylyn Romney Garrett, The Upswing
Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage


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What do you do when life crushes you?
 When failure is public, shame feels loud, and condemnation (external or internal) won’t let up?

In this episode, we explore an unexpected truth: God often does His deepest work through difficulty, humiliation, and exposure. Drawing on the craft of a master violin maker, the wisdom of the Psalms, and reflections echoed by Dallas Willard, we consider how the “rough conditions” of life can produce the most beautiful sound.

Through stories of biblical figures who were humbled—and transformed—we discover why those who experience humiliation often become the least condemning people of all. And why Jesus, the most condemned person in the Gospels, became the most compassionate.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your failures disqualify you, this episode offers a bracing and hopeful answer: no condemnation doesn’t mean no pain—but it does mean pain isn’t the end.

Today's Resources:

Martin Schleske, author of The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty 

Thomas Keating, Divine Therapy & Addiction 

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Comparison is the quiet engine behind condemnation.
In this episode, we explore why sizing ourselves up against others feels so natural and why it so often turns us anxious, resentful, and judgmental. Drawing on insights from René Girard, social psychology, and Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, we uncover how comparative desire fuels rivalry, outrage, and “us vs. them” thinking.

From the Ten Commandments to social media envy, from Cain and Abel to modern prestige rankings, we discover why wanting what our neighbor has never ends well and what Jesus offers as a radically different way to live.


Today's Resources:
René Girard, I See Satan Fall Like Lightning
Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation

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We all have a them.
The people we quietly feel superior to.The ones we distance ourselves from.The ones we’re pretty sure God should work on… preferably far away from us.

In this episode, John Ortberg takes an honest look at how a condemning mind works and why Jesus’ story of the Pharisee and the tax collector still exposes us today. Drawing on insights from Dallas Willard and Kenneth E. Bailey, we explore how contempt sneaks into our prayers, how “us vs. them” thinking feels spiritual, and why Jesus refuses to stand aloof from anyone.

The twist?For Jesus, there is no them.
If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “At least I’m not like that person,” this episode might rearrange how you see others, and how you pray.

Today's Resources:
Kenneth E. Bailey, Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes 
Lauren F. Winner, The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin 

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