Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

We are easily tempted to both judge others and live under the judgment of others. This dynamic is toxic both to us and to our relationships with one another.

However, in the gospel, we are called to live under God’s assessment of us, and not set ourselves or others up as the judge.

The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us that being a Christian means living under the judgment Jesus alone. Bonhoeffer was referencing the fact that as human beings we can’t help but live under the assessment of some law, some gaze by which we are judged. We were made to live under the gaze of God, but when we reject Him, something else will take its place.

Therefore, in times of social tension, we tend to feel the heat of living under the gaze of others more acutely. Am I socially aware enough? Am I responding to this crisis or that crisis properly? Am I sensitive to this issue or that issue enough?

As a Christian you are free from the judgment of others and, perhaps even more profoundly, from the judgment of your own conscience. Why? Not because there is no standard to which you are called and by which you will be judged. No! Rather, because Jesus, the ultimate judge, was judged for you. The true Judge has already rendered His verdict and He did so on the cross.

This is tremendously liberating, and when properly understood leads us not to dismiss others and their concerns, but to serve them—just like Jesus did for you.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”

~ 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 (NASB)