To judge or not to judge......

If you read my last blog, you know that I wrote on a picture that had been posted onto Facebook.  You can go back and read what I discussed if you didn't. There was a post made by the man who posted the picture and this is his response to all the chaos that has been stirred up by the picture, "Ok results are in for the Flip The Bird Social Experiment .
After the posting of a mildly offensive yet nothing compared to some , pic of Jesus flipping the bird and a we'll kill him again text . These are the results 16500 comments 3800. Likes 400. Friend Requests ... Over 3000 death threats . At least 10,000 Burn In Hell threats . Which brings us to the conclusion that Fundamental Christians are no different then Radical Islamics . Both will threaten death and promote violence and hatred to anyone that jokes about their imaginary friend .

Hang your heads Christians . You deserve to feel ashamed "

Whether his research is valid or not, I think the point is made clear here. The amount of hate and judgment that this guy received is ridiculous. But, Christians are human too and I believe many of the death threats and comments were a knee jerk, human, response. Peter did the same thing John 18:1-10 "After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron Valley with his disciples and entered a grove of olive trees.  Judas, the betrayer, knew this place, because Jesus had often gone there with his disciples.  The leading priests and Pharisees had given Judas a contingent of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to accompany him. Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove.

 Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.
 “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied.
   “I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.)  As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground!  Once more he asked them,“Who are you looking for?”
   And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.”
  “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.”  He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”

  Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave."

Peter's first reaction to stand up for Jesus was with slashing off the right ear of the high priest's slave. Even though his intentions were to show his love and compassion for Jesus, Jesus gracefully responded with “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” Jesus knew what was to follow and I believe he didn't want violence to be the answer. 

As Christians, we have no right and ZERO responsibility to judge non believers. In 1 Cor. 5:9-13, Paul writes, "When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, 'You must remove the evil person from among you.'"

Instead we are called to love, Romans 12:9-10 "Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other."

This whole thing has reminded me that we need to be careful in how we react to offensive behaviors, words, or actions of those of non-believers. Our knee jerk reaction is to fight because we want to stand up for Christ, but he's telling us to make our knee jerk reaction to be love, because that's what he's all about.

Also, we need not take offense when people don't understand what we believe. It says in 2 Corinthian 3:12-15 "Since this new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.  We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away.But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand."

Therefore, I believe it's our responsibility to love and wait patiently for the Lord.