Ask a group of non-church-going people their opinion of church people and one of the common answers will be that we are judgmental and hypocritical. Whether the description is accurate or merely perceived from individual to individual, there’s no doubt that both judgmentalism and hypocrisy exist in the body of Christ on some level. And neither should exist at all.
On that issue, I want to address three individuals or groups:
1. To Jesus-followers who make up today’s body of Christ (the church): My brothers and
sisters, if we are honest with ourselves, we all know we have failed in this. How can we
expect to influence people toward Jesus if we aren’t allowing Him to influence us? Why
do we judge those outside the body when we live even less Godly lives, ourselves? Any
righteous and productive judgment must begin with each one of us judging ourselves by
the standard of God’s Word. Then maybe we’ll be in a condition for God to use us the
way He wants to, as reflections of His light.
2. To Jesus: Lord, we confess with sorrow that the very sins you addressed most directly as
You established Your church we are still committing, despite the reality that You now
live in us. We have no excuse; we have Your teaching in the New Testament and Your
Spirit dwelling in our hearts constantly directing us away from those sins and into grace-
thinking toward other people. The complaints of the world haven’t gotten our attention,
nor have the tears of those we’ve hurt.
In the same breath, we both request and receive the forgiveness You make available by
Your abundant grace. We also request help from our Helper; Your help has been in play
for us, but because of our extreme weakness, we ask that You help us even more with
our relatively tiny role of cooperating with the leading of Your Spirit.
3. To onlookers who haven’t yet joined the body of Christ: Two things I want to say to you.
First, we’re sorry for any way you’ve been mistreated by the church. We misrepresented
Jesus in every occurrence that lacked love and kindness on our part. Nevertheless,
please don’t judge who Jesus is by our poor behavior. He’s given us both strength to
walk well and forgiveness when we don’t. So while we’re forgiven and refuse to walk in
the guilt that He’s removed with His own sacrifice, we will endeavor to treat you with
more kindness going forward.
Additionally, please allow me the boldness to say that since you aren’t perfect either,
and stand in need of forgiveness for your own shortcomings, please prayerfully consider
joining us in faith in Jesus. As I stated, we have both strength by His Spirit to live in the right way, and His forgiveness when we come up short. That’s an incomprehensible
double blessing and is what everyone needs more than anything. So please allow Jesus
to make Himself real to you and be ready to trust Him with your eternal future when He
does. And when you come into the body of Christ by faith in Jesus, please don’t be judgmental or hypocritical.
