Voddie Baucham recently made
one a profound observation. Not one that
we were not aware of, but one that is succinct enough to put into clear terms
what we are experiencing. He said, “There
is a new John 3:16.
The old John 3:16
was John 3:16.
That was the verse that everyone knew, the verse that was familiar to all, the
verse that you saw plastered all over the place, the verse to which people
would point, the verse that even people who didn't know the Lord had somehow
committed to their memory. John 3:16
was ubiquitous. The new John 3:16 is Matthew 7:1.”
Now, Matthew 7:1 says, “Do
not judge, or you too will be judged.” 2
I often hear that verse
being thrown at Christians, and so I was keen to understand more of what Voddie
was saying. But first I wanted to reacquaint
myself with the passage. The context of that verse is the sermon on the
mount. That whole message (the sermon on
the mount) was about correction. From
the beatitudes, which are about correcting your attitude, to rightly
understanding your purpose, to rightly understanding the point of the law and
the interpretation of the law. From
correcting ingrained views of your enemy, to giving, to praying, fasting and
worry - it’s all about correcting our misunderstandings, including our
misunderstanding about judging.
So it’s ironic that today
this verse is so often misunderstood and misapplied as a mandate for Christians
to avoid the implications of discernment.
As Voddie says, “The shorthand for
this new John 3:16 is quite
simple: Don't judge me. That's
our attitude both inside and outside the church. In fact, we use this as a
baseline for establishing genuine love. Genuine love is a love that doesn't
judge. Genuine love is a love that receives me just as I am. If you are judging
me, you are not loving me.”
Does that ring true with
you? That if you want to be loving, you
must avoid any kind of statement that can be taken as negative (by the person
you are trying to love)? One eventually
gets to the point where you have to ask, ”Is it enough to love?”
To answer that I think we
need (or at least, I need) to look at how Jesus loved. So I did that. And as the initial verse was in Matthew, I
looked at how Matthew recorded Jesus loving people. Jesus being God, and God being love (1Jn 4:8),
that would be any time Jesus interacted with the general population.
In Matthew 4 we see the
first interactions of Jesus Christ with the people around Him, “From that
time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”[4] Now to call someone to repentance is to call
them to recognize their sin. That’s a
hard call. But to love someone is to first and foremost act for their restoration to
God. It isn’t to ignore their sin or
passively condone un-Christlike behavior.
The second thing we see
from how Jesus interacted with people is in the first part of v23, “Jesus
was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming
the gospel of the kingdom…”, and healing every kind of disease and every kind
of sickness among the people.”[5]
What we gather from that is
that to love someone is to teach them
about the Kingdom. The good news of
the Kingdom is that God is coming and we can be ready for His appearing
and the establishment of His rule. All
we need to do is change our ways and act in accordance with His rule, and our
sins will be taken care of by the sacrifice Jesus made. Praise the Lord! This is true love, that we rescue the
perishing!
And the whole world is
perishing, as it and all who life on it sit under His judgment. As Jude recorded, “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones
to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts
they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners
have spoken against him.” [6] And yet, because of the Good News, those who
obey the Gospel do not need to fear His judgment.
The third thing we learn
from how Jesus interacted with people is in the last part of v23, “and
healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.”[7]
From this we see that to love someone is to minister to them. To meet their urgent felt needs by exercising
our spiritual gifts. To do what only God
in us can do. That is love. That is what Jesus did.
It is not enough to merely
love. The whole world loves – in that
sense. The Beatles loved. The United Way loves. But love is more than just compassion! Compassion without restoration is not
love. Compassion without teaching about
the Kingdom is not love. Compassion
without exercising spiritual gifts to the benefit of others – well, that’s not
love either. Love must seek
restoration. Love must seek what God
seeks. Love must act the way God
acts.
[1] http://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/2013/january/passing-judgment.html
[2]The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996 (electronic ed.) (Mt 7:1). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[3] http://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/2013/january/passing-judgment.html
[4]The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996 (electronic ed.) (Mt 4:17). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[5]New American
Standard Bible: 1995 update. 1995 (Mt 4:23). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman
Foundation.
[6] The Holy Bible:
New International Version. 1996 (electronic ed.) (Jud 14–15). Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan.
[7] New American
Standard Bible: 1995 update. 1995 (Mt 4:23). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman
Foundation.
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