Judgment Versus Judging

 There is a difference between having good judgment and being  judgmental. 

Good judgment comes from knowing right and wrong, good and evil. Being judgmental is a form of elitism. Thinking you have all the answers and jumping to conclusions before hearing a person out or getting to know someone before you decide if they should be an aquaintance or an enemy is one of the least used 'Christian' attitudes in fundamentalist doctrine.

If I were going to say one thing about the IFB congregation, it would be that they have learned to be judgmental but they have forgotten good judgment . I've had more than one 'ice pick in the back' experience with my years as an IFB'er . If it hadn't been for the pastor's abusive ways, there is a good chance that I may have eventually left our church anyway. It was beginning to feel more like a prison than a church. Hearing how we had it over everybody else, how if we dress godly, do all the things that other IFB'ers do and lest we forget... put the woman in her place, shows just how little of God's word is really understood by these people. 

I am by no means a bible scholar or (spare me Lord) a theologian. Yes, I've had a lot of training. I've had a lot of elitist dogma pushed down my throat, but I know that after the brain-fog lifted and I started thinking for myself, I realized that what I was reading out of my old KJV was NOT what I was taught. The reason? I was taught to see things in a specific pattern and not by reading God's word line by line without all the static.

  Read this particular set of verses in the Bible, " I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (1 Timothy 2:1-6)

The words above do not sound like hate-speech! We are to pray, beg God for a peaceable life even for our oppressors. We are to pray for them and give thanks to God that we have the opportunity to do so! Who is the judge? The mediator between God and man....Christ Jesus! It's not hard to understand. How many people would the Lord save if they were accepting? ALL! 

How can we witness to the lost or be any kind of example, if all we do is call people names and say that it's what Jesus would do? How can a so-called street preacher yell and scream about how God hates this or that when we show no relationship with the Son? If God is love as the Bible quotes and we are to be part of His family, it is up to us to reflect that compassion, that earnest spirit of giving, forgiveness and meekness to those who have an interest. Not to those that don't want to listen. Those who don't want to listen are not our worry. WE ARE NOT THEIR JUDGES.

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Our duty is compassion. That word springs up many times, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Elitism has no place in a man or woman's heart if you want to be of service to God.  All it does is set one up for a great, big, FALL!