Followers of Jesus are supposed to be growing more like him: merciful, loving, gracious and forgiving. So why is it that the typical non-Christian thinks that Christians are on the whole judgemental, opinionated and obnoxious? How could we have fallen so seriously off the path created by Jesus that we have become the very people – the Pharisees – that he warned us about? In Matthew chapter 15 Jesus said about the Pharisees, “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”
The Pharisees were complaining that Jesus’s followers weren’t doing the ceremonial hand-washing ritual before meals. Jesus replied: “People aren’t polluted by what goes into their mouths. They’re polluted by what comes out of their mouths.” He was saying that his followers weren’t ingesting sewerage, but the Pharisees were talking sewerage. To make sure that no-one was left in doubt about his attitude towards judgemental people, Jesus told his disciples, “Every plant which my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be pulled out. Leave them alone. They are blind guides for blind people. If a blind person leads a blind person, both will fall into a ditch.”
Have you been falling in ditches lately? A lot of Christians must have been, if we are so widely known for our judgementalism. The Apostle Paul said, “What business do I have in judging people who are outside the church?” Unfortunately, it seems that many Christians today think they know better than Paul.