“Judgmentalism”
“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” (Romans 2:1, English Standard Version)
“You spot it, you got it.” (Twelve-step saying.)
In the verse from Romans that starts off this post, Paul is continuing a thought that he had begun in the preceding chapter. There, he had begun to speak of the stunning love and grace of God, but Paul begins his discussion of God’s love and grace with a list of the sins that God’s love and grace have to deal with. It’s not a pretty list.
When a person gets to the end of that list, he/she might be inclined to say, “Boy, I’m sure glad that I am not like that!” If so, Paul immediately pulls the rug out from under us by saying, point-blank, that when you judge others, you judge yourself.
Now, here is my problem: Judgmental people are the worst, in my opinion. I really believe that people who are judgmental are destined to live forever in the downtown heart of hell.
See what I did there? I just pulled the rug out from under myself! I like to think of myself as a very non-judgmental person. Why then do judgmental people bother me so much? Because I’m a judgmental person, of course.
In fact, there are a lot of other sins that I judge. Am I enmeshed in them too? Yep!
I read an interesting saying in a 12-step book this morning. “You spot it, you got it.” The fact that I am so good at spotting the character defects of others means that I have a massive amount of work to do.
How about you, valued reader?
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