"In the same way you judge, you shall be judged"
People often ask "how will God judge us?". The notion is that there is a Cosmic Rulebook by which we will pass or fail the ultimate exams. Moreover, the Proffessor is like the one presented in Pink Floyd's "The Wall", a malevolent creature bent on humiliating his subjects and wallowing in their failure. God is, for most people, the ultimate expression of Authority in its strictly political sense.
There are many factors that contribute to that notion. Historical factors, like the actual political power of the church over the centuries. The attempt to break away from that political structure led to morality as the new foundation of the protestant church. But morality is a loose concept whereas God is Eternal. By trying to create something new, we went back to the old, the Law of the Old Testament packaged with a different name. Thus, most christians became puritans, far removed from the Love of God. What Paul struggled to tear down, we built back up. It's no surprise either. We feel safer with a strict God although that sounds like an oxymoron.. A strict God we understand. But a God that is Love and Forgiveness is completly alien to us.
It is within our human nature to be subservient but in truth Christ never demands that of us. We fail to understand the spirit of freedom to which we are called because it is in fact known in the Spirit, by experience rather than study. "Gotta serve somebody" wrote Bob Dylan as an ode to God but the truth is that although we call Him a Lord and Master it is not uncommon in the orthodox tradition to find such characterizations as ''my Life", "my sweet Lord", "my Love" - not quiet the words used to describe a figure of authority. It is said that there is no Judgement for those who love God and how could there be? Judgement is synonymous with fear and "perfect love casts away fear".
No one seems to attain perfect love though. In the words of St. Silouanos of Athos "if there is within us even a shadow of dislike for someone, our salvation is not certain". Though that Holy and Great man had none, it is safe to assume that there is plenty of dislike within us for many people. Myself, I confess to hatred for some. Hatred breeds guilt and guilt breeds fear. Even the souls with the lowest modicum of consience feel the absence of love from their souls.People who are capable of love even more. And people who have known the Love of God and have lost it truly suffer for it. It is possible - even for the third category - to project our fear and our despair to the Creator and resent Him and His Judgement. It is only natural, for if fear is born out of a sense of upcoming loss, what terrible fear should the loss of our soul (in essence our very identity) bring? But that is not the actual judgement; God does not return our resentment. You could say it's just one more wound in His Body and we all know how he responded to that. He willingly gave His Body to BE wounded.
Wheras the sense of our fear is acceptable and can be transformed for good, there is something that is definately not. Taking God's place or, in other words, passing judgement ourselves. Like we said above, we understand a strict God but furthermore that notion allows us to be strict ourselves. Never ones to sacrifice ourselves we instead condemn every person who doesn't hold our high standards. Christians often justify this behavior referring back to Paul. But Paul was only strict with members of the newly formed - and thus very sensitive and immature - christian community and not with those outside. Even so his strictness was balanced by his tenderness to the fallen, his forgiveness and his wisdom. In the fist Corinthians he asks with harsh words that the man who bedded his stepmother be removed from their church but in the second letter he asks the Corinthians to treat him with love and accept him back so that he is not broken. We are mistaken in considering our church more mature but it is not a matter of passage of time. After 2,000 years we are mostly still infants drinking milk, not yet capable of solid food.
"I judge no one. The Word I have spoken shall be the judge of you". Ultimately, the Word of God is not a seperate entity from the Son of God but they are one and the same. And He is not just the truth, He is the very concept of reality. To deny Him is then nothing less than to deny reality. How would that even be possible? It isn't of course. Reality, as someone said, is the thing that keeps existing even after we stop believing in it.It simply "is".The words of Revelation at the burning bush are simply "I Am". Modern age though is all about the subjectivity of truth and even Good or Bad. That would require of man to be a Creator. It even doesn't take into consideration the one universal objective truth: Death. Still, we justify everything with the term "subjective" which in turn leads to another extreme....
The absolute absence of judgement! We said that this is what we strive to, so why is it a bad thing? Firstly, because we should avoid judging others but never judging ourselves. Secodly, the absence of judgement should be based on compassion, love and forgiveness. What is the norm today is a total lack of a notion of good and evil. If you want to do it and if you can do it, then do it.The "anything goes" mentality. I'm not implying of course that people are evil. Just that the road we take is an extremly dangerous, like getting ourselves used to little doses of poison every day and finally our system is full of it. But the distinction between a moral man and a christian is a discussion for another day...
The end of the movie "Stalker" finds the protagonist pondering to himself about human nature. "That which is hard breaks easily. Only tender things can bend and adjust and thus survive". A gentle soul seems fragile but it's the hardend, rigid souls that break easily. We have been given the ultimate way to test ouresves - and never others - before the eyes of God. The love we have for our enemies. No moral code, no subjectivity, no philosophy is greater than that. Pray for me, the least, so I can love my enemies too.
People often ask "how will God judge us?". The notion is that there is a Cosmic Rulebook by which we will pass or fail the ultimate exams. Moreover, the Proffessor is like the one presented in Pink Floyd's "The Wall", a malevolent creature bent on humiliating his subjects and wallowing in their failure. God is, for most people, the ultimate expression of Authority in its strictly political sense.
There are many factors that contribute to that notion. Historical factors, like the actual political power of the church over the centuries. The attempt to break away from that political structure led to morality as the new foundation of the protestant church. But morality is a loose concept whereas God is Eternal. By trying to create something new, we went back to the old, the Law of the Old Testament packaged with a different name. Thus, most christians became puritans, far removed from the Love of God. What Paul struggled to tear down, we built back up. It's no surprise either. We feel safer with a strict God although that sounds like an oxymoron.. A strict God we understand. But a God that is Love and Forgiveness is completly alien to us.
It is within our human nature to be subservient but in truth Christ never demands that of us. We fail to understand the spirit of freedom to which we are called because it is in fact known in the Spirit, by experience rather than study. "Gotta serve somebody" wrote Bob Dylan as an ode to God but the truth is that although we call Him a Lord and Master it is not uncommon in the orthodox tradition to find such characterizations as ''my Life", "my sweet Lord", "my Love" - not quiet the words used to describe a figure of authority. It is said that there is no Judgement for those who love God and how could there be? Judgement is synonymous with fear and "perfect love casts away fear".
No one seems to attain perfect love though. In the words of St. Silouanos of Athos "if there is within us even a shadow of dislike for someone, our salvation is not certain". Though that Holy and Great man had none, it is safe to assume that there is plenty of dislike within us for many people. Myself, I confess to hatred for some. Hatred breeds guilt and guilt breeds fear. Even the souls with the lowest modicum of consience feel the absence of love from their souls.People who are capable of love even more. And people who have known the Love of God and have lost it truly suffer for it. It is possible - even for the third category - to project our fear and our despair to the Creator and resent Him and His Judgement. It is only natural, for if fear is born out of a sense of upcoming loss, what terrible fear should the loss of our soul (in essence our very identity) bring? But that is not the actual judgement; God does not return our resentment. You could say it's just one more wound in His Body and we all know how he responded to that. He willingly gave His Body to BE wounded.
Wheras the sense of our fear is acceptable and can be transformed for good, there is something that is definately not. Taking God's place or, in other words, passing judgement ourselves. Like we said above, we understand a strict God but furthermore that notion allows us to be strict ourselves. Never ones to sacrifice ourselves we instead condemn every person who doesn't hold our high standards. Christians often justify this behavior referring back to Paul. But Paul was only strict with members of the newly formed - and thus very sensitive and immature - christian community and not with those outside. Even so his strictness was balanced by his tenderness to the fallen, his forgiveness and his wisdom. In the fist Corinthians he asks with harsh words that the man who bedded his stepmother be removed from their church but in the second letter he asks the Corinthians to treat him with love and accept him back so that he is not broken. We are mistaken in considering our church more mature but it is not a matter of passage of time. After 2,000 years we are mostly still infants drinking milk, not yet capable of solid food.
"I judge no one. The Word I have spoken shall be the judge of you". Ultimately, the Word of God is not a seperate entity from the Son of God but they are one and the same. And He is not just the truth, He is the very concept of reality. To deny Him is then nothing less than to deny reality. How would that even be possible? It isn't of course. Reality, as someone said, is the thing that keeps existing even after we stop believing in it.It simply "is".The words of Revelation at the burning bush are simply "I Am". Modern age though is all about the subjectivity of truth and even Good or Bad. That would require of man to be a Creator. It even doesn't take into consideration the one universal objective truth: Death. Still, we justify everything with the term "subjective" which in turn leads to another extreme....
The absolute absence of judgement! We said that this is what we strive to, so why is it a bad thing? Firstly, because we should avoid judging others but never judging ourselves. Secodly, the absence of judgement should be based on compassion, love and forgiveness. What is the norm today is a total lack of a notion of good and evil. If you want to do it and if you can do it, then do it.The "anything goes" mentality. I'm not implying of course that people are evil. Just that the road we take is an extremly dangerous, like getting ourselves used to little doses of poison every day and finally our system is full of it. But the distinction between a moral man and a christian is a discussion for another day...
The end of the movie "Stalker" finds the protagonist pondering to himself about human nature. "That which is hard breaks easily. Only tender things can bend and adjust and thus survive". A gentle soul seems fragile but it's the hardend, rigid souls that break easily. We have been given the ultimate way to test ouresves - and never others - before the eyes of God. The love we have for our enemies. No moral code, no subjectivity, no philosophy is greater than that. Pray for me, the least, so I can love my enemies too.
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