Have you ever heard someone say "God is loving but he is also a judge?" I know I have many times, and to be honest, it presents a real issue at hand.
First of all, it seems very dualistic—as if love and judge are two polar opposite sides of his nature. Furthermore, we find ourselves having to try and balance out these said (positive and negative) attributes, like weights on a scale. And last time I checked, there is no negative (no darkness or shadow of turning) in the heart of my Father. In other words, there should be no balancing act (of good and evil) concerning our God, but only the continual unveiling of his goodness!
I would suggest there is a more healthy, non-dualistic way of looking at this concept of love and judgment. Perhaps instead of saying God is a judge who loves, I suggest that God is (fundamentally) love, who (in expression of love) judges anything that seeks to distort love and hinder our relationship with Father, Son and Spirit.
Is God a judge? I think not, at least in the sense that he is judge at the core.
Does God judge? Absolutely. Judging is an extension (expression) of his love (who he is in essence).
GOD IS LOVE
Remember, God IS first and foremost love (1 John 4:8), therefore God is relational. In other words, he doesn’t simply love (as an act), he is the very essence and fabric of all that love is. He defines love; love does not define him. Therefore, being love in the highest and holiest way, he relates, moves, acts—and judges—from the basis of love and relationship.
However, God does not judge like us. He is higher, holy and unlike any other in his judgments. You see, for many—at least in the west—we’ve inherited a judge God of the western courtroom. We’ve imagined God sitting on an isolated, lofty throne, and worst of all, utterly unapproachable. Sadly, because of this, we imagine this god to be somewhat fickle and alone; utterly absent from our day-to-day lives. This perspective has skewed our vision of God as a Father who’s wholeheartedly involved in our lives—willfully meeting us in every season of the soul.
However, this is not the Father revealed in Jesus!
To say God is “holy,” is to say that God is unlike any other, especially in the sense that he is LOVE. In other words, the way he nurtures, cares for, and watches over his beloved is simply out of this world. What we’re not saying when we declare him holy is that he is separate from us, as if he’s unable to meet us in our darkness and delusion. Christ’ incarnation—the very reality that he came to us in our lost-ness—proves the sense of separation to be utterly wrong.
GOD IS RELATIONAL
The Abba revealed in Jesus is relational and involved. He is with us and in us, and knows no other way to be. This is why Christ continually declared his oneness and our oneness with the Father (John 14:20). This means that, as a Father fully-involved, he is committed to bringing us into full maturity of (receiving and giving) love. If that means he has to meet us on the road of our delusion—discerning and judging whatever may be hindering us from knowing him and being known by him—he will do so. He loves us too much to idly stand by and watch sin have its way in us.
Although God does judge, he’s does so from the basis of who he is in essence as love. In other words, he judges from the basis of relationship as fundamentally being a Father. This is why the writer of Hebrews says he relates to us as “sons,” and that he disciplines those he loves (see Hebrews 12:5-7). This is one of the reasons why the revelation of Abba Father—he who cares for, protects and provides for his children—certainly dominated Jesus’ conversation and his teachings. The Son didn’t want us to miss the relational, sharing nature of the Father who longs to know his children and see us fully alive in his love!
In fact, to say God does not judge would be to miss a most-powerful aspect of the love of God, not to mention it would contradict the ministry of Holy Spirit who reveals the truth concerning righteousness, sin and—you guessed it—judgment (John 16:8).
HEALING AND WHOLENESS
If you’ve ever been to a counselor, you understand the need for judgment. In fact, much of the journey of counseling is identifying traumatic events known as triggers. Once the counselor identifies those places, they’re able to lead the patient into the process of healing and wholeness. However, this would not be possible without the ability to discern and judge the situation at hand.
Likewise, when you visit your physician seeking help for an ailment, they will spend a considerable amount of time identifying the issue at hand. They’ll ask questions and run tests in hopes of finding what’s causing the ailment in your body. This is their way of discerning and judging your body. However, both said professions’ method of identifying (discerning and judging) the issue is for the end goal of uprooting the cause in order to bring healing and wholeness.
You see, Christ—the exact image of the Father—is the Great Physician. Isaiah would also call him the “Wonderful Counselor” (see Isaiah 9:6-7). Although the prophet doesn’t come out and call him “judge,” it’d be safe to say that Christ would set the standard of how counselors and physicians (or any professions for that matter) should operate.
And this is why it’s important to see God who judges—he always judges in order to heal you and bring you into manifest wholeness. For this reason, God’s judgments are positive, not negative. They’re always for restoration, and never retribution. In other words, we don’t have to dread hearing the “God judges” thing, for we know that it’s a beautiful thing to have a Father right there in the middle, fighting for our full freedom. Remember, just as a doctor or counselor has to discern and judge your mind and body, ultimately their aim is to heal you and make you better, not to punish you in order to prove their point. The tools of both said specialists is to aid you in finding what’s eating at your body and your soul, that they may ultimately uproot and destroy it.
In other words, it would be unthinkable to imagine that the Father just stands by and lets sin run its course in our lives. It’d be the same if I saw my son or daughter holding a grenade and not judging the situation. You better believe that, in love, I would most definitely judge the situation, take action, and do my best to remove it from their presence. Why? Because I love them…I am for them!
“As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?” Matthew 7:11 (The Message)
“If you trust God you will run to him with open arms and you will say ‘judge me to the core and burn out of me everything that keeps me from being fully human and fully alive.’” -Paul Young (quoting from George MacDonald’s ‘Unspoken Sermons’)
By Robby Atwood (Senior Director at One27 House of Prayer in Somerset, KY)