do not judge | scot mcknight
Because our society has elevated tolerance to the highest of virtues, our society remains confused about what "love" means. Christians are not called to tolerance; Christians are called to love. Tolerance condescends; love honors.
But for many, love-as-toleration implies not exercising moral judgment about another's choices and actions. We all hear about Christian love a plenty—and what we hear is that Jesus says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." Thus, they infer, Jesus teaches love that means we are not to make moral judgments about others. Eau contraire: Jesus' love is always moral, because love is always sacred. Love is the human response to others in light of the Abba's sacred love and our scared love for Abba.
~ Scot McKnight (www.jesuscreed.org); The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others
I can't agree more strongly with this, yet I've found that it's counter-cultural nature makes it difficult. The post-modern emotional reaction to moral discernment is defensiveness at best, and more likely complete marginalization.
