Unconditional Love and the Paradox of Judgment

Part 1

One of the major issues for people is how to reconcile the idea of judgment with the unconditional love of God. Without reconciling this concept, many are left confused about Reality, the nature of God, and how to be empowered in the world we live in. One way this confusion manifests is their understanding of God as they read scriptures. 

The question we must ask is, “What are we seeing?”

It can be difficult to reconcile seemingly contradictory readings of scripture, especially when we have so many people living and saying different things. In the scriptures themselves we have places where God seems to judge and other places God seems to teach us to not judge.

For example…

Jesus said he did not come to judge the world but to save it, while also instructing people to not judge. (Matt 7:1-2, John 12:47)

But in another place he says,

“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see and those who think they see may become blind.” - John 9:39

A key for us will be to judge the difference between judgment and judgment. 

You read that right.

Judgment, in terms of making decisions and choosing a better way than another, is something we do every day. This common understanding of judgment manifests itself in learning to not touch a hot stove, or not stepping in a hole as to not break a leg, or learning to discern what is actually good for us and another.

Judgment in this sense is basic decision making to choose a better way than the natural consequences that might arise if choosing a harmful way. This is not the kind of judgment God is telling us to not judge with. Basic judgment keeps us alive a lot longer in this world and protects us from destructive situations.

The judgement God tells us to not judge with is to judge another person as if they could somehow and at some point, no longer be worthy to be loved by God or even that they deserve to be killed.

To make that judgment is to begin a process of destruction in you that can greatly impact others. It is to begin to live in non-reality and to develop a faulty lens through which you see God, another, and the world. Regardless of someone's behavior, God loves and will never stop or fail at loving them, or you.

It is important to note that when we judge someone’s behavior as if we can make a final determination of why they are behaving that way, we enter into a kind of pride that wreaks havoc on the soul. No matter how powerful you feel in thinking you know, that power is a dark power that thrives on righteousness. Self-righteousness. It thrives on a limited knowledge mistaken for the whole.

This is especially true when we understand basic judgement. For example: I can partly know why ______  is an alcoholic and angry because their father was abusive, an alcoholic, and angry. It makes some sense why ______ causes destruction and lashes out harming others. Here I can have empathy because I understand the behavior is not all their fault. Yes, they can learn to overcome it, but I understand the difference environmental conditions can create. I would become especially distanced from Reality, should I judge this person as unworthy of Love because of the behavior.

To become “distanced to Reality” is the great human dilemma, especially when we avoid the painful parts that if we saw “through” we could find God still holding all of us firmly within pain AND on the other side.

It is around this point where some have an internal “but” alarm going off. Something like, “But what about the consequences for our actions? But what about evil people? Do you really think God loves them!” That internal “but” is often tied to being conditioned by a world full of judgment, the very judgment God came to save us from.

This is where we can better understand Jesus saying:

“For judgment I came into the world…”

That’s right, Jesus came into the world because of judgment

Said another way: Jesus came into a world that had gone wrong, by our judgments, not God’s. A world that was not listening to God’s unconditional ways and therefore distant from living in our best Reality. A world that chooses to eat from a tree called judgment, or the knowledge of good and evil, as if it could know the judgment of God from a mere human perspective.

Our world then, often judges itself as God, as able to know ultimate reality by judging another as unworthy of love. This is the world of judgment Jesus came to save us from. Jesus knew the tension that we reap what we sow and so, we are invited to sow unconditional love like God does in order to break the cycle of conditional judgments that wreak havoc on earth.

Said another way: Jesus desires us to be in the world but not of it. (John 17:15-16) To be in the world as lights of unconditional love, yet not of the world of conditions and judgment. This means to not believe the world of conditions is the ultimate reality, for to do so would be to project faulty conditions onto God, ourselves, and others. These projections could see God as the type of judge that would, at some point, stop loving someone unconditionally because of the condition they were in.

This is exactly the kind of God many come to believe in and some will even use the scriptures where it seems to say God judges like they do, as proof God judges like they do. These are the kind that “think they see” as Jesus said, but are blind no matter how much scripture they think they know. They eat off the tree of judgment and believe they know what God is like and feel they have authority to judge another as unworthy.

They question by saying things like, “Did God really say… not to judge?”

So Jesus says,

“Do not judge, less you be judged with the same measure you judge.” (Matt 7:1-2)

Those who judge in unhealthy ways often project that judgment onto others, or God, to feel some sense of relief for the measure of judgment they live under. Yet that relief never lasts. This is the kind of judgment Jesus wants to save us from. This kind of judgment keeps us in the heavy bondage of conditional love and unforgiveness, usually towards ourselves.

I hope you are starting to see the difference between everyday judgments and ultimate judgement with what God is actually like. To live in the world and not of it is the invitation to become an unconditional human. It is to be like your perfect heavenly Father who loves you AND everyone else regardless. Jesus revealed this by saying God causes the sun and rain to fall on the good and evil alike, so you are invited to be like God and love those we might think unworthy, even our enemies. (Matt 5:44-45)

So our invitation to freedom is this:

If we think we see by thinking we can judge another as if God would stop loving them at any point, we are blind.

If we are blind because of all the ways the world conditioned us to not believe in unconditional love and God’s non-judgment, we can now see.

We can be in this world of conditions in union with the unconditional presence of God. We can learn and grow to live in the unconditional love of God that is forever freely given. This is good news!

In Part 2, we will explore the questions:

“If Jesus told us to not judge, why did he seem so harsh with some religious leaders? Was he not judging them?”

“What about the scriptures that appear to show God judging cities or nations?”

That first question will be very important because people who claim to speak for God but lead others to become blind to God’s nature end up double blinding people from Reality! This makes it much harder for people to see because there are two layers of blindness that need to be removed. Ah, but when you see, it is stunning freedom!

But back to you as we will unpack that next time. You are so important in THIS moment. So let’s end with a practice.

When you are able, take some uninterrupted time to let God love you unconditionally apart from anything you or another does, or has done. This could be a few seconds or a few minutes or hours, it's up to you, but practice it often. If that feels good for you, take the goodness of unconditional love and use it towards someone else, especially someone difficult to love. See how Love opens you up and frees you from judgment!

Some suggestions to assist in allowing yourself to be loved unconditionally are unplugging from technology and walking in nature. Walk with no hurry or no place to get to. Another option is to find a quiet place and sit upright. Just be there. Your mind may try to take you somewhere else, so if your mind keeps talking, then just repeat out loud, “I am here to be loved unconditionally. God here I am, how do you want to love me?” Then wait and repeat if necessary. 

What will eventually emerge in simple practices like these is God’s unconditional presence that is always there but often covered by distractions and conditions that blinded us to the unconditional presence that sustains us. The Unconditional Presence that emerges in these Practices teach us to be in the world but not of it.

In this presence, we become blind to our judgments as we see through the light of unconditional love.

In Love,

Preston Hall