Friday-Judgement

For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

1 Peter 4:17

This is one of those words that we have problems with. Judgement just sounds so final. It doesn’t seem to leave room for forgiveness or restoration. Judgement comes and then that’s it. Period.

Just this morning I passed a local police car parked in front of our house. It’s a great spot to watch an intersection with a four-way stop sign. Waving and saying hello to the officer, they waved back and said that they’d already given out four tickets to people who didn’t stop. Now, that’s judgement.

It’s one thing when there’s a judgement on a TV show and the bad guy gets what they deserve. We’ve seen all the evil they’ve done, and the good guys always catch up to them after three sets of commercials. This leaves just enough time for one final scene that tells us that everything’s ok.

And then there’s those great big cases in the courts where the media is all over them. It seems like there’s some update every day. Lots of people are talking about it, trying to figure out if they’re guilty or not. No matter how cut and dry the case may be, it seems like these trials go on forever and forever. If they are found guilty, it feels like no one is happy with the punishment either.

But it’s something entirely different when the idea of judgement comes to us personally. When a person we know is arrested and faces judgement. For the people that I’ve known who have walked this path, I just can’t seem to understand what they did or why. I never saw this side of them. But as the facts and judgement come out, it just shocks me.

I have two friends whose lives have been torn apart through judgements resulting from gambling. If you’d ask me before all this started, I would have told you that there was no way anything like this could happen. They had successful families and careers. But somehow, they started driving to a casino and they got in too deep. The judgement on each one and their families were devastating. One lost their marriage. The other one lost their business.

So, what is judgement? It’s more than just doing something wrong. For judgement to be judgement, it needs to be known by someone else and there’s a price to be paid Judgement always, always, always has more than just one person and there has to be punishment.

But judgement is part of this broken world. And Peter says something that people inside the church really don’t like to hear. He’s telling his readers and us two important and painful truths that we better get ready for.

• It’s time for judgment to begin. Not some other time way out in the future. Not something to look avoid down the line. It had already started while they were reading these words. And there’s nothing they could do to stop it. Judgement is starting as Peter’s writing these words.

• It starts with God’s household. Everything has to start someplace. There’s always the first time for everything. Whether it’s cooking a meal or going someplace, there’s always a time that we’ve never done it before, and then afterwards when we’ve done it.

Wait a minute. Judgement is one thing. Yes, we want all the evil people to get what’s coming to them. They deserve it. They’ve hurt so many people that they should be first in line to be judged. Found guilty. And punished. But Peter tells us the truth that stings us so badly.

The first people that God’s judging will be his people. As unfair as we might think this is, God will start inside his very own people first. He’s not going to reach out and judge the neighbors first, but the people who live inside his household.

But the people of God’s household don’t deserve judgement. Do they? After all, Jesus died for all our sins[1]. His one-time sacrifice on the cross paid for all our words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes[2]. He took our judgement on himself[3]. So, what’s this judgement thing all about on God’s household.

This is not eternal judgement but something that’s going to purify our lives. Even through our eternal destiny is secure, we’re still messing up here in this life. And God has something more, something better than just letting us mess up while we’re here on planet Earth. God’s great and glorious plan is for you and me to be conformed to the image of his son[4]. And that starts right here and now. This life isn’t for our enjoyment and happiness, it’s to glorify God and be a light to the people around us. It’s time to start coopering with God’s judgement so that we start looking and living more and more like Jesus.

Noodling Questions

• Why is judgement such a negative term?

• How has judgement changed the course of your life?

• What’s stopping us from coopering with God’s judgement in our lives?

[1] 1 John 2:2

[2] Romans 8:1

[3] Isaiah 53:4-6

[4] Romans 8:29