Judgy: tending to judge or criticize too quickly and harshly; judgmental
Bastard: an illegitimate child
#@%$: Where you see this in the following article, insert your level of profanity that you are comfortable with. For my Christian friends let me help you. You might want to stick to safe and justifiable words like darn, hoot, heck, or dang. To my non-Christian friends, you do not need my help with this, let er rip.
Words like judgy and bastard have the potential to fuel the fire of offense in the lives of some. Let me remind you though that offense is a choice; always has been and always will be. No matter how anyone acts or speaks towards you, they cannot offend you. We choose to be offended. As you journey through and read these words, please stay unoffended. Ask Holy Spirit for grace and peace. With every book, blog, article or post we read; may our goal be to find Jesus in it. What is HE saying? And more importantly, what is HE saying to you or me personally. This my friends, is “Judgy Bastards.”
Over the past year I have noticed an increase in interfamily (the body of Christ) judgment and it has taken me about the whole year to finally find language for what I was seeing and hearing. You may have heard of something called the “orphan spirit”. The orphan spirit for a long time has prevented Christians from really entering into true community and fellowship. A few characteristics of the Orphan spirit are: 1. It says I am not worthy and will never be worthy 2. It says I am always in a state of lack, never enough 3. It loves to keep our relationships shallow and fake, in order to protect the deepest part of our hearts from ever being hurt. This is not what I have been seeing this year though. The church has done a great job of entering into community and allowing a place for God’s kids to be open and honest with each other. Transparency really has become one of our greatest strengths in the Kingdom. All has been brought into the light; therefore, we can live in peace knowing that the enemy has nothing on us. What I have been seeing is something I would like refer to as the “Bastard Spirit”. A few Characteristics are: 1. It refuses to acknowledge all Christians as family; and denomination and theology are valued more than relationship 2. It is more concerned with being right than being love 3. It discredits moves of God as illegitimate because of a lack of experience (No desire to entertain what God is doing today, totally satisfied with what He did in the past based on personal interpretation).
“The orphan spirit says, “I have no Family”, compared to the Bastard Spirit that says, “You’re not my family”. Both are an attack on closeness and community.”
When we are young, we are taught to love everyone. Do not make fun of someone who looks different, dresses different, or talks different. At what point in our lives do we give ourselves permission to quit living like this? Did God tell you it is now ok to attack your brothers and sisters in Christ? To make fun of or accuse the brethren? (Last time I checked it was the Enemy who accuses the brethren (Rev. 12:10), so if you are the one accusing your brothers and sisters in Christ…?). But you say “my accusations are biblical!” I do not doubt that people can find a scripture and proof text the crap out of it to make it fit their personal theology.
Let us look at the road to personal theology:
1. You get saved and attend a church (awesome!)
2. That church has a pastor who preaches a certain way (has influence on how you read the scripture)
3. That Pastor went to a certain seminary or bible school (teaches a certain theology)
4. That school or seminary has a denominational tie (has theology and doctrine specific to their beliefs)
5. That denomination was started by somebody who thinks they are right about the bible and how they interpret it.
Whether this was your road to rightness (different than righteousness), or you learned how to interpret scripture from mom and dad at home, or chose to attend cemetery (I mean seminary, lighten up and have a laugh), all of us (myself included) have drawn some boundaries around what we believe. So, the question remains, “who’s right?” The division among God’s children comes from one place: personal theology and interpretation of scripture and one’s deeply rooted need to be right, which is the BASTARD SPIRIT.
“Judgy Bastard: A person who judges based on personal reasons before they ever have a face to face conversation with the accused. A person willing to attack the character of an individual before getting to know their story and thus declaring them illegitimate in God’s family.”
Social media has become a veil to hide behind for those who are willing to throw out an opinion based on personal interpretation and theology. I have read some comments about how so and so is of the devil…comments like these are shallower than a dry creek bed and have no place in the Kingdom. I have a brief news flash for those who have a theology degree from Facebook University. Outside of your circle nobody gives a #$@% what you think if it is not coated in love and grace. The “likes” come from within our like-minded circle, and we spend our precious time high-fiving each other over this comment or that response. This too, is the BASTARD SPIRIT.
Can we not be those people who base our opinions off of an article, blog, or post that we read online when we have no personal experience with the accused? There is a healthy way to have conversation, it’s called face to face. This is the same communication that the Father is seeking from us. HE is not content with you receiving your information about HIM from a third party. HE does not want you to make assumptions about HIS character before you have a conversation with HIM. Why would we not give HIS children the same chance? You may never get a chance to have a face to face conversation with those that you accuse online or in your gossip groups. For that I have one piece of advice. Shut the #$%@ up! I am not innocent and this might seem like I am attacking certain individuals, however, I am not. I am simply saying what so many want to say and resurrecting the principles we are taught as children, “If you don’t have anything nice (edifying, uplifting, encouraging) to say, shut the #$%@ up,” no wait, it’s “don’t say anything at all.”
Matthew 18:3 “Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable, and learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, you will never be able to enter in.” (Passion Translation)
You might be a Judgy Bastard if..
1. Your communication is not edifying to the body (the whole body)
2. People leave your presence worse than when they showed up
3. You murder kindness, grace, and love just to get your point across
4. You fear certain encounters because of theological and doctrinal differences
Every person we have ever judged is more loved by the Father than we can ever imagine and there is an army that fights for the accused (2 Kings 6:15-19). We might not always like it, but the reality is, we are FAMILY. It’s not about doctrine or theology, although there are some wild ones out there (this coming from a charismatic/Holy Ghost loving/Kingdom minded radical born again believer)! We do not challenge those differences with malice, we do it with love and grace, knowing that we are all Human and nobody has it completely right. So, don’t be the one who thinks that you do! Grace and Peace to you, the Saints of Christ. May the Holy Spirit not only guide your life, but your tongue as well, as we move forward, getting closer every day to a healthy and whole family.
Tyler