If someone is relatively reflective about themselves, a great many experiences can lead to prayer and repentance. Since none of us is perfect, and because we all err often, the need to remain in an attitude of humility, showing mercy to others because of our awareness that we need mercy ourselves, is ever present. It somewhat saddens me that I do not tend to see humility or reflection being greatly prevalent in these times given the frequency of events that should be expected to prompt reflection (natural disasters, economic turmoil). Speaking for myself, I do not always know how to get out of the messes I am in, but I’m generally willing to accept proper levels of responsibility for my small role in our social malaise.

I view the subject of judgment not only as a matter of personal but also of institutional and national importance. How does one distinguish between being judged for one’s own faults and being judged for righteousness’ sake. Often there is a little bit of both, which would suggest that the two aspects are extreme polls and that justice is not one or the other but often somewhere in the middle. We must also deeply examine the response of people to judgment and determine their attitudes as best as we can from their behavior. In order to do this I would like to briefly examine both examples of institutional and societal judgment, so that we may draw useful comparisons from what can be known.

I can think of at least two analogous cases of ministers I have known personally who have received judgment for unchristian behavior of a delicate nature. So far, at least, the differences in the response between the two has been profound. One of the ministers, who was removed for cause, immediately left and started his own organization. This particular organization has specialized in doctrines that were rather bluntly and harshly stated, seemingly without a great deal of mercy, despite the fact that the person who started the organization completely failed to meet one of the ten commandments in its most basic and blunt forms. This suggests the existence of several related problems. It is often natural to justify our own behavior when we fall short of the moral standard of the Bible rather than to accept its verdict. When we cannot deny the sin, there is often an unwillingness to accept the authority that someone else has in punishing that sin. Additionally, we may often find ourselves to be immensely strict and severe in some aspects of our judgment to balance out our immense moral failings in other aspects of life, in the gnostic belief that ascetic and rigid adherence to part of a standard can outbalance a clear failing to meet another part of the standard.

The other minister, whose sin is not yet known, has chosen a different tack of accepting what is likely to have been a just judgment for a serious sin that was covered up for many years. This minister has long sought to show mercy to those who are often treated immensely harshly, and I suspect that he will be better able to obtain mercy because he has shown it to others. His behavior thus far has indicated his own repentance, even if there are a great many sins that people will refuse to confess to others (much less publicly) because of their own awareness of the lack of mercy many other people have, even those who call themselves Christians, in this present evil world. God knows we all have enough to confess. Each society and generation has sins that they overlook because they are so common, and other sins that they punish too harshly. The same is true of each person and each institution. It is a heavy struggle to discipline ourselves enough to hold ourselves and others accountable to the whole standard of God’s ways, in balance, with mercy but with justice. To even approach this standard is exceedingly rare.

Why is it common for institutions to cover up their sins? For one, we all cover up our sins because we believe (probably correctly) that a confession of sin will lead others to disregard our message because of our lack of credibility in preaching a righteousness that we do not practice. One of the reasons the biblical standards for righteousness in leadership is so stringent is because a leader needs to have credibility, and that credibility can only come from a pattern of godly conduct far greater than is normally present. Given that we are all imperfect, we will all have something to confess, but we should at least be free from grossly immoral conduct, though for whatever reasons leaders of institutions often find it difficult to avoid using their power of position to gratify their lusts, whatever they may be. None of us are immune from these temptations, but they appear to be an especially common way of discrediting otherwise very talented people as moral exemplars for others.

When it comes to dealing judgment to individuals, we all have to remain aware of the way in which we all fall short of others. No doctrine or law of God is alone as being a test. All of them are tests. If our weakness is in honoring and respecting authority figures, that commandment can be a test (it is for me). Perhaps our weakness is in respecting property, or being honest with others, or keeping our desires in check, or honoring God’s Sabbath, or keeping our language clean. If so, then these are tests. God is not looking to give us hundreds of difficult tests and find any excuse to fail us, but rather has given us laws that reflect His own righteous character and that demonstrate what proper honor and respect for Him and outgoing love and concern for others looks like, both in doing what is loving towards others and avoiding doing what is deeply hurtful. We could all stand to do much better in this regard.

And it is our failures as individuals and as leaders within families, communities, congregations, and institutions (like churches and businesses) to obey all of God’s standards that leads to judgment on societies as a whole. Before any of us can be a good example for others in our lives, we must be forgiven by God for our sins and restored to a state of innocence through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we must have the indwelling presence of God within us, and then that regeneration will proceed outward from ourselves through our families and communities and institutions until we are a model of God’s ways for the outside world. Credit for this belongs to God and not ourselves, for we cannot remotely approach achieving the righteous standard of God’s laws without His help. We all ought to be sensitive enough and reflective enough to understand this.

When I look at the state of my nation and my civilization, I am gravely concerned. I look at our problems of debt, of rampant greed and lust and exploitation of others (and exploitation of the Creation that we have been set over as stewards), and I see we fall very short of God’s standards individually and collectively. We could see hurricanes and droughts and earthquakes and depressions as signs of God’s displeasure with our many and flagrant sins, and we could repent to God, seek to restore our relationships with others whom we have wronged, fasting in national and personal days of humiliation (as was done in less rebellious times). But this sort of behavior is very uncommon. Far more common is a haughty and dismissive sneer that any disasters are judgment from God, and that we are immune from the consequences of problems that have destroyed civilizations and empires for many millennia. We are not any more immune to the problems of debt, inflation, crumbling infrastructure, growing apathy toward public servants, and exploitation of people and land than the Roman empire or any other failed state. While we remain alive we have the chance to turn around and to change our ways. But metanoia is not the word of the day. And that is our problem, one we will have to all answer for.

And if we must face judgment and punishment as people, whether for our own personal sins, for the sins of our flawed and corrupt institutions, or for our rebellious and ungodly societies, let us pray to God that our chastening will be in measure. Let us pray that we do not harden our hearts against the judgment that we deserve, that we do not despair when we are punished more harshly than we deserve, and that we remain merciful and loving toward others. If we are fortunate, perhaps we may be corrected with a little bit of chastening, rather than require harsh judgment. And let us all set a better example of love and mercy for others, of just and fair dealings, and of obedience to God’s moral standards in all of our conversation and conduct. We may always have room to improve, but our current behavior is simply not acceptable. That is why we are being chastened in the first place.