JUDGMENT

An excellent treatise on judgment by Raymond Sigrist:

Practical descriptive judgments and morally prescriptive judgments.

For some of us, sin and sinner are not spiritually useful words, terms which would imply that one can make a universally valid moral  judgment on someone's behavior.  Characterizing certain behavior as sin involves making a prescriptive moral judgment: It claims that someone can prescribe how you should and should not behave in order to be deemed a good person. The implication of such a judgment appears to be that there are good people and there are evil people (sinners).  This idea of sin, a prescriptive judgment, is not useful to me because it does not accurately report my experience.  Avoidance of prescriptive should-nots does not bring me spiritual deliverance.

An example of prescription and description is demonstrated in the Bible in John, Chapter 8. Note the nuanced use of sin, a word that appears twice:

1. But Jesus went to the mount of Olives.

2. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them.

3. And the scribes and the Pharisees bring to him a woman taken in adultery, and having set her in the midst,

4. They say to him, Teacher, this woman has been taken in the very act, committing adultery.

5. Now in the law Moses has commanded us to stone such; thou therefore, what sayest thou?

6. But this they said proving him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus, having stooped down, wrote with his finger on the ground.

7. But when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said to them, Let him that is without sin among you first cast the stone at her.

8. And again stooping down he wrote on the ground.

9. But they, having heard that, went out one by one beginning from the elder ones until the last; and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing there.

10. And Jesus, lifting himself up and seeing no one but the woman, said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee?

11. And she said, No one, sir. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (Darby Bible).

How exquisite! Jesus recognizes that if we look from a wide perspective, we find out that we all break rules, we are all similar, and we all hurt others by the ramifications of even our socially approved behavior.  We all do this deed that people call “sin.”  But he also recognizes the community and family need for social order, that is why he tells the woman to avoid in the future, what she did . The emphasis is social responsibility, not morality.

It might even be that if we knew the specific context and details of this case of adultery, we might  find  that the woman's behavior in itself might be considered ethically appropriate, even if unlawful.  And still she would better have avoided it for important practical purposes.

When we assign the word sin (or evil) to the behavior of others, the term  becomes a device for making a comparative “should judgment” and it conveniently  hinders us from taking  a clear look at the quality of our own behavior.  In Jesus' first use of the term sin in the above, (“Let him that is without sin...”), he is demonstrating the problem with making such prescriptive judgments.

On the other hand “unlawful” is an idea that can be useful as a practical (descriptive) judgment;  We can describe certain behaviors which unduly upset human society and the human mind.  Thus a society can legitimately decide that a behavior can be considered unlawful.

The society can legitimately put a person in jail for certain disruptive or harmful behavior (even though the perfectly legal behavior of the rest of us might often have far more damaging ramifications.)  We don't have to deem the law-breaker a sinner.  Descriptive judgment, used as a pragmatic tool, only claims to decide what practical assessment and action will be needed to maintain social and psychological stability.  This descriptive use of the term sin is seen in Jesus' second use of the term in, “go and sin no more.” I take this to mean: don't do this socially disruptive action anymore.  I do not take it to be saying: don't be a  bad person anymore.

Now if this paradigm of fundamental sinlessness is true, as some of us have taken it to be, it has also been a powerful vehicle of deliverance for us: If there is nothing fundamentally wrong with me, and nothing fundamentally wrong with you, I am thus free (delivered) from both judgment of self and judgment of others.  This deliverance will cause me to spontaneously (by grace) fall in love with my entire world and everyone in it. 

We are not ordered to love, love is a gift given to those who surrender to it.  By the way, deliverance to the realization of spontaneous all-encompassing love is also found in the mystical teachings of the ancient Chinese Taoists.

Note of interest:

Being ordered by God to love would amount to demanding a performance-based deliverance; performing is what the Apostle Paul calls “works.” In contrast, deliverance through the will to surrender is not performance-based.  Paul calls this attitude faith. Galatians 2:16: by observing the law no one will be justified.Ephesians 2:8,9-- for ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God's gift: not on the principle of works (Darby Bible edition). ~ Raymond Sigrist

MORE SAYINGS

Tribulation - That moment you realize that you've been wrong the whole time. ~Robert Yarbrough

Exuberation - That moment you realize that your tribulation was meant to move you forward toward complete and utter fulfillment! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.

ANIMAL WELFARE

CONSULTATION

AN ABUNDANT OMNIVERSE

What we think, feel, believe, say and do has nothing to do with the fact that we live in an abundant omniverse. However, what we think, feel, believe, say and do DOES affect our current state of vibration. If we think negative thoughts, feel selfish feelings, believe erroneous beliefs, say detrimental things and act out of fear, we are NOT living in our ever-present state of well-being.

If you believe more than know, it affects your state of vibration and the reflection of that vibration will be recognizable to you MORE than what is actually real. If you think more than sense, you will be able to align yourself with your inner well-being because you have the knowledge that it is actually there. If you live in your inner state of well-being you acknowledge your feelings and use them effectively to a point where they allow you to live in ongoing peace, understanding, joy and Divine love.

You do NOT have to do anything to live in your inner divinity; it is always there subtly guiding you when you make the time to go within and listen to the silence and experience your inner presence. The most common mistake of those who seek to live a spiritual life is the false belief that righteousness will ‘get’ you something in a supposed afterlife. You cannot earn the favor of God, the universe or others in order to ensure your place in being a ‘good’ soul.

If you believe this, you are operating from your ego and NOT the Spirit of God! Your life will unfold perfectly when you decide to allow your experience of life to fulfill your dreams while living in health, wealth, prosperity and abundance. There is no struggle involved; only allowance. We are all worthy and deserving of living in mutual well-being. When we start to feel the joy of living in our dreams we start the snowball rolling down the hill. As momentum builds, we accumulate more and more material for our success from our environment.

We are blessed with life and the ability to co-create in our lives. The only thing that holds us back from experiencing the peace, understanding, joy and Divine love in our lives are the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, words, actions and behaviors that CONTRADICT our experience of our inner well-being. We polarize ourselves based on what significance we apply to our experiences. Our emotional state ALWAYS tells us just how we are feeling about those experiences.

We are successful, blessed and fruitful beings when we allow ourselves to live from our inner well-being. Our actions don’t amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. Our allowance of what is and vibrating at what we actually are co-creates our experiences of what we are. Anticipate more positive coming into your life and less negative in order for you to feel good about yourself. Your feeling of where you are in unfolding who and what you are determines just how good you feel.

Practice living in peace; strive to be understanding; live in the joy of fulfilling your dreams; and ultimately, experience the bounty of Divine love everlasting! ~Dean A. Banks, D.D.