My Journal

We live in a time when symbols do much of our thinking for us. A yard sign, a bumper sticker, a flag on a truck, a rainbow decal, a hat, a post shared online—without a word spoken, entire conclusions form in our minds. We do not merely guess at someone’s opinions; we imagine their entire...

We have always judged one another. What is new in our generation is the speed, scale, and permanence with which judgment travels. A comment once spoken in a living room can now be heard around the world in a matter of minutes. A mistake once repented of privately can become a permanent digital...

One of the most surprising things Scripture says about judgment is not that Christians must avoid it, but that Christians must aim it carefully. Much damage has been done because believers reversed the direction of biblical judgment: harsh toward the world, lenient toward themselves. The New...

If all we ever said about judgment was what can go wrong with it, we might conclude that the safest course is silence. Better to say nothing than to risk hypocrisy, condemnation, or pride. But Scripture never pushes us toward silence. Instead, it calls us to learn a different way to speak — a way...

It is easy to speak about judgment as something that happens “out there,” between us and other people. But Scripture will not let us stay outside ourselves for long. At some point the question becomes unavoidable: How do we judge our own hearts? And how do we do that without sinking into despair?...

For many people, the phrase “final judgment” evokes only fear. It conjures images of scales, books, and a courtroom where every failure is replayed in detail. Others avoid the subject entirely, as if silence could make the day itself go away. Yet Scripture speaks openly, repeatedly, and without...

If we want to know what judgment is meant to look like, we cannot stop with principles alone. We have to look at a person. Scripture does not simply give us definitions of justice and mercy; it gives us Jesus. In Him we see something that our instincts rarely hold together: uncompromising holiness...

If judgment were simple, a book would not need to exist (book). We feel instinctively that something is wrong with the way judgment so often works in our lives, our communities, our churches, and our world. At the same time, we sense that “just stop judging” is not a real answer. We cannot live...