God’s judgement

I’m Not the Judge

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment
Lawyer in courtroom putting on a traditional legal wig
A Christian removes a judge’s robe and wig. (Image generated via AI.)

A judge keeps order in the court. They ensure the law is followed and determine someone’s future by sentencing them or setting them free.

People often say “Christians are judging” not because a believer has actually issued a verdict, but because something deeper is happening inside the interaction emotionally, socially, or spiritually. The feeling of being judged is usually a collision between personal vulnerability and perceived moral pressure, and understanding that dynamic helps Christians respond with more grace and clarity.

Why People Feel Judged — Even When No One Said Anything

  • Moral sensitivity — When someone already feels insecure about a behavior or lifestyle, even gentle comments can feel like condemnation.
  • Past church wounds — Many have experienced real judgment or hypocrisy before, so they assume it’s happening again.
  • Cultural tension — Modern culture equates disagreement with rejection, so moral differences feel personal.
  • Internal conviction — Sometimes the Holy Spirit stirs the conscience, and people misinterpret that discomfort as human judgment.
  • Fear of rejection — People worry Christians won’t accept them if they don’t meet certain standards.

Often, the feeling of judgment is more about the person’s inner world than the Christian’s words.

Why Christian Beliefs Can Trigger This Reaction

Christianity makes truth claims about right, wrong, purpose, and identity. Even when spoken gently, truth claims can feel confrontational.

  • Moral clarity — Clear convictions can feel like criticism to someone who disagrees.
  • Exclusive claims — Jesus’ statement “I am the way” (John 14:6) can feel narrow in a culture that values personal autonomy.
  • Lifestyle contrast — When someone sees a Christian living differently, it can highlight their own choices.

Even silent faithfulness can feel like judgment to someone wrestling with guilt or uncertainty.

When Christians Actually Come Across as Judgmental

Let’s be honest — sometimes Christians unintentionally reinforce the stereotype.

  • Tone over truth — Harsh delivery overshadows a good message.
  • Selective morality — Condemning certain sins while ignoring others feels hypocritical.
  • Lack of empathy — People feel judged when they don’t feel understood.
  • Public shaming — Social media “truth-telling” often feels like an attack, not love.

Jesus never compromised truth, but people — especially sinners — felt safe with Him. That contrast speaks volumes.

The Deeper Spiritual Reality

Sometimes the tension isn’t interpersonal — it’s spiritual.

  • Light exposes darkness — John 3:19 says people avoid the light because it exposes what’s hidden.
  • Truth confronts the heart — When truth touches a sensitive area, people may blame the messenger.
  • Identity conflict — Christianity calls people to transformation, which can feel threatening.

The gospel is both comforting and disruptive — it heals, but it also reveals.

How Christians Can Respond With Grace

  • Lead with compassion — People open up when they feel safe.
  • Listen before speaking — Understanding someone’s story softens their defensiveness.
  • Speak truth gently — Ephesians 4:15 calls believers to “speak the truth in love.”
  • Live consistently — Integrity removes the sting of hypocrisy.
  • Let God convict — It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to change hearts, not ours.

When Christians embody Jesus’ character, people may still feel judged, but they’ll also feel loved. Jesus had an extraordinary way of meeting people who felt judged not by denying truth, not by lowering God’s standards, but by creating an atmosphere where mercy disarmed shame and truth invited transformation. When you look closely at His interactions, a pattern emerges: people who expected condemnation found compassion, and people who expected approval found honesty.

Below is a clear, structured look at how Jesus handled people who felt judged, with the key themes, scriptures, and emotional dynamics that shaped His approach.

1. Jesus Led with Dignity, Not Disgrace

People often felt judged because of their past, their reputation, or their failures. Jesus countered that instinct by restoring dignity first.

  • Woman at the well — She expected rejection because of her past. Jesus treated her as a person of worth before addressing her sin (John 4:7–26).
  • Zacchaeus — A despised tax collector, yet Jesus publicly honored him by choosing to stay at his house (Luke 19:1–10).

Takeaway: Jesus removed shame before He addressed sin.

2. Jesus Asked Questions Instead of Making Accusations

Questions open hearts; accusations close them. Jesus used questions to help people see themselves honestly without feeling attacked.

  • “Where are your accusers?” — To the woman caught in adultery, He didn’t start with a lecture but with a question that revealed grace (John 8:10).
  • “Do you want to be healed?” — He invited the man at Bethesda to express desire, not defend himself (John 5:6).

Takeaway: Jesus guided people toward truth rather than forcing them into defensiveness.

3. Jesus Protected People from Public Shame

When someone was vulnerable, Jesus shielded them from humiliation.

  • Woman caught in adultery — He physically placed Himself between her and the crowd, turning the spotlight away from her sin and onto the hypocrisy of her accusers (John 8:1–11).
  • Sinful woman who anointed His feet — Jesus defended her against Simon’s silent judgment (Luke 7:36–50).

Takeaway: Jesus confronted the judgers before confronting the sinner.

4. Jesus Reserved His Harshest Words for the Self‑Righteous

Interestingly, the only people who consistently felt judged by Jesus were the ones who thought they didn’t need grace.

  • Pharisees — They felt judged because Jesus exposed their pride, hypocrisy, and spiritual blindness (Matthew 23).
  • Religious elites — They valued image over repentance, so Jesus’ truth felt like an attack.

Takeaway: Jesus comforted the broken but confronted the proud.

5. Jesus Told the Truth — But Only After Love Was Clear

Jesus never excused sin, but He never weaponized truth either.

  • “Go and sin no more.” — He said this after rescuing the woman from execution (John 8:11).
  • “Salvation has come to this house.” — He affirmed Zacchaeus after Zacchaeus experienced acceptance (Luke 19:9).

Takeaway: Truth was the invitation to freedom, not the price of admission.

6. Jesus Saw People’s Potential, Not Just Their Past

People felt judged because they were used to being defined by their worst moments. Jesus saw what they could become.

  • Peter — A fisherman with failures, yet Jesus called him a rock (Matthew 16:18).
  • Matthew — A tax collector turned apostle.

Takeaway: Jesus spoke identity before He spoke correction.

7. Jesus Let the Holy Spirit Do the Convicting

Jesus didn’t pressure people into change. He trusted the Spirit to work in their hearts.

  • Conviction vs. condemnation — John 16:8 shows that conviction is the Spirit’s role, not ours.

Takeaway: Jesus created space for transformation rather than forcing it.

People didn’t feel judged by Jesus because He made them feel seen, safe, and invited — not cornered.

Copyright © 2026 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.

“You Give Love a Bad Name”

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment
Image generated via AI.

You live life however you want to. It’s all about you. You are the only one that matters. Your opinions are always right. You build yourself up while putting others down. It’s your way or no way.

Have you ever met someone like that? I hope you aren’t married to one. It’s bad enough when you have one in your family. If you must deal with someone who lives like that, then you know firsthand how difficult it is. You also know how many times they have hurt you. I’m sorry if you have.

To make matters worse, they will lie about you and spread lies. Truth is whatever “they” believe. They tend not to have any true friends. And the ultimate insult is when they go to church and claim to have accepted Jesus Christ into their lives. They give love a bad name!

I have known a few. Most people probably do, too. I have thought about one of them, in particular, standing before God. I wonder if He will say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” Now, I’m not judging them, but it is biblical to judge the fruit of their life. And I gotta say, it’s sour!

When one accepts Jesus into their life, it should change them. They should trust him to help them deal with whatever demons are slow to come out of them. There may be reasons, valid ones, as to why they are full of hate, but after inviting Jesus to rule and reign in their life, they need to let those things go.

“Christian” means follower of Christ. If you claim to be a Christian, then you should strive to be like him, full of love. Loving people as you love yourself after loving God first. Reading his word, the Bible, learning what truth really is, and walking it out daily.

If you are one of these types of individuals, then I pray for God to help you and let him do a work in you. You can overcome anything going on now and anything that happened in your past that might be causing you to be resentful or, perhaps, jealous of others and their lives.

Don’t be a person who gives love a bad name. Be known as one who, no matter what, loves. And one who walks this planet with the presence of God about them, demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit. If you do, you will probably find others wanting to be around you instead of avoiding you. He’s got this because He’s got you. Give love a good name.

16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Mat. 7:16-20 (NLT)

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Cor. 13:1-3 (NIV)

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Mat. 7:21-23 (ESV)

Copyright © 2025 Mark Brady. All rights reserved.

God Is Kind, but Not Soft

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.

You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.

You’re not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it’s going to blaze hot and high, God’s fiery and righteous judgment. Make no mistake: In the end you get what’s coming to you—Real Life for those who work on God’s side, but to those who insist on getting their own way and take the path of least resistance, Fire!

If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind.

If you sin without knowing what you’re doing, God takes that into account. But if you sin knowing full well what you’re doing, that’s a different story entirely. Merely hearing God’s law is a waste of your time if you don’t do what he commands. Doing, not hearing, is what makes the difference with God.

When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm its truth by their obedience. They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation. There is something deep within them that echoes God’s yes and no, right and wrong. Their response to God’s yes and no will become public knowledge on the day God makes his final decision about every man and woman. The Message from God that I proclaim through Jesus Christ takes into account all these differences. Rom. 2:1-18 (MSG)

The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

The List

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment
Photo by Alexas Fotos via Pixabay

I like lists. I like making lists. Grocery list, shopping list, packing list, prayer list, and even to-do list. I don’t like being on lists unless it’s Santa’s “Good” list, but I’m probably on his “Naughty” list. These days, I rely on lists, especially when grocery shopping. But I still tend to forget things and have been known not to pick up something on my list!

Lists can be good. They can be valuable tools. They can help us get things done or go on vacation and not have that sinking feeling that we forgot to pack something. My packing list allows me to checkmark what to take, if I need to buy it, and when it is packed.

There is one list I definitely want to be on. I want to ensure my name is among the many names listed in the Lamb’s Book of Life! If your name is written in this book, Jesus will remind his Heavenly Father that you accepted him and asked for forgiveness of your sins, and you will enter into Heaven. What’s interesting is every single person’s name is initially written in this book. It is only by an individual’s choice to have their name “blotted” out. That is done by not accepting Jesus. Accept Jesus. Be included in the list of names written in the Book of Life.

The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Rev. 3:5 (NIV)

I saw a Great White Throne and the One Enthroned. Nothing could stand before or against the Presence, nothing in Heaven, nothing on earth. And then I saw all the dead, great and small, standing there—before the Throne! And books were opened. Then another book was opened: the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by the way they had lived. Sea released its dead, Death and Hell turned in their dead. Each man and woman was judged by the way he or she had lived. Then Death and Hell were hurled into Lake Fire. This is the second death—Lake Fire. Anyone whose name was not found inscribed in the Book of Life was hurled into Lake Fire. Rev. 20:11-15 (MSG)

Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will get in.
Rev. 21:27 (MSG)

The Beast you saw once was, is no longer, and is about to ascend from the Abyss and head straight for Hell. Earth dwellers whose names weren’t written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world will be dazzled when they see the Beast that once was, is no longer, and is to come.
Rev. 17:7-8 (MSG)

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady.

Here’s Your Sign

/ Mark Brady / Leave a comment

There is a practice one can have that makes life easier. And that is this:

Always Get Ready For Your Next Event

It is something that I preach to April constantly but, more importantly, demonstrate by living out. No matter how tired I am, each day or night, I look at my calendar or think about the next few days and ask myself, “Am I ready to go there, see them, or get that done?” If the answer is “No, “I do what I can to prepare.

This practice has helped me in so many ways because, let’s face it, life gets busy, goes by so fast, it seems, and things happen. Sometimes, I will think of something that needs to be done, and I do it instead of putting it off. Now I will confess, I’m lazy! But I have learned that being ready outweighs running around last minute in a panic. I would go so far and claim that this practice delivers peace.

Recently, I allowed April to practice being ready. She didn’t, and after receiving a service, she didn’t have the funds prepared to pay. The individual doesn’t take plastic money, so cash or a check is required. After making a point of her actions, I opened my wallet and pulled out a check. I paid for her.

So yesterday, as I was running errands, I saw the AT&T sign pictured here. I laughed and thought I should get one of these signs for April! But it was my next thought that brought seriousness back to my mind. Everyone needs this sign. Life keeps people so preoccupied, and the devil keeps things so stirred up that few ask the most important question of their life: “Am I ready to stand before God and give an account of how I have lived my life?”

One never knows when this life will end. So preparing now for where we will spend eternity is of the utmost importance! If you want to die and spend all the rest of your time in hell, then do nothing. But if you want to spend that time in heaven with God and your loved ones and have no more pain or suffering, then you must recognize that Jesus is God’s Son today. Then ask him to forgive you of your sins and to live in your heart. Jesus is faithful to forgive us no matter how terrible the things that we have done.

If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. 1 John 1:9-10 (MSG)

As I paid for April’s mistake, Jesus’ death on the cross has paid for ours. If you do this, you are then ready. But then get to know this loving God and his Son. Talk to them (prayer) like you are having a normal conversation with a friend. Also, read God’s instruction manual for life, the Bible.

So if you see this sign, you can answer, “Yes!” And you will be ready for your next event.

Copyright © 2023 Mark Brady.