July '25

It's easy for conservative types to do: You're with your mates, it's a safe space, and you've just seen some teenager with green hair and a pierced chin (how?) spouting their thoughts on how to fix society for their Tiktok followers. Or the progressive academic is puzzled that even after his bright ideas have been tried, society is still broken and still sad and still too racist. Or your nephew, clown that he is, has gone and gotten himself into trouble again. He needs to pull his head in and get a job and some motivation.

And the conversations, largely onto it, start flowing. With surprising clarity, you and your rag tag group of Christian mates succinctly and effectively diagnose society's ills. You make all the right connections showing how a failure to uphold God's righteous decrees causes big problems. You point out the faulty and inconsistent thinking of those who will not have God as their rock. And you do it with smile on your face and a drink in your hand. What's wrong with this?

Nothing necessarily. But it can be a door that, if left unguarded, makes room for a false gospel: we can convince ourselves we are right with God on the basis of our ability to see what is wrong. We subtly tell ourselves that we are on God's team, because we think what he thinks and we are furthering his agenda in the world. We steady our troubled consciences by pointing out all the problems over there. Of course God loves me!

But God is not impressed with our insights into society's problems, however onto we might be. The Apostle Paul writes this:

“Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God” (Romans 2:3)?

According to this verse, humans strive (or at least should) to "escape the judgment of God." How do we do that? Paul will tell us in chapter 3. But in this verse, he tells us how we don't.

We are not justified by judging. We are not justified by refuting bad ideas. We are not justified by seeing through propaganda. We are not justified by moaning or griping. We are not justified by being concerned about the state of society.

To be clear, most of these do have their place. A Christian should be "greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked" (2 Pe 2:7). But you're not justified by this. In fact, in our more honest moments, a lot of us would probably admit that most of the disfunction in our lives is actually because of our own issues. The same sinful tendencies driving "them" have been at work in us, too.

So, what is our only hope only hope in life and death?

It's the same for us, and them, and everybody.

"...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Ro 3:23–25).

Phil Brown