Serving Without Judgment
Follow along all week as we wrap up (for now!) our Hands on Christianity series. Lindsey shares three more roadblocks to service: the “fixer” narrative, a lack of discernment and prayer in service, and our inability to trust God's plan for the soil.
[Transcript]
Good morning, everyone, and welcome back.
Last week, we talked about how not being offended by someone allows us to better serve them. We looked at how flawed our human assumptions are, and how being offended by others is one of the least effective ways to show God's love for them. Today, I want to look at that through a different lens. Being offended often stems from anger because we've judged the person or their actions as actions against God and it makes us mad. As we step outside of serving Christ’s body and into our communities to practice Hands-on Christianity, we confront a roadblock that stops us before we even begin.
Simply stated, it is easy to serve people who look like us, think like us, and agree with us. But what happens when God calls us to serve people who don't believe the same things we do? What do we do when we look at how they live, how they talk, or how they manage their lives, and everything inside us screams, "They are not doing things right!”? If we are honest, our default setting is often to condition our service on their behavior. We want them to clean up their act before we offer them our help. We want to judge them first, and serve them second.
This reality is often shaped by a very valid question: Where is the line between serving a sinner and condoning their choices? If I serve someone who is living in blatant sin, or who acts completely contrary to God's word, am I telling them that their lifestyle is okay? Am I watering down truth?
Let's look at how Jesus handled this. In Luke 19, Jesus encounters Zacchaeus—a chief tax collector who was actively extorting his own people. Jesus didn't stand at the bottom of the sycamore tree and yell, "Repent, return the stolen money, change your career, and then I’ll come over for lunch!" Instead, Jesus initiated relationship and proximity first. He looked up and said, "I must stay at your house today."
The religious crowd was instantly offended. They began to mutter, "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner." They thought Jesus was condoning Zacchaeus's choices. But notice that it was Jesus’ radical, unconditioned proximity and kindness that broke Zacchaeus’s heart. Experiencing the service and presence of Christ allowed Zacchaeus to hear His message. Afterwards, Zacchaeus stands up and offers to give half his goods to the poor and pay back four times to anyone he cheated.
Biblically, serving someone is not an endorsement of their sin; it is an endorsement of their worth to God.
If you want the ultimate example of this, look at the upper room in John 13. On the very night He was betrayed, Jesus got down on His knees, took a towel, and washed the grime off His disciples' feet. Do you know whose feet were included in that circle? Judas Iscariot’s. Jesus knew exactly what Judas was about to do. He knew Judas was actively selling Him out for thirty pieces of silver. Yet Jesus did not skip his feet. He didn't demand a behavioral correction or a confession from Judas before He washed them. He just served him. If the Savior of the universe can serve His own betrayer with no strings attached, who are we to withhold our service from people who don't have their lives together?
When we initiate a conversation with a homeless person, spend time visiting a lonely resident in a nursing home, or clean up a local community's park, we are not signing a contract approving of everything they have ever done or believed. We are simply acknowledging that they bear the image of God.
This brings us to a profound truth about who we are. In Genesis 1:27, we learn that we are made in God's image and likeness. We are His representatives on this earth. The Third Commandment—"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain"—means much more than just watching your language. The literal Hebrew meaning of that phrase is "to carry or bear His name emptily." As Christians, we literally carry the name of God. When we claim to belong to Him, but refuse to act like Him, we take His name in vain. We make His name look empty and worthless to the watching world. We are called to bear His image truly, and we do that by acting like Him, serving others, loving them as He did. As 1 John 4:11 reminds us, "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
Now, some might push back and say, "But wait! Doesn't the Bible tell us to judge sin?"
Paul gives us a pretty solid boundary line regarding judgment in this scenario. In 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, the Apostle Paul explicitly writes: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” Paul makes it clear: It is not our job to judge or police those outside the church. The world is going to act like the world. When we step outside these walls to serve our community, we are explicitly commanded to leave judgment to God.
If God wanted us isolated from messy people, He could have whisked us away to the Kingdom the moment we were baptized. But in His prayer in John 17:15, Jesus looks at His disciples and says to the Father, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” And a few verses later, in John 17:20, Jesus explicitly states that this prayer isn't just for those eleven men—it is for all believers who would ever come after them through their message—you and me.
Jesus intentionally left us right here, in the middle of a broken, confusing, messy world, to be His hands and feet, to bear His image and be a light to His way.
Think about Jesus’ famous parable of the sower in Mark 4. The sower doesn’t walk through the field analyzing every square inch of dirt, refusing to throw seed until the ground looks perfect. He doesn't hold the seed back from the rocky places or the thorny patches. Instead, the sower throws the seed everywhere he goes.
When you serve someone who doesn’t believe what you believe, you are that sower. You are not there to force the dirt to change on the spot. Even if they don't listen to you, even if they reject your words, or even if they keep doing things completely wrong in your eyes—your job is to scatter the seed of God's love and truth. How the soil responds, and when the harvest comes, is completely between them and God.
Does this mean you only serve and never talk about the right way to live, about God’s truth? Absolutely not! Service done in love is one of the quickest ways to open people's hearts because it authentically shows God's love for us all. Service done from a position of condescension is probably one of the quickest ways to close someone's heart. This is just a reminder to check our hearts and attitude before we serve those outside the faith, as we are called to do! I have a friend who always says she “drips” God's truth on people. She just keeps dripping little bits of the truth in most interactions she has with people—a few drops for them to swallow now instead of a water hose that pushes them further away.
So, how do we dismantle this roadblock as we figure out who and how to serve? Here are three things to focus on:
Repent of the "fixer narrative." Stop viewing yourself as the heroic savior entering a broken situation to correct everyone. You are not the savior; Jesus is. Tell yourself: "I am not here to manage their choices; I am here to show God's love."
Commit to unconditional serving, with godly discernment. When we look at the needs around us—whether it's volunteering at a nursing home, a local park cleanup, a food bank, or a shelter—expect to encounter messy lives. If someone makes a comment you disagree with, or lives a lifestyle that feels wrong to you, do not pull back your hands. Act on 1 John 3:18: "Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." Let your service be your sermon. This unconditioned service can open their hearts and ears to God's message.
However, as we step out, we must also walk in wisdom. Unconditional service does not mean mindless enabling. Scripture commands us in Proverbs 4:7 to "get wisdom, and though it cost all you have, get understanding." Take a prayerful moment before you act to ask: "Lord, how can I serve you best here?" There is a profound difference between helping someone up and funding a lifestyle of destruction. True Christ-like service seeks the ultimate good of the other person. Couple your wide-open heart with a discerning spirit.
Trust the soil. When you walk away from serving someone and feel like you didn't make a spiritual dent because they didn't instantly change, quiet your ego. Repeat this truth to your own heart: "I did my job today. I scattered the seed. God owns the harvest, and His timing is perfect."
We cannot serve the "least of these" if we are too busy being offended by them or trying to judge them. Without God's love, our service to them will just be a clanging cymbal, a noisy, obnoxious intrusion in their lives. When we carry His name with weight, drop our demands of moral superiority, and serve people exactly as they are, we become a living picture of Jesus—and make the Way of Life very attractive.
Let's stay in the world where He placed us—not as a part of it, but as a servant to help it—, lay down our need to see repentance before we serve, and scatter seeds of grace everywhere we go.
Lindsey lives in central Pennsylvania with her husband and four kids. Easily excited by kindness, innovative ideas, and lively biblical discussions, she's trying to find joy in the everyday, and is grateful for God’s delightfully hidden gems scattered throughout creation and Scripture. Her favorite hobby has always been to learn something new and she's currently making a mess of learning the piano.
