Rebuking and condemning others re-crucifies Jesus

Matthew 25:40 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Let’s be specific about what I’m talking about when I mention rebuke and condemnation. I’m talking about the kind of reprimand of behaviour that dangles the carrot of salvation and brandishes the stick of hell as the outcome of compliance or non-compliance. This is separate from a social negotiation regarding action that is negatively impacting a person or those around. It’s the difference between telling a drunk to give up the drink because it’s hurting them and those around them and telling them to do it for face hell.

The first problem with this approach is that it ignores the spirit of the person. Taking a legal approach to biblical principle condemns a person for singular action with no regard to how the goodness in their heart or the hardship of their life justifies them, even before we get into how Jesus’ mercy justifies them. Remember, this thought process is the same one that the Pharisees went through to condemn Christ. A legal reading of scripture with regards to false prophets and those who break the sabbath gave them grounds for condemnation.

Also bear in mind that Jesus said sin lives in the mind as much as through action, so saying a person’s action makes them makes them fit to be condemned to hell is taking that same place of judgement the Pharisees took, in fact, it takes it a step further. Not just content with saying they deserve crucifixion, you’re saying they deserve an eternity in hell. Assuming a divine judge’s mantle with regard to individual action is presumptuous indeed.

One of the reasons Jesus tried to hard to move us away from judging was to protect us from slipping into a Pharisee like mind state. Such thinking hampers fellowship and turns people away from faith, which turns people away from God. If you usurp Jesus’ words of forgiveness and mercy in favour of condemnation and judgement, you crucify Jesus again as he suffers the spiritual damage people suffer under a message that places wrath above mercy. Because that which you do to them, you do unto him.