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The event took place yesterday in the rain. It has been covered by reporters on TV and in newsprint. There were 20,000 women who walked or ran in what has become known as "The Race for the Cure." The Race for the Cure is a fundraiser to find the cure for breast cancer and to support women who can’t afford cancer treatments. Thousands of women die each year from breast cancer and almost every American family has been touched by this disease. The very word "cancer" sends chills down spines and puts fear in hearts. Cancer cells are evil cells that increase at an alarming rate through the body. They in turn begin feeding and devouring healthy cells and eventually destroy life.

In Matthew 7:1–5, Jesus doesn’t talk about physical cancer, but He talks about a cancer that multiplies and destroys families, friends, co-workers, and even churches.

What is the name of this relational cancer? Judgmentalism.

To Judge: to punish, to condemn, to pass sentence.

Judgmentalism is being critical of another, tearing someone down. It’s gossiping about someone behind his or her back. Passing judgment on people destroys their reputations, credibility, and image. Judgmentalism is no respecter of persons, age, or race. Judgmentalism is to our relationships what cancer is to our bodies. It eats away at the body of Christ until there’s nothing left. The evil cells of gossip, criticism, and backbiting spread like cancer through the community of Christ until everyone’s relationships, reputation, and image is destroyed.

When we gossip, criticize, and judge others, we are taking the unity out of community. When we tear others down, Jesus is tells us that we are skating on pretty thin ice and are setting ourselves up for a fall. Listen to His words warning us about the dangers of this cancer to community and to our relationships:

Mr. Clarence Hall wrote an article in "The Christian Herald" about the dangers of judging, gossiping and spreading rumors. Mr. Hall writes,

A lovely widow with three children moved into our village and in a few weeks she was the most talked-about woman in town. She was too pretty…several men had been seen visiting her…she was a poor housekeeper…her children ran the streets and ate at the neighbor’s…she was lazy and spent most of her time lying on the sofa reading.

One morning our pretty neighbor collapsed in the post office, and the truth finally came out. She was suffering from an incurable disease and couldn’t do her housework. She sent the children away when drugs could no longer control her pain. "I wanted them to think of me as always happy and joyful," she said. "I wanted to pass away sometime alone so they would never know."

The male visitors were her family doctor, the lawyer who looked after her estate, and her husband’s brother. The town was kind to her for the remaining months of her life, but those who prematurely disapproved of her could never forgive themselves for judging her.

We must stop judging by mere appearances or what we think might be going on in a person’s life because most likely we are wrong. I’ve heard people say, "It looks like this or that is going on. Why would she be doing that if they weren’t? You know what goes on behind closed doors." My response is "No, I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m not going to presume to guess."

What are we supposed to do as Christian Disciples?

Matthew 7:1–5 says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Romans 2:1 adds, "You who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."

And James 4:12 tells us, "There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?"

Romans 14:13 says, "Let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way."

And Luke 6:31 says, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you."

The late theologian, Carl Michalson, tells of returning home with his wife from an evening out and being greeted at the door by the baby sitter who, when she saw them, dissolved into tears. It seems that she had dropped a radio and broke it. Michalson said that in one sense he was happy to see that she cried, because they’d had some babysitters who would have blamed it on the children or would have patched it up so that when the next person turned on the radio it would fall apart. But in another sense, he said, they were saddened by it. He wrote this, "To think that she did not know we are the kind of people who had the grace to cover that kind of thing."

‘Grace’ is another world for ‘love,’ except that it carries the additional meaning that the love is totally unearned, unmerited, and absolutely undeserved. Grace is amazing because it is offered and given in spite of the fact that its recipient in no way deserves to be loved with this kind of love.

John 8:1–11 describes the woman caught in the act of adultery and Jesus forgiveness.

Jesus doesn’t judge the woman but rather gives her grace. Jesus never condoned the woman’s sin. He tells her to go and sin no more. In other words Jesus tells her to start judging herself so that she won’t come under greater judgment.

1 Corinthians 11:31 reads, "If we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment."

Colossians 3:15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace."

And Hebrews 4:12 tells us, "The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

Acts 17:31 says, "For God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed."

Hebrews 9:27: "Man is destined to die once, and then to face judgment."

Romans 14:12 says, "Each person will have to give an account before God."

Judgmentalism, criticism, and gossip are like cancer to a community. They destroy the very relationships for which we were created. There’s an old nursery rhyme, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But they do, don’t they? They tear away at us, and they tear away at those we judge. The scars and effects aren’t as easy to see as a cancerous tumor or a broken arm; they’re hidden tucked away where no one can see them, but they’re there.

God forgives, heals, and sets free all who come to Christ. Then He removes the shame, the guilt, the condemnation, and the pain and gives us new life: hope, peace, joy, rest. It’s a gift from God to every one of us. This gift is called "grace." Does anybody need to receive God’s grace today? I know I do, I don’t need judgment. Let us remember this is the very reason for which God sent His One and only Son into the world. As John 3:17-18 says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."