“The real test of Christianity is not loving Jesus, it’s loving Judas“

Addressing a friend’s statement via deductive reasoning and critical thinking

A friend of mine posted this quote and it made me think, for about a week, on this quote’s simplicity, but also it’s message. The reason I’m writing about it is because I found this idea intriguing; is this really a test of Christianity and if it is, how am I supposed to respond?

The purpose of this article is to outline the foundation of the Christian faith with the goal of actually proving the above statement to be true or false depending upon deductive reasoning and critical thinking. The goal is to show that through paced thought processes, one can come to very definitive conclusions about what Christians are to do when statements like this are made.

My thought process about this quote went as the following:

• what is the actual purpose of Christianity?

• who was Judas and who was Jesus?

• how does this quote play upon the reality of Christianity’s own expressed purpose in the Bible?

First, what is the purpose of Christianity and how can it be tested?

The Bible begins with the creation of all things matter, material, physical (Genesis 1 and 2) and as we read we watch from a spectator’s perspective the forming of all things that we know to be real and tangible. From Job 38, we see the intelligence of God in the intricacies of creation, while The Lord brings about the details of what He’s put His hands to make, we also see the majesty of that creative power; He’s not just making things up out of thin air for nothing, He’s making everything as a sign to Who He is and those signs point to what makes the human and God connection so special.

The match of being creative beings displays that this creative essence is a gift from God that is godlike at the foundation of human existence; we are very much like God, but we are not gods (Genesis 1:27). Further, the scripture shows that this power of creation comes with consequence of choice; Job 38:7 says that the “sons of God” or angels shouted with joy at what God is doing. Do we shout with joy at God’s creation or do we choose a different emotion, one of desiring God’s power without being connected to God (Isaiah 14:12-15; 40:25-26)?

It’s a terrible thing to have been given choice.

So what is the role of Christianity? It appears that the Old Testament is showing us that the purpose of Christianity is to bring about the knowledge of God’s existence and then through that existence see our roles as being subservient to THE Holy (Isaiah 6:5). It also appears that the role of Christianity is to show that no one is equal to or can compare to that which is Holy, God Himself (Genesis 3:5) despite what we as the created know or what we as the created attain. Again, we see that there is a separation between that which is created and Who is the Creator.

In fact, the Creator must be separate from the Created because of the power, majesty and truth about being Holy. No one is holy except the One Who created all things. Separation between The Holy and unholy is displayed in the Tabernacle of God in the journey through the wilderness as Israel is delivered from slavery and captivity in Egypt (Exodus 26, 40:34-35). The tabernacle was carried wherever the Israelites went, but the Israelites understood that through God’s commands, only those who were assigned to be in the presence of God could come in (Exodus 33:7); separate the people of God (the average person) from the servants of God (the high priest, the priests, and the attendants who were Levites). More so, not even the holiest of people, Moses or anyone else, could not see the face of God (Exodus 33:19-20; Judges 13:19-22) and live.

So, it would appear that through the biblical text, we see separation between God and humans. We also see the separation between God’s gift of choice in humans and God’s sovereign will that guides all of existence and creation despite and sometimes according to human choice. God gave people the choice to obey and see Him for Who He is or to choose otherwise and proceed on their own path and to their own detriment (1 Samuel 8:7-8). Israel learned the hard way that disobedience will result in personal pain and national pain (1 Samuel 15:22-23), all due to choosing that which is not of God despite centuries of God warning against human desire to disobey (Deuteronomy 30:11-20; Romans 3:23).

The Christian faith, through the Bible, points to the reality that all people desire their own path and their own will according to choice, but that the correct choice is to honor God and to obey His commands.

The first answer to my first question that I’m able to formulate is that the test of Christianity is to obey God. This is proven later in scripture that the way to obey God is to listen, obey and believe in God’s Son; Jesus the Christ who rose from the dead (Mark 9:7; Luke 16:19-31; John 14:6). In fact, the end result for angels and humans is shown to be judgment by God on all creation (Revelation 19:11, 20:13-15, 21:5-8), whether the end result is Heaven for the faithful or hell for the faithless. God is the Judge, but gives ample opportunities for the disobedient to change their minds; the crazy reality is that even in the face of real pain, destitution and disaster, the human will to choose other than God will become so powerful that even in the face of hell, people will still choose disobedience and hell (Revelation 16:8-11).

The purpose and real test of Christianity is to obey God and acknowledge God as sovereign; this is my first conclusion. The test is to obey God.

The second question is much more in-depth because now I need to address two distinct individuals; Judas and Jesus. According the statement: the real test of Christianity is not loving Jesus, it’s loving Judas; you must know who either truly is to make a proper assessment on how to act.

I’ll address Judas first: the person who we know is Judas was an apostle of Jesus and chosen by Jesus (John 6:70-71). Judas was chosen. Judas was also a person dedicated to the handling of money (John 13:29), but was also known to be dishonest, which may have been a characteristic that was attributed to him after his death and as more details about him came to light and what he had been doing with the money and his betrayal of Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16; John 12:6). Judas was an individual who was a betrayer, but who also was very close in proximity to Jesus. Despite that proximity, he chose disobedience and later regretted what he had done. However, his regret was based on a worldly perspective and did not lead him to repent (2 Corinthians 7:10); he knew he had done wrong, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask God to forgive him. Instead he took out his sorrow on himself. This was a sad ending to his story.

In learning about this man, we see an individual who was considered an apostle, but who directly betrayed God. Why would he do this and what type of man would do this, having seen all that Jesus did?

Judas was an actual and real person. He was around Jesus, saw His miracles, witnessed His power and humility and even heard Jesus state that amongst the disciples was a devil or traitor (John 6:71). Judas must have been a very conflicted person, wanting so much more for Jesus and His disciples, but not seeing it come to fruition how he believed it should have played out. I believe Judas wanted Jesus to take Israel from the Romans with power and was sorely disappointed that Jesus didn’t. I think Judas was trying to will God to his demand. This is my personal opinion.

I want to make Judas more personal because doing so will also flush out a point that my friend made about Judas in the title of this article.

To love a betrayer, a person who seeks your actual harm and who slanders you, is a part of our faith (Luke 6:22; 1 Peter 4:4). It literally is the story of Jesus Christ. Also a part of our faith is the separation between Holy and unholy, as was stated previously, between friend and foes, which will lead to separation even amongst family (Luke 12:53). Loving a person who seeks to harm us lays hot coals on the heads of the betrayer (Romans 12:20), but it also is most Christ like when done so. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8) and it creates a pathway for redemption (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) as we see people as more than just flesh and blood, we see them as souls to be redeemed.

Deeper still: Judas had a choice and he chose poorly. Within his choice was an eternal lifeline that he needed to grasp, but he didn’t. He chose to disobey, even as this disobedience was prophesied (Psalm 41:5-9; 55:12-14, 20-21), he still had a choice.

This is where Judas becomes personal. We also have a choice and we can be called betrayers, slanderers, unfaithful and liars, just as Judas proved to be. The Old Testament is a historical record of the national of Israel’s disobedience to God. It serves as the blueprint to what eventually happens when we disobey God. Judas personifies this and serves as another historical record showing the judgment and pain of this man; we are given another example to show us that disobedience equates to damnation. It was Judas choice as it is our’s.

We must approach Judas with humility though, because we are or were just like him. We see the glory of God displayed all around us in creation, yet we deny His sovereignty and we deny His power (Romans 1:18-23). We see that we have sin, but we deny it’s eternal impact on our souls (Romans 5:14). We note the guilt in others but play down our own (2 Corinthians 10:12). To see Judas as “other” negates who we truly are and why we need to be forgiven and healed of our sin. Only God could take God’s punishment for sin and then take ALL of sin and do away with it upon Himself. This is the miracle, the absolute unfathomable event of the cross that Judas could not bear; he couldn’t see himself being forgiven. He was doomed to himself. In this instance, can we see ourselves as Judas before we came come to the cross?

To love Judas would mean to love the worst side of ourselves and still hold the faith that God is sovereign. To love Judas would mean to love the worst part of others and still take them to the cross in prayer, despite their deserving prayer or not. To love Judas is to fulfill the command of God; love your neighbor as yourself because even our worst neighbor is a soul that needs redemption.

Here is where I’ll address Jesus, in contrast to Judas.

Jesus was and is God (John 8:58). Jesus was and is the Messiah (John 4:25-26). Jesus was and is the Son of God (Luke 1:35; Luke 22:70). Jesus did rise from the dead and was seen by 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

Jesus made the way for sinners to be forgiven of sin by dying the sinners death on the cross. Jesus took all of the punishment for sin upon Himself and defeated that sin by rising from the dead. I could go on to belabor the point, but I want to get to the point of the matter.

Jesus was and is the Holy One; absolutely Holy and was the I Am of the Old Testament meaning that He was the one bringing judgment from the flood, on Sodom and Gomorrah, and on the Israelites in the wilderness. He was the same then as He was in the 1st century. He displayed His righteousness and glory then He displayed His love and kindness to forgive sins. From cover to cover of the Bible we see that God is not changed; He forgave sins in the OT and He did so in the NT. He loved people then as He loves people now, but all with the same stipulations: believe Who I say I am and do what I say.

The misnomer in the original statement: “the real test of Christianity isn’t to love Jesus, it’s to love Judas” is missing a step. Jesus says the first and greatest command is to love The Lord your God (Matthew 26:36-40) which stems from Exodus 20:1-8. The real test of Christianity is do we love God first? The second test of Christianity, restating the original statement from my friend is: do we love our neighbor (Judas) as we love ourselves? Do we ask God to forgive our personal shortcomings as “Judases” or do we skip over and seek to be called righteous without humility to our eternal destiny if we don’t have Christ? We cannot forgo orthodoxy for the sake of orthopraxy, meaning that as Christians, we must know what we believe before doing things or committing ourselves to positive acts based on the title of our belief. We cannot biblically love your neighbor until we love the One who created your neighbor according to what the Bible teaches.

The second answer to my second question that I’m able to formulate is that to love Judas I must know and love Jesus first; I cannot love Judas without loving Jesus. If I love Judas without loving Jesus, I miss loving Judas correctly. There is no loving Judas without knowing the true test of the Christian faith as being: obey God. I cannot do the second without doing the first.

Lastly, how does this quote play upon the reality of Christianity’s own expressed purpose in the Bible? I will address orthopraxy because this can be a faultline in what an individual may experience from a Christian.

Christians are to be the light on the hill and people who act according to our faith (Matthew 5:14; 1 Timothy 3:15). Anyone can judge another, but we need to judge ourselves as God is currently judging the church (1 Peter 4:17). Our practice as believers in The Lord should display itself a certain way, but is that what people see in us?

The question must be addressed individually because trying to address any shortcoming in Christianity corporately is futile. We must individually be what we say so that corporately we look like the individual lights that we are supposed to be. I’m short, we can point the finger at anyone without having addressed ourselves correctly. We must be humble before God who sees all that we say, do and think as well as our motives.

The church must love God first and do that well. If we do this well with exceeding abundance then we will love others that much more. Maybe my friend is point out that the church isn’t loving others well? This may be a great point! But I believe that to do that second part well, we need to do the first part exceptionally.

What I see as my friend’s call to a potential shortcoming of the church leads me to believe that we actually have a shortcoming in loving God and knowing God according to proper Christian orthodoxy based on the scriptures. I believe that improper Christian theology has led some Christians to treat non-Christians and other Christians, inappropriately. This would mean that proper Christian orthodoxy and teaching will lead to correct believing in how we love God. To love God correctly would mean that we are now led to love people correctly. We must love God first or we jeopardize loving people incorrectly and it will show in the greater society.

I believe that my friend has a good statement and a good cause to make his assertion. I also believe that there is a misnomer that is based on improper Christian theology that he may see that he may not know he’s pointing out. In short, my friend may be seeking for Christians to practice what they preach, but to know what they actually believe before preaching and acting.

In short; I believe certain portions of his statement are true but I also believe other portions of his statement or false. I also believe that within the statement is a call for people who called themselves Christians to be better with our relationship with God because if we are better with God we will be that much better with people and even ourselves; the inner silent Judases that we are.