2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? – Romans 2
Cancel culture is alive in 2020. The phrase “cancel culture” refers to to the popular practice of cancelling support for public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.
Sometimes this culture produces fruit that other culture’s could not obtain. For example, when is the last time you have seen a re-run of the Cosby Show? Probably not for a while considered Bill Cosby has been “cancelled” by culture. This is well deserved as Bill Cosby has since been convicted of serious sexual crimes. Harvey Weinstein is another example of this. Cancel culture is not all bad.
Cancel culture, though not all bad, does produce two temptations that are very real for Christians. The first temptation is to not speak the truth of God. The message of Jesus is not welcomed in many circles especially as Christians more and more are portrayed as people hating bigots in pop culture (which is 100% false). There are many examples of cancel culture attempting to defame the name of Jesus. If you do not say exactly what people want to hear, you will be cancelled. And guess what? People do not want to hear about repentance and faith in God. So we firstly must stand courageous as we speak the truth of Jesus’ love for all people.
A second temptation that is actually relevant to our text today is the temptation to point out the mistakes of others as if you have the moral high ground. Today’s text is very interesting because the preceding chapter indicates that the people of Rome were very, very unrighteous. Paul indicates that the people of the world during that time had misinterpreted their physical surrounding. Instead of worshiping the creator, they worshiped the creation. In my decent mind this would or should be enough to pass judgement, but Paul does not use the unrighteousness of the Romans as motivation to judge. Rather, in the very next passage he says don’t judge because you are the same exact way!
Cancel culture promotes passing judgement from the moral high ground. But Jesus encourages us to confront sin from a place of humility, gentleness, and self control. Do you see the difference? The Romans were AWFUL. The sin in Rome in 80ish A.D. was rampant. Yet, Paul reminds us that we are not all that different. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Cancel culture addresses sin by cancelling a person, organization, or group. Jesus, though, addresses sin by calling for repentance and faith in His name. This repentance and faith leads to salvation. Let me assure, salvation through Jesus does not cancel someone’s worth.