The Judas Syndrome

Are you close to God? Judas was.

If you’re not familiar with the Bible, Judas was the man who betrayed Jesus and turned him over to his enemies. Judas’ role was crucial in the arrest, conviction and crucifixion of Christ.

According to the Bible, Judas followed Jesus as a disciple for three years. But even though he was close to Christ, his heart was far away.

For most of those three years Judas seemed to be a model disciple. Even his fellow disciples didn’t suspect he was a traitor. But one day he turned against Jesus.

When Jesus didn’t become the kind of leader Judas thought he should, Judas chose his own plan over God’s plan. In one of the Bible’s saddest stories, Judas’ life met a tragic end.

Sadly, Judas’ kind didn’t die out with him. There are people today with the Judas Syndrome.

“Now hold on just a minute! What’s the Judas Syndrome?”

A person with the Judas Syndrome appears to be close to God but has never believed the Gospel. They may even attend church regularly, read their Bible and tithe.

They may appear very moral but their righteousness is self-righteousness. They may also appear loyal and faithful but they believe God owes them for their service.

When God fails to bless them or do what they think he should, they get angry. They’re religious only because they find God useful for their own purposes.

It’s a mistake to confuse our agenda for God as faith in him. That’s a spiritual dead end.

So how can you tell if someone has the Judas Syndrome? Most of the time you can’t. Like Judas, it only becomes apparent when they turn against God, his leader or his plan.

Jesus himself predicted there would be those who follow him outwardly but not in their hearts. He said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Now some may think it’s their duty to find and identify people with this tendency. That would be another mistake. The right response, according to the Bible, is to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

Here’s the problem. The Bible tells us that God’s standard is absolute perfection. None of us has ever--or could ever--meet that standard. So the bad news is that we all will die because the Bible says that death is the universal penalty for falling short of God’s standard.

So what should you do? Believe the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. And then apply it to your life every single day.

The Gospel is that Jesus lived the life you should be living and died the death you should die. So if you will come to God and accept Jesus’ death in your place, God will accept you as his child and credit you with the righteous life of Jesus Christ. It’s pure mercy and grace.

Then, as you rest in Jesus’ gift of grace, you are freed from the drudgery of duty and can follow Christ and his teachings out of a heart overflowing with love, joy and peace.

The Christian no longer lives in fear of failure to perform. Because God accepts us in Christ, we can serve him in joy.

Those with the Judas Syndrome however, still operate under the performance principle. Instead of joy, their hearts are full of fear—the fear of failure.

The solution is not to stress out but to reach out to Jesus in faith. Something Judas never did.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!