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Judging

2-18-12

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Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV1984)

 ¹ “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

   ³ “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? ⁴ 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? ⁵ 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.

 

Most people who have read the bible or heard someone talk about the bible will be quick to tell you that we should not judge others. And after reading the verses above it seems that it is absolutely true. Jesus tells us in verses 7:3-5 above that sometimes when we judge others we in fact have more sin in our life than they do.

  

Secondly, notice that it says in verse 7:1 that if we judge others then we will be judged. So Jesus is telling us that we must be careful about judging others because if we do then we will be judged in the same way that we judge others. And if that is true then we add more sin to our own life and therefore make our own judgment more severe.

Romans 2:1-3 (NIV1984)

¹ You, therefore, have no excuse, 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. ² Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. ³ So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

 

 

Now we can see clearly in verses 2:1-3 above that the point is we sometimes judge someone for a particular sin and yet commit the very same sin ourselves. Therefore, Jesus rightfully says in  Matthew 7:5 above that we are hypocrites when we do that.  

 

Romans 14:9-13 (NIV1984)

 ⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰ You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ¹¹ It is written:

   “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
   every tongue will confess to God.’”

 ¹² So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

 ¹³ Therefore 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.

 

Again, we read some very harsh words relating to our judging others. Reminding us that our own judgment will be much worse if we continue to judge others wrongly.

 

At this point we have clearly established the fact that we must be very careful not to judge others wrongly. Because the consequences of us judging others can be very detrimental for us on judgment day. However, there is more about the subject of judging in the bible that we need to know about.

 

As stated in the beginning, most people know all about the negative aspects of judging and are quick to say we should never judge others. But very seldom do we hear people talk about the bible telling us there are times when we should judge others. And in certain situations the judgment is necessary to save our local church from being slowly destroyed. Consider the following bible story.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NIV1984)

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. ² And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? ³ Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. ⁴ When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, ⁵ hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

 

This story in the bible about the Corinthian church is a powerful story that explains a very important spiritual principle. Paul the Apostle is writing to the church in the city of Corinth. Paul had heard about a man in the church who was committing a sexual sin. That sin is a serious problem for the man and will have serious consequences for him. But there is another problem that is happening to the church at the same time. The church people were aware of the man and his sin and yet they did nothing about it. In fact, as Paul says in verse 5:2 above, the church people knew about the man’s sin, did nothing and at the same time the church people were even proud of themselves and their church. Paul obviously had very strong feelings about this issue. He explained to them that it was a terrible thing that they were allowing this to happen in their church. Paul then says to the church people in verse 5:2 that they should have been filled with grief when they found out the man was committing this sin. He also tells them that they should have put the man out of their fellowship or out of the church. And later again in verse 5:15 Paul says they should have expelled the man from the church. Paul said twice that the sinful man should have been removed from the church. Obviously, it is a very important principle if the bible mentions it twice.

 

In verse 5:5 Paul even goes as far as to say, “Hand this man over to Satan”, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved”. What exactly is Paul talking about when he says turn the man over to Satan so his sinful nature will be destroyed and is spirit will be saved on Judgment day? Paul is saying that when a person is expelled from the church they become more exposed to Satan’s attacks and therefore suffer even more for their sin. So when a person gets expelled from their church they have two choices. They can continue in sin and suffer more for it or they can repent and stop sinning and be forgiven. In II Corinthians 2:5-11 Paul talks about this same sinful man repenting and later being restored to the church. Which is how God expects the church to operate.

 

At this point many people would say that the church should not treat people so harshly. It will hurt the person to much. Then they would say let’s not judge him let’s just love him and let him continue to be a member of our church. But God is telling us in this story that He wants us to judge people in our church for a reason. In I Corinthians 5:6-8 below Paul uses the analogy of yeast in the dough to explain why we should not let sinful people stay in our church.

 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NIV1984)

 

 ⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

 

The next verse below uses other words to explain why the church needs to be protected from sinful people or protect the dough from the yeast.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV1984)

 ³³ Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

 

 

So what God is telling us with this story is that when we allow sin to exist in our church it will eventually cause other members to sin also and become corrupt. This in turn will eventually destroy the church itself. Therefore, just as yeast causes a significant change to the dough, so sin in the church will make a significant change to the church or its people. Now let’s continue reading what Paul says about sin and judgment in the church.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 (NIV1984)

 ⁹ I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

 ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

 

The verses 5:1-5 above can be very difficult to understand and obey. However, once again God is telling us what is best for us and best for the church. He is saying that we must treat believers one way and unbelievers another way. The reason is simple. If a person has been born again or joined with God’s spiritual family then they are held to a higher standard and should be judged for their actions. God expects more of them because they can understand spiritual principles. If a person has not been born into God’s spiritual family then they do not understand spiritual things. And therefore they are not judged by us because they have not had their spiritual eyes opened yet. So even if we corrected them they would not understand why we are judging them. The verse below explains this principle for us. 

 

1 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV1984)

¹⁴ The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

 

 So let’s think about what we have discovered so far about judging others. First, we found out that if we judge others we will be judged ourselves. That makes it sound like we should avoid judging all together. Then the second thing we found out was that we should judge people in the church who are known to be living in sin. That we must do that to protect the church and the people in it from being corrupted or becoming sinful. So how do we deal with this issue? Look at the next few verses.

Galatians 6:1-5 (NIV1984)

 ¹ Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, ⁵ for each one should carry his own load.

 

 

So from the verses above we see that there is a time to not judge and a time to judge. If we are individually struggling with our spirituality then we should be very careful not to judge because we probably have a log in our own eye. But if we are living a spiritual life then we should gently approach our brothers and sisters in the church who are practicing sin and encourage them to repent and stop sinning. Notice in verse 6:1 above that Paul even says to the spiritual people that they should be careful so that they do not fall into sin themselves.

 

The lesson to be learned is that we should all be careful to avoid  falling into sin. If we do fall into sin we should hope that other spiritual church members will come to us and gently restore us or encourage us to stop sinning. And the spiritual people need to remember that we are all capable of falling into sin so that they remain humble as they help others to turn away from sin. We are all very fragile and weak when it comes to sin. We need to be very careful how we live our life. We also need to judge ourselves now and then to make sure we are still living a spiritual life. The last few verses below remind us that we have an enemy who is always trying to get us to sin.  

 

1 Peter 5:8 (NIV1984)

 ⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.