To Judge or Not to Judge

The following response to an earlier post caught my attention, and I wanted to address it fully.  This line of reasoning has been around for some time and I just can not abide by it.  I’ll explain why.  But first a look at the posted response.

 

 

“Anonymous said…

This was in my mailbox as part of my Bible verse of the day and I thought of you.  Romans 14:1-13.  (See passage)

<snipped for brevity>

I pray that you consider that you risk losing someone by judging them.”

 

 

The key verse in this passage is Romans 14:4, “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

 

Thus the idea is promoted that the Christian should not judge.

 

There are two fundamental differences between what I promote and what this passage condemns.

 

First:  The passage is clearly written about Christians passing judgment upon other Christians.  I agree with the passage, that such a practice is wrong.  From time to time you will hear a minister condemn the activities of another minister.  That is a bad business.  As we grow in the Lord it is important to learn that God calls each of us to unique avenues of ministry.  My favorite example is to compare Noah with Moses, both had the problem of getting a large group over a body of water.  Noah was instructed by God to build a boat, and the fact that he did so makes him a great man of the faith.  But if Moses had followed Noah’s example at the red sea… it would have been a sin.  Moses was given different instructions, as were fitting to the situation.  This is confusing to the new converts.  But what it means is that we should not criticize OTHER CHRISTIANS just because they do things differently than we would.  This is normal, expected and even part of God’s overall plan. 

 

Second:  The activity in question is not something that is clearly contrary to the Laws of God.  Neither the parting of the Red Sea or the building of a boat is a violation of any of the ten commandments.  Please note that there is a huge difference between violating the laws of God and violating the traditions of various denominations.  Mankind is always writing rules.  The Scribes and Pharases turned God’s basic laws into several volumes of man-made rules.  Any Law Library is another example of this fact.  Every denomination has it’s version of the Doctrine and Covenants, whether or not they have stopped and wrote them down.  Men like rules!  BUT the only rules that we will be held to at the great judgment, are those which are given to us by God.  Those are the only ones that really count.

          Also note that there is a huge difference between expounding on the Law of God and passing judgment.  How can anyone keep God’s laws if they do not know what they are?  And how can they know what the Laws are, if no one teaches them?  But teaching the Law is not pointing our finger at someone and calling them a sinner.  It is the act of expounding or promoting the Laws of God.  Nor is admonishing people not to lie or steal a judgment of any particular individual.  It is educating them that the act itself is a sin.  In other words, I maintain that exposing sin is not the same thing as exposing the sinner.

 

Now that I have defined the differences between what I believe we should be doing, from what we should not be doing.  I’d like to explain WHY we should be doing this.  Okay?

 

The biblical cautions against being judgmental are clear and oft quoted. But these assertions have been so overstated that they impress me like the difference between being open minded and being so open minded that have become mindless.  Are Christians really supposed to be so judgment free that they become the epitome of indiscretion?  I think not!  The act of discerning right from wrong is a fundamental exercise in judgment.  Learning right from wrong is a lifelong process and a fundamental part of Christianity!  But that isn’t all.  It isn’t enough to pursue this for yourself only.  The “Live and let Live” philosophy of life.  I think God calls us to do more than that.

 

A part of being a Christian is being salt and light to the world.  Salt is a preservative.  We are supposed to help preserve the nations.  The scripture asks the provocative question, that if salt looses its flavor, how will you season it?  Then it points out that flavorless salt is good for nothing.  My take on that?  Simple, if the Christians look like, act like, sound like the world… well if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and acts like a duck, it is a duck.  Christians who blend in too well with the world, so that you can’t tell the difference between them and the lost, are not being salt or light.

 

To make the point a little sharper, we need only consider God’s word to Ezekiel.  See Ezekiel 3:17-21.

 

“17.  Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

 18.  When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

 19.  Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

 20.  Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

 21.  Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.”

 

As I understand this, if we are not warning the lost of the consequences of sin, then their blood is on our hands.  We are accountable.

 

Haven’t we all been commissioned to spread the gospel message?  Are not we all given that task?  Then I ask you this; how can you tell people about the saving grace of Jesus, if and when the lost know nothing about God, God’s Law or their sin?  You might as well be telling them that Santa Cause threw himself on a live grenade to save them from the bogeyman under the bed.  It is all a bunch of silly nonsense to them.  You have to start, like the book of Genesis starts, with the existence of God, that God created everything, and that means it all belongs to Him, and that because he owns it, he has the right to make the rules.  Then I need to know what his rules are, forsaking all the man-made tripe, and then I need to figure out whether I’m guilty or innocent by those rules.  Then and only then will the gospel message become meaningful. 

 

What they do with that message, is between them and God.  But if we fail to warn the world about the whole “the wages of sin is death,” thing, then we are the ones who sin before God.

 

-Pastor Torch.