Judging Others

[~Shalhevet~]

By Nikki1

Christians are to judge behaviour or sinful activity. How else are we to determine who these people are if we do not look at sinful activity and make some sort of judgment on it and the person(s) involved in it? Far to often, I see Matthew 7:1 misinterpreted and taken out of context.

When Jesus told us not to judge in Matthew 7:1, he was talking about not judging hypocritically. He clarifies this when further in the passage, Jesus says

Matthew 7:2-5

2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Jesus is warning against judging someone else when you yourself are sinning just as bad or even worse, and this is the kind of judgment Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7. If a believer sees another believer sinning, it is his duty as a Christian to confront the person on it. Jesus said in

Matthew 18:15-17

15Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

16But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

17And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

By JCISGD Judging is only when a sentence is passed such as saying "you will never change you lazy slob". The judging is in the curse that says the person will never change, but if they are lazy and a slob then that is only telling the truth. If that was said without love or the words "worthless" added that too would be judging.

Another form of judging is to assign motives to the other person. We are not God and do not know others heart or motive. We can ask outright "are you being nasty" or say "I think you are being nasty"

Christians must defend true doctrine and must rebuke sin, this clear throughout OT and NT.

If someone calls me an adulterer or sinner etc, i will want to find out if there is any truth to their claim but why should I take offense. If they are right they have spared my soul, and if they are wrong Gods peace will descend on me.

Taking offense is in clear opposition to the sermon on the mount by our Lord.

By Mr. & Mrs. Mikejudging? that is what we are to do, starting with ones own self.... the Bible does not tell us not to judge, but to judge righteously..... and how would one do that?

for if we can not judge the small things on this earth, how are we going to judge the angels?

What measure is a person using to judge? me? I try to stick with the Word of God, for that is the strictest measure there is, thus, it will also be what is use to judge me.... even if I do not use it to judge, it will still be used to judge me.......

before I start hounding my neighbor to pick up the trash in his back yard, I need to ensure the trash in my back yard is picked up and that the trash that is in his back yard is not something that blew over from my back yard..... (plank and speck issue...)

what constitutes sexual imorality? a woman with holding from her husband for years? or a woman that is phyically cheating? Adultry can even be taken as turning away from ones spouse, as God refered to Israel, that Israel is commiting adultry against God by turning her back on God, turning away from her first love....... as with one of the 7 churches turning away from their first love......

abuse? any kind of abuse is abuse all the same.... if a spouse abuses their parther, a man abusing his wife or wife her husband, no matter what kind, is showing there is not love in that relation shipe from the abuser..... a person can not and will not harm something or some one that they love.....

if you love your car, you will not be out taking a sledge hammer to it every day, no , more likely you will be washing and waxing it to preserve it.....

the same is true with a spouse, if a person loves their spouse, they will be taking care of the spouse, 100% give.... ensuring the spouse iswell tended.....

I can go on, but have done so before....

I do not condone divorce, but I do not condemn it either.... I have been there, I also know that divorce is not one of the unforgivable sins..... even though it is treated as such by many many many people and denominations, even though the rate is 50:50 in and out of the church....

HOWEVER......

it is proven that if a man prays out loud for his wife, daily, so that she hears him, and if the wife prays out loud for her husband every day, the rate goes from 50:50 to 1:1000.... that is right, if they do this, the rate becomes 1 out of 1000 that will end in divorce...... heck of a difference

mike

I am bringing these over from another thread to start this topic.

Are Christians allowed to judge other people? I was always told never to judge. Thoughts??

[Hunterpoet]

OK....you are walking down the street. You see a man snatch a womens purse. What do you think. Is this a bad thing, a good thing....Did he do something evil or something good......

To answer your question point blank....NO...we do not judge other people, because to do so would be judging their heart and we cannot do that, because we cannot see their heart.....BUT

We are allowed to judge their actions. If you were called to testify in a court about the purse snatcher, you would testify to what you saw him do. You cannot testify about him, because you do not know him. Fact is, the court( the jury and the judge) do not know him, only what he has done....So the court is judging his actions for a specific event at a specific point in time.

So, NO, we cannot judge a person, but YES, we can judge their actions in accordance with God's teachings from His Holy Word.

The same way the purse snatchers actions are judged according to the written law of the land.

[OneLight]

Yes, we are to judge our brothers and sisters. Judging another does not mean we sentence them, but recognize when they are sinning. Just by recognizing their sin, we have already judged them, and only after we have made this judgment can we approach them in love and in scripture. Do you need scripture?

[CSLewis]

Too many planks in this eye to be judging my brothers

and sisters, -

[Guest LadyC]

we've all heard "judge not" all our lives. but the truth is, that is so out of context that it isn't even biblical. God says we ARE to judge... but we're to judge righteously, according to God's standards, not according to our own understanding. this isnt just a twist on scripture, it's something we are TOLD to do. biblegateway.com is a great place for running a search on the word, and then being able to read all the passages on judgement in their proper context.

[OneLight]

Too many planks in this eye to be judging my brothers

and sisters, -

Then remove your plank and do what He tells you to do!

We all have things wrong in us and, as mentioned before in the original thread, we are to first judge ourselves and remove the plank. I just sent a PM to a beloved sister whom I talk with and said the following.

Nobody, but someone who believe they are always right, acts on their judging all the time. These people are rare and not well liked at all. Yet, we are told in scripture that if we see a brother or sister walking in sin, we are to approach them with love and scripture, and if they hear you, you have saved this soul from death.

James 5:19-20

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

... snip ...

Personally, I believe that if we turn away when the Spirit tells us in our hearts to do something (which I am guilty of doing), we are somewhat responsible to their continuation in sin. It is like we don't love them enough to tell them the truth, but love our peace more.

Whenever we make a decision if something is right or wrong, we are judging. There is no way to get out of it. The trouble comes when we start to condemn them. Who are we to condemn? We are to speak scripture into a situation and allow the Holy Spirit to convict them enough for repentance.

[~Shalhevet~]

Condemning comes with a lot of judgment I notice. That really bothers me. You say exactly how I thought the scriptures to say. Thanks.

Can someone explain the reference to judging angels? I've never heard that scripture. Thanks.

[Trusting Jesus]

Yes, we are to judge our brothers and sisters. Judging another does not mean we sentence them, but recognize when they are sinning. Just by recognizing their sin, we have already judged them, and only after we have made this judgment can we approach them in love and in scripture. Do you need scripture?

So true. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but He is very specific in the Bible as to what is sin. How can we love someone and not try to bring them out of sin? The Bible tells us that we are to judge actions (Paul's first letter to the Corinthians tells them how to deal with a member of the church who was deep in sin). The judging we do, though, isn't condeming judgment. It isn't up to us to condemn anyone to Hell (we don't have that authority thank God!), but God hasn't changed and His rules for living a Godly life haven't changed. We need to conform our own lives to God's plan, and we need to encourage others in their walk.

<>< ><>

Nathele

[OneLight]

Condemning comes with a lot of judgment I notice. That really bothers me. You say exactly how I thought the scriptures to say. Thanks.

Can someone explain the reference to judging angels? I've never heard that scripture. Thanks.

When Paul is talking to the church in Corinth about taking a brother or sister to court, he tells them that they should, instead of using the worldly ways, take it to the elders and allow them to settle it. He strengthens this by saying the following.

1 Corinthians 6:3

Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

Paul does not tell us what we will be judging them about though ...

[Sir Gareth]

The way i read it about judging is like this:

We are never to pass judgement on someone, such as we don't look at someone and say they are going to hell. If i saw a married person i knew out with a woman who was not his wife hanging off his arm I know it is something wrong to do, but that does not mean i need to look at that person as being a 'bad' person, but just doing a bad thing.

We need to be able to judge righteously what sin is, if we're not calling sin sin than what exactly are we supposed to tell people when they ask why they need a savior?