The Confessing Seventh-day Adventist

Several threads refer to judgement. Some posts are against judging while others are for it. As a Christian, are we to judge others?

Many base their belief that they should not judge anyone on the verse from Mathew 7:1,

"Judge not, that ye be not judged."

This is repeated in Luke 6:37,

"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged..."

In John 12:47, when speaking to the crowds, Jesus said,

"And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."

He did go on in the next verse to say there was one who would judge those who rejected His message, the word.

Peter tells us in Acts 10:42 that Jesus is

the Judge of the quick and the dead.

Paul warns us about criticizm of Christian's who are weak in the faith in Romans 14:3 when he says,

"Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him."

Additional comments are made about judging fellow Christians in verse 10 and 13.

However, in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul seems to go against this tide and clearly teaches that the church is not to tolerate those who call themselves Christian but are knowingly committing sins.

Based on these, it would seem that we are:
(1) Not to judge non-Christians but we are to tell them the Good News, God will convict them of their sins and motivate any necessary change;
(2) Not nit-pick those Christians who are weak in the faith (and we don't necessarily know who those are); but,
(3) Not allow open sinfulness within our assemblies.

Some would say that to whatever extent you judge, to that extent you will be judged.

What say you?

Jerry,

Those are great questions!

Peter says, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). On the other hand, Paul says, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). I hope everyone takes notice of the contrast. Peter directs us to cover sin. Paul directs us to expose sin.

I like to demystify this very real dichotomy by quoting 1 John 5:16.

The Apostle John wrote:If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. 1 John 5:16.

The answer is in having a sense that there are sins unto death and sins not unto death. Apparently, we are required to exercise discernment.

Jesus said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

Paul said, “The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment” (1 Corinthians 2:15).

I take the admonition, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1) as good advice on escaping the final judgment. “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). In other words, it’s highly advisable to be incredibly humble in our opinions of ourselves and merciful in our opinions of others. Surmising evil when none exists is a certain path to perdition.

I like your comments. This is a very difficult subject unless approached from a view of love for our neighbor and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It seems also that our Lord and Saviour, Jesus our Christ, consistently loved those who were rejected by the synagoge but Jesus harshly criticized the leadership of the Pharasees and Saducees for their misunderstanding of the Word and their hypocricy at not doing what they knew was right.

To apply that to today, perhaps we would show our consistent love towards those outside the church never failing to let them know that there is a plan for reconciliation between themselves and their Creator. Christians should however stand lovingly but firmly against those inside the church who are not following our Lord's commandments or teaching doctrines not taught by our Lord.

As to certain traditions, we are not to argue with our brothers or sisters in Christ who feel led by our God, the God of Abraham, to practice certain traditions that they feel are required while we may feel led to believe in the freedom from the tradition. Applying logic, we can reverse this and say that for those traditions we feel are important we should not however push our brothers and sisters away from the way because of their belief that they are free of that tradition.

In any case, it seems it is up to the mature brother and sister in Christ to recognize the differences in all these situations and to build up and not tear our neighbors not in Christ or our brothers and sisters who are in Christ.

Your opinions?

I take Jesus's admonition "judge not, lest ye be judged" to heart, and indeed I wouldn't "judge" ANYONE. To me, judging someone like say, Saddam Hussein is to declare something like "Saddam Hussein is definitely going to Hell". Well, Jesus says I CAN't say that since everyone, no matter how evil, has the chance, right up to the moment of death, to accept Christ and thus be saved. We mortals just can't possibly know what's in the heart of even someone like Hussein when he's staring "the Grim Reaper" right in the eye. Having said THAT, I WILL say that Jesus NEVER said anything about figuring someone's "chances" of being saved at the last split second. It's quite acceptable to declare "Saddam's chances of being saved are one in a billion"
What do you think of this Eugene? Just more of my "wacked out" Theology?

thanks, ken

I would define judging as discerning between good and bad.

If someone murders someone, I will certainly think that is an evil man.

Remember the second part of the verse "lest ye be judged".

If we remember Jesus' parables, in one a man is forgiven of his debt, and then goes and demands the repayment of debt from a poor man. The rich man found out and judged the first man as he had judged the poor man.

So I guess my point is, judge, but be quick to forgive and forget.
If you aren't, be prepared for your fate.

If you judge a person and hate him because of it, it is sin and wrong. But if you judge a person and discern what is wrong without hating him that is wisdom. Then you can do what is necessary to correct the matter even by putting a thief in jail. Without Judges we would be a very lawless nation!

No we are not to judge, neither did Jesus judge anyone. We are to love them and pray for them to seek after the truth. They are however, judged by every word in the Bible. So in a sense, we judge ourselves. We have free will to choose this day whom we will serve.

But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?" Acts 13:9-10.

Apostate Christians often assert that 1 Timothy 1:19-20, 1 Corinthians 5 and Jude 10-16 is unkind and antichrist.

Yes, we are too judge. I think the controversy over this scriptures results in a lack of spiritual discernment. Far too often people quote scriptures which seems to be saying that we do not judge and forget those that say we do judge. For instance, Paul says if we are to judge angel how then are we not able to judge the smallest things.
Further, simply put, judging is that of saying what is right and wrong, and that the LORD does want us to do. It is because men do not say what is right or wrong now, everything is so relative, that so many especially young people are confused. No one wants to be accused of judging, but if we do as Christ says, you shouldn't fear that, for instance in John 7:24, where Christ says judge not according to the appearance, but judge ACCORDING to righteousness (that's spiritual discernment), and in Zec 7:9 - Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassios every man to his brother.
Also, consider that woman caught in adultery. Christ did judge her. He never said she wasnt guilty, but when he asked he who is without sin, cast the first stone, for that was the law, but Christ showed as He tells us to do, He executed TRUE (what is right) judgment when he showed her mercy and compassion, but also that she sin no more. What's so hard about telling people what is wrong as well as right.
When you invite someone to come to your church is it to hear the Truth, as Seventh Day Adventists claim to have to Truth, or are you saying you're just like everyone else, it's all relative.

We must take care.
JESUS said to PETER get thopu behind me SATAN.
Definately a JUDGEMENT and not nice at that but TRUE.

JESUS also said YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL.

The word JUDGEMENT is a manifold meaning word.
It can mean to invent a conclusion.
To compare to the law of GOD for the answer.

It can mean to give a sentence that needs carrying out.

Then too it can mean to caryout the actual punishment.

The text judge not are all about having a human idea that a person has wronged you. But it may only be your feeling are hurt.
So you come to a wrong conclusion.
We are to call SIN & SINNERS by their proper name and this is an order from GOD.