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You Lookin' at ME!?? |
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In the inner-city the exclamation/question, "You lookin' at Me!??", sums up a favorite Bible phrase that Christians and non-Christians alike all seem to know. In good King James English it's "Judge not, lest ye be judged!" The mere accusation, let alone admitting that you'd even consider judging someone, is grounds for shunning in many circles. So in an effort to set your mind at rest and to answer your silent question: Am I judging you? With clarity and conviction, the answer is a resounding "depends." This too should be your answer when you consider the idea of judging, as you will see in this Biblical examination of the subject. The panacea of living in a judge free world, where no one judges anyone or anything, is a work of fiction. Making judgments is an inevitable and necessary part of everyone's life. Everyone does it every day. In fact, those who have written to tell me that I shouldn't be judging anyone are breaking their own rule. In effect they are making a judgment concerning me; perhaps my abilities, or the accuracy of the content, or some other factor. One of the most interesting of these letters came from an elder of a church, who claimed that no one should ever question the acts or motives of anyone who professes to be a Christian! We'll look further at this issue later, but first I'll prove the statement I made that we all judge people, circumstances, or things, countless times a day. Consider for a moment the judgment-calls one makes concerning what to do each day, who to hang out with, what to wear, what to eat or not eat (especially staying away from those things marked with the skull and crossbones). At other times we are called on to judge who should represent us in government, or to sit in a jury and determine acts of murderers, rapists and terrorists (for example) to be reprehensible. Or what about your judgment concerning buying that magazine or picking up that R rated video while at the local Blockbuster? The list could go on but the fact is clear, we all spend a lot of time judging. So what makes some judging wrong to so many people? It appears to be related to a person's views concerning right and wrong. If they happen to agree with your judgment standard, then judging is perfectly fine. For this very reason, many of those in the "judge not" camp will join together in judging those in the "judge" camp, ruling their actions out of line. Many of those same people would judge a convicted serial rapist as deserving of punishment because the crime offends their sense of right and wrong, while condemning others as being judgmental concerning their stands on other forms of sexual immorality; including pre-martial and extra-marital relationships. Again, the standard centers on their morality or standard for judging. The looser the standard, the more likely they are to look down on those with a more rigid set of values. Nowhere in scriptures is the issue to stop all judging. Rather the key to understanding this subject is the standard. The Bible, over and over, asks "what standard are you judging by?" Consider, in context, the very verse that people so often run to at any hint of moral evaluation that could affect one of their personal "sacred cows."
The context is very telling and necessary to understanding the true meaning of what was being said. Randomly pulling a sentence from a paragraph of any document can be used to put words in the speakers' mouth that were not intended. The phrase, "Any text without a context is a pretext", is valid of Scriptures. It is a fundamental principle of Scriptural interpretation to understand the context of any verse. While Matthew 7:1 in isolation appears to condemn all judging, verses two to five clearly explain that judging has to be done by a common standard and never an arbitrary or capricious one. Verse six then goes so far as to require the reader to judge whether a person is a "dog" or "pig", spiritually speaking. Jesus is clearly telling people to make right judgment based on His standard, the unchangeable word of God. So if the standard is God's word, what are we called on to judge by that standard? [Take the time to check out the context of all the verses I use!] Judge yourself.
Christians are commanded to be judging themselves. In fact, if we judge ourselves first by the standard of God's word, we have no reason to fear those who would (or should) judge us by the same standard. Judge your neighbor.
In regards to providing help or righting wrongs with your neighbors, the Bible is clear that Christians are to judge fairly and not be swayed by prestige or financial standing. Again, the overall standard is truth, fairness, and love as defined by God. Judge prophets (those speaking in God's name).
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While there are many other passages which deal with how to judge those speaking in Jesus' name, this passage specifically commands Christians to judge them by their works. Judge other professed believers
These passages set a higher standard for a specific group of people, namely those who profess to be believers. The church is not called to judge non-believers for their unregenerate behavior. In fact, believers should expect unregenerate behavior from unregenerate people. These are the people we associate with day-by-day, separate from them yet interacting with them as a witness and testimony to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In contrast, the church is specifically called to judge when the person professes to be a believer but their actions do not follow through. Today, it has become fashionable for the church to condemn those outside it, for not wanting to pray or for not having Biblical values including living an immoral lifestyle, while at the same time tolerating overt sin and corruption within the church (i.e. specific professed believers). The justification is usually the words, "Who am I to judge? We all sin." The Biblical answer to that needs to be, "We are believers struggling to not sin and for the purity of the church - and because God commanded it - we must judge." Judge professed teachers and leaders of the church [more on this subject is here]
While similar to the exhortation to judge prophets, it's especially imperative to know that this requirement expands to all who would profess to be a leader in the church - or a teacher of Jesus. The passage in Revelation stands in stark contrast to the one in 2 Corinthians. In Revelation, Jesus is commending a church for testing (or judging) its professed leaders. The result was keeping the wolves away from the flock through preventing false apostles from having a venue in the church. Remember, false teachers don't belong in the church. In 2 Corinthians Paul was admonishing (even, dare I say it, judging) the church at Corinth for putting up with false teachers and false gospels. Failure to judge in these areas has contributed to the widespread perversion of the name "Christian" in today's church. People and religious organizations - ranging from cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons to so-called liberal denominations - are often accepted as being "Christians" merely because they say so. It's time for the church to start judging.
Judging spiritual things should be part of every Christians' everyday life. As such a foundational part of being a child of God, this could be assumed to be part of God's training process by which He prepares us for our ultimate destiny:
The apostle Paul wrote this while reminding the Corinthian church that they had no business asking non-believers to judge their disputes. The church, which should be working to not have disputes and disagreements, is well qualified to judge such matters - even when they pertain to lesser issues of a non-spiritual nature. The Bible in no way condones all forms of judging - there's no blank check given to a Christian. The overall confine of our judging is the Biblical admonition that we judge "with righteous judgment." (See John 7:24) While some of the passages we've examined command us to judge by actions, the one just referenced makes it clear that it cannot be according to superficial appearances. Class standing or appearances generated by wealth and poverty are other specific examples that Scriptures warns us to not be swayed by (see James 2:1-4).
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Some things we cannot and should not judge. Issues of conscience arising from varying degrees of faith are one such area.
It's amazing how easy it is for some Christians, who practice little right judgment in other areas, to judge other believers by their own personal standard. How quickly we forget that God works differently, and in His timing, in each believer. Wrong judging is requiring a believer to be at the same level spiritually as you are (or think you are). One of the best examples of this today pertains to an edible substance, as did Paul's example to the Romans. While one believer in their maturity of faith is persuaded that drinking wine is good, still another condemns them based on their own faith (or lack thereof). Again, right judging cannot rest on personal standards; rather it must rest on absolute standards. Two believers can act rightly in opposite ways to the same thing, as God as led or matured them. Rules that one person establishes for himself may not be applicable to someone else, who may not be tempted in the same way. For example, if a person's weakness is gluttony, frequenting the local smorgasbord is not a good thing, while for another it creates no temptation.
The place righteous judging allows no compromise is in regards to sin. God never leads differently in regards to defined sin. God has filled His word with examples of specific sin, sometimes seemly in repetition and example to the point of absurdity. I believe He did so because we are so prone to creating artificial and hypocritical standards of judgment that He knows we need the repeated emphasis. If we train ourselves daily to judge between right and wrong - by God's standard alone - we will be able to uphold God's clear command:
Can you judge what the deeds of darkness are? Do you judge what they are? The mere act of exposing them (including verbally or through personally refraining from them) will have you accused of judging - and you are! As long as it is God's standard you are apply, there's nothing wrong with that. So... You lookin' at ME? If you are a believer, judging by God's standard, I can only hope so!
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Written by Brent
MacDonald
of Lion Tracks Ministries. (c) 2004. |
