18.. JUDGING Yes or No?

There is an apparent paradox in Scripture (primarily in the New Testament) about whether or not we are to Judge. There are a number of passages which tell us when we are to judge and just about as many telling us when we are not to judge. I have done a considerable amount of study in this area over the years under David Pawson, Derek Prince, Jack Hayford and 1 or 2 other good teachers of standing, so I’ve pulled out my notes and can feel relatively safe and authentic with what I have to say. First we will have a look at some scriptures which tell us NOT to judge... (Matt 7. 1-5) Jesus is saying here quite emphatically “Do not judge” and if we do, the judgement we use will come back on us, and I believe it will do so from two different sources, Human and Divine. People will judge us as we judge them. In addition God will judge us the way we judge others. In (Rom 2.1-3 Paul is addressing Religious people. Then, as now, Religious people seem to think because of who they are, they have all the answers and on that premise all others are wrong. In fact this is not always the case. A person who is regularly judging others is very often wrong themselves. A little further in the same chapter (Rom 2.16) and again in (1Cor 4.1-5) This is a remarkable statement from Paul, He’s saying, “I’m not aware of anything I’ve done wrong,” but that did not justify him, or prove him righteous. God alone is his and indeed every ones judge. He alone will do the justifying and condemning .One last Scripture against judging, taken from the Epistle of James (4. 11-12). Here James is especially speaking about believers who speak evil against other believers, as Christians we are warned against doing this, yet many of us do just that and regularly, with words like, “I just think you ought to know” or “ I’m not judging them but do you think so and so are doing the right thing.” There is a Scriptural principal to deal with such matters, talk to your Pastor, not members of the congregation, that’s just Gossip. We need to remember, doing this is contrary to Scripture and The Lord will deal servilely with anyone who persists in doing this. Now for some Scriptures advocating judgement. (John 7.24) In this case Jesus was telling them how to judge. Then in (Cor 5.1-5) Notice, Paul says he had already judged and required the Corinthian church to endorse his judgement. Furthermore it was an extremely severe judgement to deliver a man over to Satan. In the same chapter ie (Cor 5.11- 13) Paul distinguishes between the believers and the unbelievers, in this instance we are not responsible to judge the unbelievers, but we are required to judge the believers. Again in the same Epistle (Corr 6.1-4) Paul is establishing two points the first is negative. It is wrong for a Christian to take another Christian to face the law in a non Christian court. On the positive side however, Christians are required to judge internal disputes between fellow Christians. Finally, look at what Jesus says in (Matt 18.15-17) If Christians can’t settle disputes among themselves, ultimately it has to go before the church. That is not an option. It’s a commandment. We are not free to leave disputes unresolved. In fact we are obligated to take them before the church. If a person refuses to accept the decision of the church, he looses his right to be treated as a believer. This is a solemn statement from Paul which few Christians take heed of these days, they would rather throw all their toys out of the cot and go to join another group, but in the time of Paul and the Apostles there were no “other groups,” or Christian churches like Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian etc. However the basic principal is still valid today as it was then, unresolved disputes lead to disunity in the body of Christ and need to be dealt with quickly and honestly by a good healthy Bible believing Christian Church We can now see the resolution to the paradox. The confusion arose when the Jews wanted a King. Prior to that, the king was the judger there was no supreme court or court of appeal the Kings word was the final judgement. So we see that God’s design originally for Israel was “King and Judge” In fact the sacred word for God was applied to Judges. “Elohim” Why? Because they took God’s place to judge His people, they had the authority of God, this was born out by the fact that they were permitted to use the name of God Himself “Elohim” it was a measure of the tremendous sanctity and authority which God attaches to the position of Judge when they judge with righteousness. There are a couple of scriptures I’ve chosen to clarify this. (Gen 18.25) Right in the beginning of the Bible God is establishing a principal that I believe holds throughout scripture., It is contrary to scripture to treat the righteous as the wicked. Our contemporary culture resents authority and law enforcement, we assume the primary function of judging is to punish the wicked, whereas it is and always should be to protect the innocent and righteous, which seldom if ever happens today. One only needs to look at the court pages to see how criminals are treated in comparison to victims this is a typical instance of our perverted thinking in modern culture. We must always bare in mind that the primary function of justice is to protect the righteous. It is never in line with God’s will to deal with the wicked as with the righteous. In this connection a word about divorce, I believe it is contrary to scripture to treat the innocent party the same as the guilty. That is a denial of the basic principal of scripture, in the words of Abraham “Far be it from You to do such a thing...That the righteous should be as the wicked Far be it from You! Shall the judge of all the earth do right.” (Gen 18. 25) God responded by implication, “Yes that’s right Abraham I will never depart from that principal.” So we see then that God the Ruler is also the judge of all the earth. The principal of Ruling and Judging should help us understand when to judge and when not to. In Psalm 82, God reproves the judges for judging unjustly, Verse 1. says “God stands in the congregation of the mighty, He judges among the God’s” That’s a remarkable statement. Who are the Gods? And why is He judging them? The Judges are the gods (remember Elohim they are taking God’s place) and God is judging them because they had been unjust judges using God’s name and their position as God’s visible representatives to judge unrighteously and that’s the reason we are not to judge others, first of all we have not been given that mantle or gift from God and therefore we cannot take Gods place. I’d venture to say, this goes for all God’s gifts. Use the gift God’s given you, support others in theirs but never ever try to take on another persons gifting it will end in disaster. The New Testament gives us more details of judgement.(1Peter 1.17) is saying The ultimate Judge is the Father, However, as Jesus Himself explains in (John 5.22 God has delegated the job to His Son, And in (Matt 25.31-32) Jesus tells us The Son of Man will come on the last day in all His Glory and the first thing He’ll do is judge every man according to his works, in verse 27 Jesus describes Himself as “The Son of Man), because Jesus as a human being understands our human frailties and infirmities He experienced them Himself and we will not be able to say, “You don’t understand.’ The delegation of authority goes further, just as the Father delegated it to The Son, and He delegated His authority to His Word, in (John 12.48) Jesus says we will be judged by His word, and we will have no excuse because we are so privileged not only to have our own Bibles but also have so many good teachers available to us. The Word of God should be our most treasured possession. There are some people in the world who so desire to possess a Bible of their own they are willing to pay the little money they have for food just to possess a copy, ultimately they know and so should we The Word of God is going to be our final judge. Scary thought isn’t it!! Especially when one sees today Christian Teachers, Priests, Pastors and Leaders watering down God’s Word, Yes He loves us, Yes He has Mercy on us and Yes He is the ultimate perfect Judge who has provided us with the ultimate perfect source of help in His Holy Spirit. So we should take full advantage of all the help that is available to us, because one day we all have to answer to“The Word.” My final say on this subject is judging without authority, I will give you three instances from Scripture They are worth looking up for yourselves. The first is in (Gen.19.9) Lot did not have any authority as a new comer in the land to deal with the men who came to his door to rape his visitors, fortunately the Angels dealt with the intruders. My second Scripture is taken from (Exid 2.13-14.) After killing an Egyptian on the first day that Moses set out to deliver Israel he tried to intervene in a Hebrew fight, and was smartly put in his place “Who made you our Judge.” My third Scripture is from the New Testament Luke 12.13-14.) by Jesus Himself. You will remember the man who claimed his brother was cheating him out of his inheritance, Jesus’ words to him were ”Who gave me the authority to judge this case?” So we see that authority and judgement go together you cannot have one without the other, if you give your eldest daughter the job of baby-sitting the younger children you also give her the authority to judge what TV programmes they watch, what time they go to bed etc. Otherwise her job becomes impossible. We can now establish a simple basic principal. Where we have a responsibility to rule, we also have the responsibility to judge, and conversely where we do not have the authority to rule, we do not have the authority to judge. Thank you for reading my thoughts on judgement, and thanks also to Derek Prince from whom I borrowed much of my material many years ago. I hope it’ s as great a help to you as it has been to me. God bless us all. Phaline.