46. Judgement Matt 7: 1-5 Matt 25: 31-32.

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 Pauson, Derek Prince, Jack Hayford and 1 or 2 Others,so I have pulled out my notes & can feel relatively safe and authentic with what I have to say. First we'll look at some Scriptures which tell us us not to judge...Matthew 7.1-5. Jesus is saying here emphatically, “Do not judge,” If we do, the judgement we use will come back on us. and I believe it will do so from two sources, Human & Divine. People will judge us as we judge them. In addition God will judge us the way we judge others. In Romans 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 can prove others wrong therefore that makes them right. In fact this is not so. A person who is always judging others is usually wrong themselves. A little further on in the same chapter ie Rom. 2. 10-16.. & again 1 Cor. 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 & indeed everyone’s judge He will do the justifying & condemning. One last scripture against judging. Taken from the Epistle of James 4.11-12. Here James is specifically speaking about believers who speak evil against other believers. As Christians we are warned against doing this, yet many of us do just that & regularly. We need to remember this is contrary to Scripture and The Lord will deal servilely with anyone who persists in doing so. Now for some Scriptures advocating Judgement. John 7.24 In this case Jesus was telling them how to judge. Then in Corr 5.1-5. Notice that Paul says he had already judged & he 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. 5. 11-13. Paul distinguishes between the believers & 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 2 points 1st 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 Matthew 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 Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterian etc. However, the basic principal is as valid to day as it was then, unresolved disputes lead to disunity in the Body of Christ & need to be dealt with quickly & honestly by a good healthy Bible believing Christian church. We can now see the resolution of the paradox. The confusion arose when the Jews wanted a king. Prior to that, the King was the Judge 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 & 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 is 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. Genesis 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 & law enforcement, we assume the primary function of Judging is to punish the wicked, whereas it is & always should be to protect the innocent & 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 bear 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 not the Judge of all the earth do right.” Genesis 18.25. God responded by implication.-- “Yes that's right Abraham, I will never depart from that principle.” So we see then that God The Ruler, is also the Judge of all the earth. This principle of Ruling and Judging should help us to 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 Gods.” That's a remarkable statement, Who are the Gods? & why is He judging them? The Judges are the Gods {remember Elohim they are taking God's place} & God is judging them because they had been unjust judges using God's name & their position as Gods visible representatives to judge unrighteously. And that's the reason why we are not to judge others, first of all we have not been given that mantle or gift from God & 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 covert or try to take on another persons gifting it will end in disaster. The New Testament gives us more details of Judgement. 1. Peter 1:17 Peter 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 Matthew 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 can understand 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 wont have any excuse because we are so privileged not only to have our own Bibles but also have so many really good teachers available to us His word should be our most treasured possession. that's why some people in the world so desire to have a bible of their very own. Ultimately that's going to be our final judge. Scary thought isn't it?!! But I didn't write the book.!! I see today, so many Christian Teachers, 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, His Holy Spirit. So we should take advantage of all the help that's available to us. My final say on this subject is on judging without authority; I will give you three instances from scripture; you can look them up and see for yourselves. 1st.Geneses 19;9 Lot did not have any authority as a new comer in the land to deal with the men that came to his door to rape his visitors, fortunately the angels dealt with the intruders. 2nd Exodus 2;13-14. After killing an Egyptian on the first day 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” 3rd is from the New Testament Luke 12;13 and 14. by Jesus Himself You'll remember the case of the man claiming he was being cheated out of his inheritance by his brother, Jesus' words were “Who gave me the authority to judge this case.” So we see 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 authority to judge and conversely, where we do not have the responsibility to rule we do not have the authority to judge. Thank you for reading these words on “Judging others”. I have taken some of my content from Derek Prince’s book “Judging When Why How”. I found it uncomplicated easy to read, understand and pass on to you. I hope I have conveyed that. God Bless. Phaline. -------------------------