Recently, there was a discussion about whether it is okay for Christians to judge. I was making the case that the Bible seemed clear that at times it was acceptable. I ran across this series shortly after the discussion ended. Thought you might enjoy this 3 part series. I will only be posting sections. I encourage you to check out the whole Part 1 article here and if you want to move ahead; Part 2, and Part 3. My thoughts are in bold.Bob DeWaay states, "Who is superior spiritually is not known, and will not be known until God passes judgment in the future. But what can be known is “what is written.” There is an objective standard for judging teaching, but not for judging motives and the relative superiority of personalities.
This follows my earlier thoughts that there were two types of judging. One that is ok, and one that is not. I like the way DeWaay gives examples of the one that is not okay. BTW, these are his concluding thoughts. The article explains more.
Bob: "We have seen a consistent theme so far. We are not to judge the motives or the relative degree of righteousness of other believers. But we must judge what is taught, whether it is in accordance with the true gospel and what has been written in Scripture. (emphasis mine)
The acceptable judging seems to have to do with whether or not you are teaching the correct things. It is not enough for us to simply say, "I don't like what you are saying", we must back up our respones with reasons why, especially in writing. (I am much more careful in my writing than I am in speaking-I am not quick thinking when my view is challenged. I am more likely to go home and think, "I should have said this or that" and hopefully I am prepared for it the next time.)
Bob: In part 2 of this series we shall carefully examine the section of Scripture in Matthew 7 about judging by the fruits. What we will see is that this section of Scripture is often misinterpreted because of the failure to understand what Jesus means by “fruit.” We shall also introduce the important idea that church leaders themselves must make judgments in order to distinguish between true teachers and wolves so that they can guard the flock.
Other sections in the article deal with the often misused "Do not judge" passage of Matt. 7, and a 1 Corinthians passage about passing judgement. Be sure to check it out.
Derrick
2 comments:
There is a very important distinction between the two types of judging. I think it is kind of like that saying, "Hate the sin but love the sinner." We are not judging the person who sins. Instead, we are judging the moral actions of the person.
That is true. But, sometimes when we judge the actions or the teachings, we are personally hurt because we are tied to the sin or we are tied to teaching.
And sometimes that hurts. Sometimes, I would even say we are judging the person. think of a person on trial for murder. This guy is really bad. We are judging him for his role in this crime. So, in some sense, it even seems ok that we not only judge the sin, but also the sinner.
Even our own moral failures against God which are way more than we usually admit to. He is judging us; we (not our crimes)go to hell for our moral crimes.
This last part is a concept I have heard before and I am still trying to work it out. And it just came up. What do you think? I am having some trouble wrapping my brain around this right now.
Derrick
Post a Comment