The Believer's Call to Judge, Part 3

Here is Part 1 and Part 2.

This is the conclusion to the series concerning the believer's call to judge. Hopefully by the end of this series, you will see at least two things

1) What (and how) believers ought not judge and,
2) What believers are instructed to judge
3) We must, at times, publicly name those who we think are wrong (with gentleness and respect, when appropriate)

Today is about how believers are to approach the public teachings of professing Christians. Here is the link for part 3.

"Paul specified to Timothy who the false teachers were by name:

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme. (1Timothy 1:18 – 20) (emphasis mine)

If someone is teaching in public, it is ok to publicly correct them; even Paul says he delivered them over to Satan...That seems quite rough. However, false teaching, as Dewaay suggests, is damaging to the church. Now, this is not license to give to Satan all those who may disagree with us (this would seem to be reserved for the essentials), but it does give us possible guidance in how to deal with those who profess Christianity and are teaching.

So, who is a teacher? I would suggest that it includes Pastors, preachers, teachers, elders of the church, authors, and also blogs writers, commenters, or anyone who is sharing their understanding of the Christian faith. I think if you have your own website, or Facebook page, MySpace, discussion group, you fall into this category. I think anyone who publicly makes a stand for Christ is a teacher, even if to a lesser degree. I could be wrong in casting such a wide net; what do you think?

"The duties of pastors and elders are very clear in Acts 20 and the Pastoral Epistles. They are to teach true doctrine, correct false doctrine, and protect the flock from the wolves. Sadly, those who do so today are often accused of being divisive or sinning because they have “judged” when Jesus told us not to judge. This is a category error. We are not to judge motives or relative degrees of righteousness, but we must judge public teaching."

Even Paul publicly named, and corrected Peter in the Bible when his behavior did not match what he professed. (Gal. 2:11-14)

"There is important action to be taken: We can and we must judge what we can know objectively, but we must not judge what we cannot know objectively. Ask yourself when you make a judgment, “can I know this with certainty”? If the answer is no, we cannot judge. If the answer is yes and the issue concerns Biblical doctrine or sin, we not only may judge; we must judge. Publicly proclaimed teaching falls into this category."

What do you think? Agree or disagree with the conclusions or connections? I suppose you must use your best judgement and publicly correct me. :-)

Derrick