Yes, I agree that there are two separate topics mixed. The content of the word matters.
God has the final word on who is in and who is out. I believe that the last day (judgement) will show His decisions. It might come as a surprise how some we respected are left out and others we believed were out are among the saved ones.
It’s bad if we try to steal the throne of judgement from God - not wise to play God.
It’s normal and even a good thing to judge the actions of people if those actions harm others. Judging actions is not the same thing as judging the person.
Thanks Terry. I’m with you, and love your intellectual honesty in assessing something that so many (like mitchellmckain) misunderstand. And for skovandOfMitaze, he correctly reads that Christ not only tells us we can judge, he actually asks us to judge but with righteousness.
There are two (or three) issues that are terribly mis-characterized and misunderstood by mitchelmckain . First, He/She uses a classic straw-man to destroy, when he alleges that racist behavior is an example of judging that others (like me) would incorrectly condone. As I outlined at the beginning, there are 6 types of “judgement” that Christ did not include when he insisted that we judge. Judge not by appearance, by superficial assessment, hypocritically, harshly, self-righteously, or with untruth. Racial implications recruit all 6 of the exceptions Christ referred to, thus that type of judgement is to be forbidden. That is a straw-man with 6 appendages! And secondly, he takes the Mt 7:1 out of context, ignoring the earlier admonition against being hypocritical and later rejection of devaluing another person in the process. The “mote in your own eye” is metaphorically a hypocrite. And in Mt 5:7, harsh and unforgiving judgement is wrong. Third, he implies that we confuse discernment and/or opinion with judgement, the former allowed, the later forbidden. We understand that distinction and are not usurping God’s superior thoughts and actions when we follow His guidance to judge a sinner “righteously”.
Christ commended “right judgement” in Jn 7:24 and to confront erring brothers in Gal 6:1. That seems perfectly clear and is consistent with what we all do, even including mitchelmckain if intellectual honesty means anything any more. Rich with irony, isn’t it? It is either OK (as I contend), or it is not (we are all sinners, are we not?). Either way, we all do it. And it does not threaten my faith to use my judgement to follow Christ’s suggestions.
The thief on the cross didn’t understand the meaning of Jesus’ death. He didn’t even know He would be raised from the dead. Certainly not trinity. Divinity of Christ? Unlikely, only that He was from God I suspect. He probably wasn’t a really good man because he was being crucified and knew he deserved it. He just looked at Jesus and believed in a kind of beautiful simplicity and that was apparently (according to Jesus) sufficient. I’m not sure if Jesus did some kind of invisible stocktake on his list of beliefs, but it seems to me the core is not whether we score at least 50% on the correct ideas list.
Remember me when…
I don’t think that man would have been fit to teach though. I don’t think you can teach any nonsense and call whatever you think Christianity or truth. Error is real and can shift our essential faith away from the core relationship.
When I first realised this I was in my early twenties and struggling with feeling I had to tell people about how his death addressed their sins and noticing people going blank on certain parts - yet otherwise they were shaken to the core with their sense of the reality of God touching their life.
If I had no comprehension of how a jet engine worked, it would still power me home. But only if I was on board.
Hi Becky,
My approach is although I hate the sin but I love the sinner because I can understand and relate to them because I have been a sinner too in the past. Jesus washed my sins away but I know that without Him I can fall again and again. There are times when it is really hard to love those who seem to be doing things which are hurtful and with malicious intent. Thinking psychologically, the people turn to antisocial tendency because there is secret craving for care and as a Christian I think that craving is for “true love” which only comes from God. I agree that we can judge, otherwise how will we differentiate right from wrong but at the same time we can try to share “God’s love” with the people who are under judgement. When the adulterous woman was brought to Jesus, He did not nullify her sin but saved her by showing love and said to her, “Do not sin again”. This is judgement with love.
Ambrina
Hi Ambrina,
That is almost exactly what we (Slovand, Terry and me) are saying. It is others who are saying that Christ admonishes us to “not judge others”. We do, and we should. But it goes further than your caveat (Judgement with love is OK). All judgement is OK, as long as it is not untrue, not superficial, not hypocritical, not by appearance only, not self-righteous and not overly harsh. I hasten to add that this is not just my opinion, but is derived from the verses (and logic) in my original post. Further, regarding your assumption about past sin, you (and me of course) can and should be judged by the same criteria. And we WILL sin again and again. None of us are to believe that our sins are all behind us, are we?
After one has earnestly and freshly pleaded: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” … one is much less inclined after that to go picking up stones for casting at others. At that point, one is more interested in helping those who desperately want rescue. It fascinates me that, with the exception of the religious leaders, Jesus is never recorded as trying to convince all the rest - tax collectors, prostitutes … the ‘rabble’ about how sinful they are. The closest I can think of him coming to that might be with his command to the adulteress: ‘go and sin no more…’ (only after he sent all the eager would-be judges packing). And even there, his exhortation was accompanied by the simple “neither do I condemn you.” No caveats. No conditions … “well I won’t condemn you as long as you behave going forward” … or anything else that today’s enthusiastic judges so desperately want to add in to Jesus’ words. No - the only scathing judgments recorded there for them to get excited about is when Jesus turns his gaze to … the self-appointed judges! Only then do we suddenly see Jesus with his dander up. That should give us a clue about where our own passions should reside.