Judge not..lest ye be judged

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37

True, this text forbids hypocrisy and a condemning spirit rising from self-righteousness…

And I’ll be the first to admit I’m guilty of self-righteousness. Wicked self-absorption. Fierce condemnation. But not so in this case...I’m not condemning him...

As Christians, I think we are called to evaluate fellow believers in love and discernment to come alongside and enhance their ministry.

There’s nothing bizarre or unbiblical about that. This is how John MacArthur, an author I have been reading, puts it:

“There is a righteous kind of judgment we are supposed to exercise with careful discernment [John 7:24]. Censorious, hypocritical, self-righteous or other kinds of unfair judgements are forbidden."

MacArthur goes on to explain “in order to fulfill the commandments that follow it is necessary to discern dogs and swine [Matthew 7:6] from one’s own brethren.”

In other words, how are we supposed to tell the true believers from the false if we don’t discern and evaluate their deeds and doctrine?

The deal is, we can’t.

And if we can’t we are in opposition to God and his church because the Bible makes it abundantly clear that mature Christians must discern truth from error…

Even if that puts the unity of the church at risk. Which brings me to my next point.

A mature Christian, with a mature mind established by the word of God, can spot spiritual truth and error.

We want brothers and sisters in Christ to discern truth and error–using the Bible as our template. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

But what does being judgmental look like? Here’s 1 John again: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

That is a clear example of being hypocritical. And exactly the sense that Jesus was talking about in Luke 6:41 when he said, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

And this reproof would apply to me if I ducked away at night to indulge in the rituals our world.

But I’m not.

Therefore, i believe mature Christians can handle judgment from others and deliver judgment to others in love: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”