DEAR CHRISTIAN, YOU MUST JUDGE!!

In a conversation with a friend about his homosexual friends, he said to me, “I know these things you’re telling me, but who am I to judge?” Errrhhhh you’re a Christian! That’s who you are to judge. I advised him to judge the sin in his Christian friend’s life, not the person himself, trying to help him understand that as a Christian he actually had a duty to call out the sin in a fellow Christian’s life. But oh well this was all too new and much to swallow!

Remember what the serpent did in the garden in Genesis 3? And what he did with the last temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4? He did not tell a blatant lie…he twisted God’s Word a little bit to get Eve to fall into sin, but when He tempted The Word Himself [John 1:1], he knew that trick could not work. So he misapplied the Word to suit his evil plan.

What the world has done is to silence the Church from calling out sin with our own scriptures!

“Jooo, change your lifestyle. The Bible says that lifestyle is unbeffiting of believers.” Jooo 👉🏽 ‘Are you judging me? The Bible also says thou shall not judge!’ This is the only time Jooo quotes Scripture…and in King James version too, for effect! 😹 So he remains in his sin, somehow believing that the same God who commands us to be holy because He is holy “understands”! Oh what a generation we’re in! 🤦🏽‍♀

You’re thinking I’m being judgmental even now, no? Matthew 7:1 does say do not judge or you too will be judged. Verse 3 says, ‘why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no heed to the plank in your own eye?’ Luke 6:37 says same.

The Pharisees were highly judgmental people. They felt superior to the average person, essentially believing that they lived better lives than everyone else. Remember the prayer of the Pharisee? ‘I thank you God that I am not like other men…I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess…’ So when Jesus walked the face of the earth [I love this phrase😁] and ate with sinners and tax collectors, ate with his disciples without washing His hands, did miracles on the Sabbath, the Pharisees couldn’t help but point fingers at Him. The problem with the Pharisees was not that they were wrong. In fact, for the most part, they spoke the truth according to the Law of Moses. The problem was their heart! I’ll get back to this in a jiffy.

So should we judge as Christians? Heaven yeah! [I’m sorry, hell don’t deserve this much hype!😏] There’s a plethora of scriptures that lay that duty on every one of us! The word judge was translated from different Greek words:

1. Anakrino [an – ak- ree’ – no] means to examine, investigate, scrutinize, sift or question or to determine the excellence of a thing.

2. Krinō [kree’ – no] means to approve or disapprove, to separate, to decree or to govern or rule.

3. Krisis [kree’ – sis] means to sentence.

These are to assist in your understanding of the scriptures that follow:

1. 1 Corinthians 2:15 & 16 [anakrino]

He that is spiritual judges all things [determines the excellence] yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has the mind of Christ that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

2. 1 Corinthians 5:9 – 12 [krinō]

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people. It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge [approve/ disapprove] those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

3. 1 Corinthians 6:2 [krinō]

Do you not know that [we] the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, how are you unable to judge [approve/disapprove] even these little things among yourselves?

4. John 7:24 [krisis]

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge [sentence] with righteous judgment.

5. Luke 12:57 [krinō]

When you see a cloud rising in the west, straight away you say, ‘It’s going to rain’; and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot’; and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you do not know how to interpret this present time? Yea, and why not judge [approve/disapprove] for yourselves what is right?

6. 1 Corinthians 11:31 & 32 [krinō]

If we would judge [approve/disapprove] ourselves, we would not be judged.

Jesus did eat with the sinners, and yes, He does require us to go into the streets and draw sinners to join the Body – His church. This has nothing to do with what the Phariseetical [if that’s not a word, then I just made one!😁] mindset that we are better than everyone else because if you understand at all what salvation is, you know it was God who willed it in you. But should a Christian walk with his lips sealed observing every evil in this world simply because he belongs to God? NO! This is what is rotting away the Church!

No accountability, nobody ‘talks anybody’s matter’, nobody calls out foolishness and sin in the church!

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is mad! But he is mad because he loves the church in Corinth and he understands that the church must judge itself and call out things that need to be called out! So he says:

‘I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship! Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns!’

Sounds harsh, no? It is heart-breaking to say that if we tried this in the Church today, we would have only 5 people left in church! Not necessarily because everybody is indulged in sin, but because very few understand what the Church is and how much authority and responsibility Jesus has given to the Body over one another. Many will take offence that another person had the nerve to call out their sin! The Church in Acts understood this. Remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5? And in the Church of Corinth where Paul was writing to, they knew Christ was not only a saviour to them, but a Lord who required submission and surrender; even if it meant to imperfect men called Leaders. They expelled the brother! The judgment, even though it affected the person of the culprit, was really not on his person, but on the sin of the person! We scrutinize and determine the excellency of things [anakrino] and call those things out which fall short! I know this because in 2 Corinthians 2:6, 7 and 11, Paul writes to them again. He shows them that though we judge the sin, we do not condemn the person of the man, but the sin in his life. A believer is not his sins. He writes:

‘The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him…in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.’

If you call out a brother’s sin with a judgemental heart, wondering how he could even fall to such a sin in the first place, you’re a serpent, a generation of vipers, and a hypocrite!

I didn’t say, it’s what Jesus called the Pharisees! But how do you also sit back, knowing that you form part of one Body of Christ, knowing that when a part suffers, every part suffers with it [1 Corinthians 12:26] and ask, ‘Who am I to judge?’

You’re a Christian! That’s who you are to judge!

★  RAD ★