WE WILL JUDGE ANGELS?🤔

My last blog post was made on December 2022. I had no idea it’d take me 2 whole years to write again. In fact, I wrote an almost-complete piece in 2023 which didn’t make it here, and unsuccessfully tried again in 2024.

This year, I have resolved by all means to write, even if it’s more sporadic and not as “deep” or “exegetic” as my usual posts. So here I am on a Sunday night, past midnight, ‘scribbling’ away like Monday-morning crunch-time traffic has nothing on my sleep.

Every request to write on a topic is a really humbling experience for me, but more so this one because the request came specifically so I could “get my writing juice going.” Question was: Good Old Apostle Paul had said something about judging angels in 1 Corinthians 6:3 and left it sitting there as though he had given some earlier in-depth exposition on the topic. 

Paul was writing because he was unhappy with these seemingly stubborn Corinthian believers. Today’s problem – they were submitting their disputes to non-believers/courts for resolution rather than presenting them before other wise believers who could settle the matter [The irony is rife! Paul is trying to get me (and all his own classmates in his past life) out of a job!]. In the midst of “scolding” them, Paul casually throws in:

³ Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

Finis Jennings Dake has a very interesting interpretation of this scripture. He draws out the root word that translates to judge – ‘krino’ and makes the argument that this word is entirely different from ‘krisis’, which means to sentence [something/someone]. 

Dake makes the argument that ‘krino’ means to rule or govern, and so Paul’s seemingly casual statement in 1 Cor 6:3 was not some new doctrine about sitting on a throne in judgement of angels’ deeds, but merely a reminder by Paul of the Messiah’s promise that we will rule and reign with Him in eternity over all things, including angels.

And if you know Dake, you know he pulls up a host of supporting scriptures that make the point. He pulls up Romans 8:17, Galatians 5:21, Hebrews 6:12 and Revelation 21:7 all of which make the point that the believers are the ones who become heirs of God and inherit all things, not angels.

He pulls up Ephesians 3:8, 1 Corinthians 4:9 and 11:10 to make the point that in God’s plan, the saints had always been set as examples for angels, not the other way round, essentially making the argument that Paul’s point was to remind believers about who they were destined to become in eternity, not necessarily that single isolated role of sitting as judges over angels as may have been lost in translation.

In John Piper’s unpacking of the scripture, he takes ‘judge’ in its literal sense and rather asks the question “What Angels”? Probably because commentators have disagreed over the years on whether the scripture makes sense in relation to all angels including the “good” ones or if Paul was referring to already fallen angels who were still perpetuating their evil deeds. Piper suggests that perhaps Paul may have been talking about judgment over these “bad” angels who, in one’s life, tempted and potentially battered a believer, in which case the role of such a believer would be to testify to the harm done by such “bad” angels and thus contributing to their predetermined damnation anyway. 

Another contemporary theologist, Kyle Dillon appears to also take the word ‘judge’ literally and makes some interesting suggestions as to what Paul may have meant:

He starts with Anthony Thiselton’s suggestion that the believer’s union with Christ in death and in Christ’s resurrection power and authority (Rom 6:3-11) gives the believer, in a derivative sense, a certain authority, where we rule or judge alongside with Christ. He calls this judgment by proxy.

Then he suggests what he again calls judgement by delegation. He recounts Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 7:22 where “judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom” and how Jesus said “in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” [Matthew 19:28]

Kyle concedes that none of these expressly say believers will judge angels, but makes the argument to say that although the authority to judge angels seems to be exclusive to God Himself all through scripture [Isaiah 24:21, Mt 25:41, 2 Peter 2:4], the two scriptures in Daniel and Mt 19 suggest some implied delegation of that role to believers.

There are a few other suggestions of what Paul may have meant in that scripture, but ultimately, Paul’s argument was simpler: 

“Rise above the mundane. It’s in your future to be responsible for managing cosmic matters. If you can’t settle the petty squabbles among you now, how do you expect to be responsible for non-superficial things?!”

And truly, focusing on Paul’s broader message on how to deal with other believers on this journey here may serve us far better and prepare us much more for these afterlife responsibilities than a deep theological revelation of what these future responsibilities really would look like in some time to come. 

Yet while we wait for mortality to take on immortality, I cannot resist the urge to again remind you, dear saint, to rule and reign and have dominion right here on earth as you have been mandated to. I go on a rant about it in a piece called “After Sunday” here. It will be worth your while to take a quick read!

I hope this was useful to you in some way.

And fingers crossed, I can also keep saying throughout this year:

Rad’s back! 💖