Judgy Judgerton!

As we will begin to see in Romans chapter 2, Paul’s style of writing is called diatribe. He answers questions and objections from an imagined critic. As Paul dictates his letter to Tertius, we can easily imagine him pacing back and forth, passionately relaying his case for the righteousness of God and interrupting himself to argue against imagined objections. It’s like his thoughts are racing faster than his words and certainly faster than Tertius’ pen. There are leaps in thought and even fragmented sentences and breaks in Greek construction as he gets passionate about his topic.
Verse 1. You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.
Paul begins his diatribe with the moralist and the Jew. We mentioned Seneca as one of the most respected and noted moralists of the day. It is easy to imagine him saying, “But Paul, I agree with you wholeheartedly. How can you condemn me?” As we will see, Paul has an answer for these. Anyone who sets himself up in judgment without first inspecting his own shortcomings is passing judgment on himself. Sounds like the whole ‘if you point at someone you have 3 fingers pointing back at you’ thing.
In high school there I had a teacher who was the epitome of left over hippie. He and I had VERY different worldviews. I remember sitting with him after class and discussing my faith and how that affects my worldview and who I am. He was very respectful and we were having a great conversation when suddenly another female student over heard some of what I was saying and butted into the conversation to tell me how close minded I was and that I shouldn’t push my views on others. She was doing the very thing that she was accusing me of and didn’t realize that my thoughts were invited by my teacher while hers weren’t. In her judgment she was passing judgment on herself.
Let’s discuss judgment….As Christians, do we have the right to judge or don’t we?
Matthew 7:2-4
For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
Luke 6:37 Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.
These passages are both from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is giving a lot of practical Christian living advice. It is full of the concept that you reap what you sow, what goes around comes around, and treat others the way you want to be treated. The idea here isn’t don’t judge between right and wrong, but don’t be judgmental. In this list of practical ways to live without being judgmental we could find: don’t make false accusations, be gentle in correction, have mercy and be forgiving, take into consideration a person's heart and motives more than their actions, assume the best of others, etc. I imagine that Christ would have in mind the people you see standing on street corners with signs that say ‘turn or burn’. They are right that a person with an unrepentant heart, living in sin will go to hell, but how is a ‘judgmental’ sign like that going to change anything? After all, Jesus himself hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes. He didn’t condone their sin, but he loved them and gently showed them the truth. The concept is if you harshly judge others you can expect that you will be treated the same way. My mom worked with a lady that was homosexual. The only thing the lady knew about my mom was that she was a Christian and the lady treated my mom so rude and harshly all of the time. My mom couldn’t figure out why because they had hardly interacted and my mom had been nothing but nice to her. At one point my mom was able to ask her why she seemed to dislike my mom so much and if she had done something to offend this woman. The lady verified that mom was a Christian and then said, “well you hate me because I’m a lesbian.” My mom was shocked and told her not at all. She didn’t agree with the lifestyle and according to the Bible believed that it was wrong, but she liked the woman and would still be her friend. This opened a huge door of opportunity for my mom to have a great friendship with her and witness to her on an ongoing basis. The woman who could hardly stand to be around men because of prior abuse even became friends with my dad. This woman had been ‘judged’ by Christians and so my mom was being judged by her.

James 4:11-12 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
This passage is talking about judging how someone else is carrying out the law. This was common for Pharisees. They created so many rules to support the laws that they made the laws a burden. For example you could only walk so far and carry so much on the Sabbath because you were supposed to rest on that day. They made a day of rest into a burden because everyone was afraid of breaking one of the rules. It is our job to obey the law not judge if someone else is upholding it the way we think that they should. In this case if you judge someone else you are really judging the law and how it applies to you and others and that is God’s job not ours.

Romans 14:10 So why do you condemn another Christian? Why do you look down on another Christian? Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God.
We still do this today. We look at other’s walk with God and we decide if they are doing it right or not. This is not talking about sin. This is being petty and legalistic. One may choose not to listen to non-Christian music and look down on the person who does. A personal conviction is between you and God and we need to leave others personal convictions alone and not decided that we are serving God better than they are.
Matthew 18:15-20 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
People today say don’t judge me and they mean, don’t tell me that what I’m doing is wrong. This passage makes it clear that we are supposed to ‘judge’ or determine if someone is living in sin and approach them about it to help them get back on track. We are not supposed to publicly ridicule them or talk behind their back about it. We are supposed to lovingly and also firmly deal with the issue. The goal is restoration not mortification.
I Corinthians 5:1-5 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. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
3 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 4 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. 5 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.

I Corinthians 5:12-13 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.
We discussed these passages a few weeks ago, but the same idea is here. We cannot judge those outside the church, but sin in the body of Christ is not to be ignored. It is to be dealt with and if the person refuses to repent we must be decisive in our actions, but if the person repents we are to forgive and help restore them (as the Corinthians were instructed to do with this man in II Cor 2) Non-Christians can't be judged for their actions because they don't adhere to the same set of standards. It would be like getting upset at a pig for being dirty. They don't know any better.

I John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
This is an important one. We are instructed to judge in the sense of using discernment. We have to make sure that the ones we are listening to for spiritual instruction are speaking truth from God. We have the Holy Spirit in us to help us determine truth from lies. There are so many false prophets out there that use scripture and twist it or take it out of context to make it say what they want it to say. This is so dangerous and the sad thing is that tons of people listen to them. They hear some scripture and assume that it is being used correctly. We have to study and be familiar with God’s Word so that we will know if it’s being used incorrectly and listen to the warning of the Holy Spirit inside of us. If we stand back and say, ‘it’s not my place to judge’ we are opening ourselves up to being led astray. If we see others being led astray by false prophets we need to speak up and lovingly show them the truth through proper use of scripture.

In summation here are 5 guidelines to Christian judgment:
1.Every time the Bible commands us to judge it’s inferring on each other not on non-believers.
2.Check your attitude and motivation. A good question to ask yourself is how eager are you to confront?
3.Use Biblical commands not social expectations IE: personal convictions.
4.Judge the act not the person and be willing to forgive.
5.Examine yourself first and more stringently.