Yesterday I posted my concerns regarding whether or not a Christian should judge. After that I listened to this sermon on the subject and it was very helpful to me. At the beginning of this sermon, Paul Dowling speaks of society professing not to believe in any rights or wrongs, and in my life I have heard many times certain family members speaking of "my truth" or "your truth". These notes are quite long, but I hope that you will read all of them.
Should a Christian Judge: Seeing Wrong and Speaking Out
Matthew 7:1-5 "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
The purpose of this series (on judging) is to correct the thinking in the area of our cultural attitude. Our society and culture thinks certain things and the Christian church has suckled from society's views and have come to read our society's views into new testament Christianity. And in this series, people that do such things have made Christianity to be toothless. Our society likes to say of itself that it is non-judgmental. "I wouldn't judge" is the common blurb. Our society also professes not to believe in any rights or wrongs, any absolutes. If you don't believe in rights or wrongs you are not going to be judgmental.
If something is right, than the other is wrong. Therefore society says that no matter what people say or do, say nothing because everyone has a right to their opinion, just say or do nothing about it. And all these things hang together. If you don't believe in right or wrong, you don't speak out about right and wrong. This wouldn't be so bad if that attitude stayed in the world, but now this whole pollution from our society has entered into the church of Christ. And people have come to think that it is spiritual to be non-judgmental. Let me tell you it is not spiritual to be non-judgmental.
We study this because the popular view today is never judge anything, never be angry about anything, never call anybody any name and just be nice and encouraging all the time. That is the vast majority view of Christianity today. That view is a twisting and perversion of new testament Christianity.
In Matthew 7:1 it says "Judge not, that ye be not judged." That is one of the verses of the bible that people know. It is repeated by politicians and people in every strata of society. People who know nothing of the scriptures know that verse. This is one of the most abused passages in the whole bible and it is a passage that is used in the church for all forms of anemic Christianity. That verse is twisted out of its context to present a false view of Christian discernment.
Sometimes a church behaves like a cabbage. But you know what? the profound lesson is that the church is not a cabbage. What do I mean? Let's talk to the cabbage.."excuse me Mr. Cabbage, Mrs. so and so is gossiping and has done for months" What will the cabbage do about that? absolutely nothing. But I want to tell the cabbage "Mr. so and so hasn't been speaking to Mr. so and so for a long time" What will the cabbage do? nothing. And you can tell the cabbage that Mr. so and so is having an affair and the cabbage will still do absolutely nothing. You can even get more serious and say "the government are voting in gay marriage" and the cabbage will still do nothing. You can tell the cabbage the most horrific things and the cabbage will still do nothing, it will just sit there like a cabbage because it is a cabbage.
Most churches are like a cabbage, you could list to them the most horrendous sins of which their members are guilty, and most churches will do absolutely nothing at all. Just like a cabbage. But the thing is, a church is not a cabbage. It is alright for the cabbage not to do anything but it is not OK for the church to do nothing. Why do churches do this? Because of the twisted, out of context, heretical interpretation of Matthew 7:1. People take this one verse in a false way and they try to make it mean something that it certainly does not mean. How many times have people said to you "Judge not" and what they mean is "don't have an opinion of what sin is. Don't judge anything ever of what is wrong." You might say that immorality is wrong and some will say "judge not " you will hear these words. You might be talking about a preacher who teaches a false gospel, he doesn't preach the scriptures and you will hear "judge not that ye be not judged." There are a multitude of sentimental do-gooders who will use Matthew 7:1 to defend every type of sin. They will use it to defend every person who is blatantly committing those sins. What that means is that you are never to judge anybody, or anything, for any reason under any circumstance. In other words, do nothing about anything. But I say, judge not by outward appearance but judge righteous judgment and that is a command of Christ to Christians. God says in 1 Corin 1:10 "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 Corin 6:2 "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" 1 Corin 11:31 "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." These are commands to judge.
The bible's teaching is that the church is to judge.
Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Judge not.. let's look at what V1 does not mean. A lot of Christians imagine that it doesn't matter what people do we are never to judge, don't weigh the evidence, don't come to a conclusion that someone or something is right or wrong, guilty or innocent. Don't come to a decision of anyone's actions or words. Some Christians believe that is what the verse means. Why do many Christians feel that is what the verse means? Because they take the verse out of context, they just read V1 , they think that Matthew 7 begins and ends at V1. They don't read the verses that explain what V1 means. Jesus makes a statement in V1 but he doesn't stop there. He speaks on and explains and then gives an illustration of what he means in V1.
The second reason is because many Christians don't read their bibles and therefore they don't know what the bible teaches. The cults all know their doctrine but lots of Christians don't have a clue because they don't read their bibles. Many are completely ignorant of what God's word teaches. They know you need to believe in Jesus to be saved and that is the limit of their theology. The bible teaches us how we are to live, how churches are to be run, the bible is all we need to know. What hope is there if Christians do not know their bible? They have never looked at the commentaries. If they are stuck on a verse, they don't go to Matthew Henry or such and look and be taught what it means. Not one commentary says that Christians are never to judge anything at all.
The Mote and the Beam V3-5, "And why beholdest
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the
beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let
me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine
own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy
brother's eye." what do these verses teach?
It teaches with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. If you judge someone for gossip, you will be judged in that area and so on. In whatever area you judge others in, you will be examined in that area. The word "mote" means a speck of sawdust, a small blemish and the word "beam" means a rafter, the whole idea of support. Here is what the Lord is saying: you picture a beam in the corner of my eye, and I look at you and you have a speck of sawdust in your eye, and I say "let me help you remove it, that sawdust shouldn't be there" and the person would laugh because of the size of the beam in the person who is judging. That would be a hypocrite because that person would be accusing a person of the speck of sawdust in his eye while he had a huge beam in his own eyes, he would be a hypocrite.
Don't judge people if you are guilty of the same thing only on a bigger scale.
The teaching of the passage is not "just let it go, don't judge," it is teaching you must judge, but first judge yourself in that area. Cast the beam out of your own eye first, sort yourself out in that area and then you will clearly see to help out your brother. It doesn't say to leave the mote in your brother's eye and the beam in your own eye. Help your brother remove his mote but make sure you are sorted out in that area of life. Don't be a hypocrite in judging others in the same thing you excuse in yourself. The person judging needs to show that they are not a hypocrite. Be active in judging yourself and others.
We cannot judge non-believers because God judges those who are without.
The cabbage has heard the whole sermon but it didn't do anything. If the cabbage is left to itself it would begin to rot from the inside out, and it would end up stinking. And it's the exact same with a cabbage-like church that never judges sin, never does anything about it, it will go rotten from the inside out. Non-judgmental churches are very poor witnesses in the eyes of society.
Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
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The above notes were taken by myself from the sermon by Rev Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=69131717343
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