Appearance Of Evil

The Bible never says not to judge. We should not, however, judge others as if we were God. We should not guess or speculate on another's salvation for example. But we are most certainly supposed to judge whether or not to, say, avoid someone who falsely teaches Scripture. I could post many Scriptures showing that we should judge. That Scripture ('Judge not less ye be judged') is misused a lot today.

Today at 05:36 PM JillLars said this in Post #1 (http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?postid=673119#post673119)
When we as Christians are the very people who are called on not to judge people, to let God pass judgment.  Kind of a paradox, any thoughts or opinions?

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1Cr 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

There is a difference between judging and condemning. Christian's are apt to condemn without reason, and that is hypocrisy, a sin for which they will be judged. But the mere making of judgments, whether a thing be good or evil, is something that all Christians are required to do.

Yesterday at 09:21 PM JillLars said this in Post #4

I guess I just fail to see the purpose in good Christians gossipping about what someone is doing behind closed doors. Seems like kind of a hypocritical attitude to me. Hmmm...Thanks for the responses keep them coming.

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Hey Jill.  The problem is a result of fallen man's natural desire to esteem himself/herself above others.  Fallen man inherently seeks to judge others to raise himself up.  We should avoid all appearances of evil because it may cause our brethren to stumble.  Our brethren's response to something is for them to deal with.  They are two separate issues.

The paradox, IMO, comes about because oftentimes Christians have an incorrect view of the mission God has given them.  Most Christians I know look at their life as this huge ministry wherein they feel they are the "upholders of righteousness" forgetting all the time that they too have been forgiven and need compassion and understanding from others.

It's a sad fact that Christians tend to be much more judgmental, in an ungodly way, than many non-Christians.  While everyone has some sense of personal morality, non-Christians tend to look at the actions of others as much more acceptable or justifiable because they don't judge them against the only standard there is, God's Word.  Using God's Word to determine if someone has sinned so that you may go and restore them in a spirit of love is all fine and dandy, but I'd venture to say that is not the motivation of most Christians.  Most Christians look at the sins of others with a disdain as if the person has sinned against their Law.  Our greatest desire should be for the restoration of our brethren when more often than not, we seek justice.  Well, unless we are the offender, then we seek nothing but mercy.

God bless

I agree with Ref.

I also believe that that verse is a weak argument against doing something that is disputable yet not spoken out clearly against in Scripture, because it can be translated as "avoid evil however it appears" or similar ways. That conveys an entirely different meaning, and often a more accurate one in light of 1 Corinthians 8, Romans 14, and just the common sense that there will be some Christian, somewhere, who sees an activity that you see as OK to be a sin.

For instance, there are Christians who say reading other Bible versions than the KJV is a sin, that a woman wearing pants/jeans is a sin, that eating meat is a sin, that not eating meat is a sin, that watching TV is a sin, that reading anything other than the Bible is a sin, that drinking coffee is a sin, that selling pet animals is a sin, that infant baptism is sin, that not practicing infant baptism is sin, that talking to non-Christians is a sin, that not talking to non-Christians is a sin, and the list can go on and on for eternity.

You cannot come up with a Christian life that will make everyone happy and that will put every gossip or overly judgmental person to silence. It's just not a possibility.

I would personally say that if God is not convicting you, and if there is nothing in His Word that directly forbids what you are doing, then you're OK and only need to watch yourself around those people who are offended.

there's a thunderstorm now, I have to leave. I will post an example later -^.^-

The idea that we are to not be seen doing things that might me considered sinful is a false one.

It is based on a misunderstanding of the following KJV Bible verse:

1 Thessalonians 5:22
Abstain from all appearance of evil.

In reality, a more accurate translation is 'Don't do what is evil'.

Consider, for example these other translations:



American Standard Version
5:22 abstain from every form of evil.

Bible in Basic English
5:22 Keep from every form of evil.

Darby's English Translation
5:22 hold aloof from every form of wickedness.

Weymouth New Testament
5:22 Hold yourselves aloof from every form of evil.

World English Bible
5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.

There really is no command to avoid what 'appears' to others to be evil...