“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Matthew 7:1

redleghunter

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#1 admitting sin follows a change of heart, which is repentance, acknowledging sin.
#2 I don't suffer any kind of pastors. But I'll drink a beer with many kinds of people.
Except with my HS friend who got hostile to women when drinking. It was a strange personality change for him.
Again you are not addressing the post.
 
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Dave-W

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That is one letter to one church in history.
Can you show the letter was intended to be included in scripture?
Do you have written permission to reprint the letter as scripture?
John 7:24
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
 
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Dave-W

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I don’t even know what this means.
It means they think you should ask other questions and make other statements that play into what THEY want to say.
 
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Foxfyre

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Yes Jesus said that in Matthew 7:1.

Does this mean we are not to judge fellow believers or even unbelievers at all or according to our own sense of self righteousness?

Does this mean if a Bishop, Pastor or Elder of a church sins we as the Body of Christ are not to enact church discipline. I mean Jesus said don’t judge so that we will not be judged. So keeping with the first verse of chapter alone we end up letting overt unrepentant sinners lead our churches. We let sin perpetuate in our churches. We also remain silent preaching the Gospel because to tell people our sin separates us from God would bring Judgment on us. Verse one says it!

But what does Jesus say in the following verses in Matthew chapter 7?

1“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (NASB)

This is clear teaching. Someone should not accuse another of sins when they too are sinners. The intent here Jesus is teaching we are all sinners and are not to judge others according to how we live or thr degree of our perceived “righteousness.” In the chapters leading to this one and after Jesus takes to task thr Pharisees for their judgment according to their rituals. Jesus spoke of in chapter 6 the self righteous ways the religious leaders prayed, fasted and gave to the poor. So we see here in verses 1-5 again the standards we set should not be the basis of judging others. That is why when we preach the Gospel we explain to others we are all sinners in need of God’s redemption.

Yet in verse 6 we have this.

6“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (NASB)

How can we determine what is holy if we cannot judge between what is righteous and what is wicked? Jesus tells us a few verses later how to identify false prophets.

15“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“So then, you will know them by their fruits. (NASB)

It seems Jesus tells us we would be able to judge between good fruit and bad fruit. How are we to do this if we are told not to judge? I mean a new pastor comes in and says “Jesus is not the Son of God” which we know to be false. Can we now judge as a church that the errant pastor needs to be removed?

The answer is of course we can judge on these matters and more because God has given us His Holy Spirit, His commands and words to judge error and remove unrepentant sin from our churches.


Jesus concludes the dialogue with the following:

24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27“The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (NASB)

The answer is if we hear His words and act on them we reside on a foundation of rock and will not be swayed.

Judge not unless we be judged is based on our standards of righteousness or self righteousness. Jesus clarifies in the remainder of the chapter that we can decipher the difference between truth and error by judging on on their fruits.

This was picked up on in Apostolic teachings as well when Paul called for church discipline:

1 Corinthians 5: NASB

1It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.2You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

3For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. (NASB)

“Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”

I think that is loud and clear.

IMO. . .

We are as Christians required to judge, aka act, if somebody is harming another person or others. Jesus led by example in that regard. So yes, if our 'brother' sins, i.e. is harming himself and/or others--acting badly, wrongly, or evilly-- we are to appropriately correct him/her in whatever way has the best chance of being effective and encouraging him/her to repent, i.e. change his/her ways. The operative word is 'appropriate.' Some people need to be gently reminded. Some sternly reprimanded. Some restrained. Etc. By his example Jesus did not condone adultery, but taught that stoning the adulterous woman was even more wrong. She was told to go and sin no more.

We are not as Christians privy to judge what is in a person's heart, i.e. his/her motives, rationale, and/or relationship with God. It is God's prerogative to evaluate and know a person's state of grace. Not ours. We are to judge not lest we be judged by presuming to be equal with God and assume his authority and wisdom.
 
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Kenny'sID

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Is this being judgemental?

A brother is sinning and I approach him and asked him to repent.

M-Bob


It seems the beam and the mote scripture is saying, that's fine as long as your sin is not worse than the correctees. However, if someone corrected me, and kept me from loss of salvation, (sorry about that, OP :)) or "death" as the scripture puts it, I don't care if they are worse than me, I would or should be grateful.

Or would I cop an attitude, and see them as a hypocrite and their corrections to my life won't mean much, the very reason we are warned to have fairly clean hands before we correct others? And if your corrector does not, try to keep our attitude in check and know they are only trying to help...maybe we can even help each other?

Just a few things to think about while sorting this out.
 
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redleghunter

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It seems the beam and the mote scripture is saying, that's fine as long as your sin is not worse than the correctees. However, if someone corrected me, and kept me from loss of salvation, (sorry about that, OP :)) or "death" as the scripture puts it, I don't care if they are worse than me, I would or should be grateful.

Or would I cop an attitude, and see them as a hypocrite and their corrections to my life won't mean much, the very reason we are warned to have fairly clean hands before we correct others? And if your corrector does not, try to keep our attitude in check and know they are only trying to help...maybe we can even help each other?

Just a few things to think about while sorting this out.
As brotherly relations extending to the church Jesus did give us an example in His discourse on forgiveness:

Matthew 18: NASB
15“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

19“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
 
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Kenny'sID

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As brotherly relations extending to the church Jesus did give us an example in His discourse on forgiveness:

Matthew 18: NASB
15“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

19“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Yep, that's another scripture on the subject.
 
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SkyWriting

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John 7:24
Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

And have you researched what that is exactly? Because it is explained.
Search "righteous judgment" in quotes and that passage will explain just what that refers to.

And how many people are righteous and so qualified?
You should know that number by heart.
 
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SkyWriting

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It means they think you should ask other questions and make other statements that play into what THEY want to say.
That's not it, but you are processing it to some extent at least.
 
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Anand Prabhu Antony

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I do not judge. I have sin of my own to be concerned about.
Brother, your are saying that you do not judge, but you are judging yourself saying, "I have sin on my own".

1 Corinthians 4:3-4
Apostle Paul says, "...I do not even judge myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, but not by this am I vindicated. But the one who judges me is the Lord".

If we feel in heart that someone is good, it's too judging them positively. Moreover, if we Judge someone for their wrong doing, it should not be out of our personal benefit and vengeance. We judge to keep the purity of the church; we judge the wrong doings so that other believers will not follow them. We judge that is not for death punishment, rather saving them from the eternal judgement that leads to eternal death at the lake of fire. We judge as an act of discipline, but not as authoritative and condemning for death sentence.
 
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Dave-W

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And how many people are righteous and so qualified?
You should know that number by heart.
I know the answer you are looking for. But I ask you why would that ONE be COMMANDING us to do do that?
 
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