Truth
I was told I ought not to judge, as Christ had forbidden it. My answer was that while we are not to judge in the sense forbidden by Christ (i.e., deciding in advance who are and who are not worthy of eternal life), there is a sense in which we are to judge, as Christ indeed expressly enjoins in saying, Why do ye not of your own selves judge that which is right, and beware of false prophets, ye shall know them by their fruits. I contended that we were called upon on our own behalf to decide where fellowship should be given and where it should be withheld. I asked:
If this in not a true principle, whence arises the true distinction between the ecclesia and the world? We come out of the world; we separate from the Apostasy; we withdraw from the fellowship of both, and would one and all refuse to resume that fellowship by admitting parties belonging to either class into the ecclesia, and we would even, without dispute, refuse to countenance a disobedient brother. Paul says to the Corinthians (I Epistle 5:11), I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat. Again, to the Thessalonians, he says (II Epistle 3:14), if anyone obey not our word by this epistle, have no company with him that he may be ashamed. Again, ver 6, same chapter, withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the traditions he received of us. Again (I Tim. 6:3), if any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing
from such withdraw thyself. Here are plain Apostolic injunctions which cannot be carried out without forming a judgment on the matters involved. For how shall we know when to withdraw from another, unless we conclude that a state of things justifying it exists? And how can we come to this conclusion without observing and considering the matters relating to it? The mental act is the very basis of the withdrawal enjoined.