Matthew 7:1’s Judge, and 1 Corinthians 2:15’s Spiritual Person- An Enigma?

[newton3005]

Matthew 7:1-2 says “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” At first glance, that limits one to only passing judgement on the things one wants to be judged on. Calls to mind, to paraphrase an expression, “Before you criticize someone else, walk a mile in their shoes.” Seems that in many cases, as things get more complicated, it would take more than a mile—and at the end of the journey those shoes would be worn out. Or how about if a well-dressed person who knows nothing of poverty and homelessness walks by a couple living out of a cardboard box on a city sidewalk and says to them ‘It’s foolish that you live out here in a box. You should be ashamed of yourselves!’

Perhaps that mini-parable of sorts may well fit in the context of Matthew 7:1-2. After all, the well-dressed person may judge himself in the same way, which is why he doesn’t live in a cardboard box. And if you consider that what follows in the above passage is passing judgment in the context of hypocrisy, you can’t say the well-dressed person is a hypocrite either; he basically wishes that the couple in the box live in an apartment or similar dwelling, something which he most likely lives. Seems that he would be the type of judge that Matthew 7:1-2 and Verses 3-5 that follow, wouldn’t discard outright.

Matthew 7:3-5, though, calls to mind John 8:1-11, in which the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus an adulteress whom they judged should be stoned. They ask Jesus if it’s OK to stone her since the Law of Moses says so. He response in Verse 7 says “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And they, in Verse 9, “walk away” and Jesus in Verse 11 says to the woman to “go, and from now on sin no more.” In the context of what Jesus says to them who walked away, they would have been hypocrites if they passed judgement on the woman for sinning when they had sinned also. It is possible that some of them committed sins that they should be punished by being stoned. They would be perfect candidates of what Matthew 7:1-2 rejects as being a judge, if they surely don’t want to be similarly judged as they judged the woman.

Who would be left to pass judgment on the woman? After all, there isn’t an ordinary person in the world who hasn’t committed a sin at least once in their lives; Matthew 7:1-5 would reject them. Seems that the only person who can judge others without having similar judgment passed on themselves would be a spiritual person, described in 1 Corinthians 2:15.

Who is the spiritual person? Commentators suggest that it is one who has successfully strived to live a spiritual existence with Giod in mind. Problem is, everyone is prone to sin, for who can know all the sins that God would hold us accountable for? But as the Old testament, particularly Leviticus 19:15 implies, judges are needed to determine if people have followed or broken the laws that God would approve of abiding by. To be sure, it says “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” No discussion there as to whether the person may be a hypocrite and therefore disqualified from being a judge, nor is there any talk about the sins the would-be judge may have committed. Perhaps it is a given in the Bible that there are sins that are forgivable enough, upon the person’s asking, that are not serious enough for an individual to not make the cut. If Jesus was in the wilderness along with the wandering Jews, would he say to God that there are no Jews worthy enough to be judges since all (just like everyone else) have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God?

Jesus in Chapter 7 also says something interesting regarding those who, in a sense, presume to be holier than some and so they volunteer their words of wisdom and judgement to those who weren’t looking for any. It may serve as a warning to those who expect to be accepted in any crowd. Matthew 7:6 says, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Certain people might be thought of in terms of dogs and pigs, in the worst context, whom it would be a waste of time to share your pearls of Godly wisdom, and you may find yourself in trouble. Best to know whom you speak to.

 

[Peacemaker1]

Who is the spiritual person? Commentators suggest that it is one who has successfully strived to live a spiritual existence with Giod in mind. Problem is, everyone is prone to sin, for who can know all the sins that God would hold us accountable for?

sin is the law required to judge all for not loving others, jesus gives his love into our hearts, hence the only possible conclusion for how and why christ made us free from the law of sin and death, by the law of the spirit in christ[ the spirit/love of god shed into our hearts]



Romans 5:5
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.


Romans 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 13:10
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

But as the Old testament, particularly Leviticus 19:15 implies, judges are needed to determine if people have followed or broken the laws that God would approve of abiding by. To be sure, it says “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” No discussion there as to whether the person may be a hypocrite and therefore disqualified from being a judge, nor is there any talk about the sins the would-be judge may have committed. Perhaps it is a given in the Bible that there are sins that are forgivable enough, upon the person’s asking, that are not serious enough for an individual to not make the cut. If Jesus was in the wilderness along with the wandering Jews, would he say to God that there are no Jews worthy enough to be judges since all (just like everyone else) have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God?

now they are glorified, which judges the wicked persons[ who do sins in gods name]

god judges them that are without, but we, those that are within.



Romans 8:30
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

1 Corinthians 5.9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Jesus in Chapter 7 also says something interesting regarding those who, in a sense, presume to be holier than some and so they volunteer their words of wisdom and judgement to those who weren’t looking for any. It may serve as a warning to those who expect to be accepted in any crowd. Matthew 7:6 says, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” Certain people might be thought of in terms of dogs and pigs, in the worst context, whom it would be a waste of time to share your pearls of Godly wisdom, and you may find yourself in trouble. Best to know whom you speak to.

being trampled down is part of life, hence why those same swine, are washed, but make themselves filthy again.[ in their same nonsense sense of judgement, which is in their same old sins.]




2 Peter 2.18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.