Thou shalt not Judge ?

[Caesarjbsquitti]

Thou shalt not Judge ?

The word Judge has a wide range of meanings as does discrimination.

Discrimination can be both positive and negative. It use to be a time that having 'discriminating taste' was a good thing. Today all we hear is that all discrimination is wrong; that is a polar definition, black and white thinking that does not reflect accurately the word. So hyphenate it; there is good discrimination and bad discrimination.

Now to 'thou shalt not Judge'....here the intent is in passing final judgment as in condemning to death.

Christianity also preaches 'that which you do unto the least of mine you do unto me...." A rather revealing statement, why ?

Well we all know the story of Jesus in the desert, well there is this powerful force, the devil. It attacks Jesus and then comes back with more evil forces. (even Star Trek deals with this force)

Secondly, since we as humans can NEVER really know The Whole Truth, (its a God thing) we can not nor should we presume to know why a person acted in such a fashion; no person is an island and the devil is out there.

 

[Taliee]

Yup!!!

 

[suzybeezy]

Mat 7:1 (KJV) "Judge not, that ye be not judged..."

Christian is not to judge hypocritically or self-righteously, as can be seen from the context. But scripture repeatedly exhorts believers to evaluate carefully and choose between good and bad people and things. The Christian is to "test everything.

1 Thes 5:21 (Phi) "By all means use your judgment, and hold on to whatever is good."

God encourages discernment.

1 Cor 6:2-3 (NIV) Do you not know that God's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

 

[Caesarjbsquitti]

Mat 7:1 (KJV) "Judge not, that ye be not judged..."

Christian is not to judge hypocritically or self-righteously, as can be seen from the context. But scripture repeatedly exhorts believers to evaluate carefully and choose between good and bad people and things. The Christian is to "test everything.

1 Thes 5:21 (Phi) "By all means use your judgment, and hold on to whatever is good."

God encourages discernment.

1 Cor 6:2-3 (NIV) Do you not know that God's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!

Worth repeating....thanks.

 

[Jesus Christ 5 Life]

I think we have to judge to a certain degree

I personally interpret "thou shall not judge" to refer to judging someones soul and its eternal resting place

I also think its good to refrain from some more petty judgments not really related to the faith

If we see a brother committing a dangerous sin we are supposed to talk to him about it. We also have to be on guard of people outside of the faith attempting to lead us into false beliefs.

So we are supposed to judge peoples actions and be realistic about possible dangers but we aren't supposed to curse a person for their actions or act as if we know whether they will end up accepting salvation at some point in their life. Its simply not our place and we don't have that kind of knowledge about anyone.

At least this is my opinion when it comes to judgment of our fellow human beings.

 

[Lily_Among_Thorns]

The antidote to Judgment is Forgiveness. To continually Forgive is to not Judge. This includes continual sacrifice.

 

[Jesus Christ 5 Life]

The antidote to Judgment is Forgiveness. To continually Forgive is to not Judge. This includes continual sacrifice.

 

[Harry3142]

If we judge others, then we have attempted to usurp a right that belongs to God alone. Since only he is perfect, then only he can truly measure how far from that perfection anyone has strayed.

But this does not mean that we are to be followers of anyone who would have us follow him. Nor does it mean that we are to accept any agenda that a certain group might present to us. Even though we are not to judge other people, we are to measure the actions which they would have us approve of, or even perform ourselves, against what Scripture has taught us that we are to do, or refrain from doing.

We as Christians have a code of conduct which we are to live by:

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under Law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:16-26,NIV)

This is our 'yardstick'. So long as our thoughts, words, and actions conform to this code of conduct, shunning those actions and feelings identified as 'acts of the sinful nature' while welcoming 'the fruit of the Spirit' as the borders within which what we think, say, and do is to have its origination, then we can see ourselves as conforming to what God wants of us. But should we cross that border, either through our own weakness or error, or because someone else has coaxed us into 'crossing the line', then we are to see ourselves as 'out of synch' with God and get back into the spiritual area where we belong.

There are those who would tempt us to cross that line. Some of them are very charismatic and knowledgeable, and when their arguments for us to behave in certain ways, or to entertain certain beliefs, is put forward, they can be quite persuasive in their attempts at pulling us into their agendas. But we must ask ourselves, "Will what this person is wanting me to think, say, or do conform to 'the fruit of the Spirit' or will it conform to 'the acts of the sinful nature'?" Based on the answer to that question, we can either accept or reject that person's agenda without passing judgement on the person himself.

 

[Phinehas2]

Of course Christ's NT teaching also says for believers to correct each other by the Spirit and the word, and the passages on do not judge are clarified by do not judge OR one will also be judged by the measure they judge.
What usually happens is people who dont like to hear something they feel convicts them accuse those who point the truth out of judging them.
The best example these days is probably homosexuality, if a believer points out that same sex relations are sin, people usually react by accusing them of judging homosexuals. But in fact as thats the truth of the word of God one can assume the believer will be judged by that measure .. good and faithful servant.
Jesus did not condemn the woman caught in adultery to death but He did judge her as sinful and told her to sin no more.

 

[drobbyb]

To judge or not to judge...

This really applies to Christians judging non Christians. We as Christians are to be inspectors of the fruit of other Christians, but as far as non believers go, we are not to judge them at all. They are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. God will convict them in his own time.

But when looking at other Christians, how do you inspect their fruit without judging? The very act of inspecting is a form of judgment, telling the good from the bad. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying crucify brethren, but you should pull them aside and tell them what you see.

Love is they key here. If you truly love someone (and we are commanded to love as Christ loved the Church) then you wouldn't look down on a fellow believer if you were to find some bad fruit. Instead, you would teach them.

We MUST love one another, even the enemies.

 

[Thomas222]

'no person is an island ' - reference to devotions upon emergent occasions by John Dunn or whatever is name is?

 

[Ike_87]

I think God would want us to inform people how to live in His way, but I don't think He wants us to judge others the way I see many other "christians" do.
To give an example, I see many people (including my parents) treat other people as if the people themselves were their sin. I've heard Christians talk about homosexuals with disgust, but not even give a second thought to someone who suffers from a sin they themselves can identify with.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I think God would want us to inform people how to live in His way, but I don't think He wants us to judge others the way I see many other "christians" do.
To give an example, I see many people (including my parents) treat other people as if the people themselves were their sin. I've heard Christians talk about homosexuals with disgust, but not even give a second thought to someone who suffers from a sin they themselves can identify with.

The other guy's sin is always worse than our's.

 

[thfdoc]

Good discrimination and bad discrimination, yea.

Judging someone based on anything but the truth is wrong either way...but I don't think there is anything wrong with judging the facts.

 

[TheSeedofDavid]

This should clear this up:

Jhn 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

 

[daviddub]

I'm always astounded when people quote Matt 7:1, because over 9/10 times they fail to quote the context which is found in the next 4 verses. Matt 7:1 is a qualified statement, the qualification of which is found in v2-4.

 

[rhinoman22]

Good discrimination and bad discrimination, yea.

Judging someone based on anything but the truth is wrong either way...but I don't think there is anything wrong with judging the facts.

Doesn't everyone make required judgments in everyday life? I think it is crucial to make judgments that not only make it impeccable in everyday life, but to become stronger in our faith.

Shouldn't we judge to not drive behind the erratic driver? Shouldn't we judge if a driver may be drunk and warn the authorities?

Tiger Woods is professional golfer. Is that judging? I think its a fact. Someone may be stubborn, and saying "you are stubborn" is not judging, is it?

Further, if you know someone acts a certain way, does certain things, isn't it in our duty as Christians to tell them: "Hey you are doing these things." Sometimes our duty gets taken into sinful behavior by being to extreme and name-calling.

 

[rhinoman22]

Bump.

Isn't it logical to only judge for our own sake? Obviously it is a good idea if someone is a sexual predator before you hire them as your babysitter. Whether a woman is the type to cheat on you in a relationship/marriage.

Learning and finding out the truth isn't judging, we would be foolish not too. Right?

 

[2ndRateMind]

Good discrimination and bad discrimination, yea.

Yes, let's discriminate between discriminations. Then, we can have good discriminations of discriminations, and bad discriminations of discriminitions. And then we can discriminate among the discriminations of discrimations of discriminations....

I love recursion! It has such an infinite fascination... 2RM.