Judge not, that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1) Probably one of the most misinterpreted and twisted Scriptures in the Bible is this one. Satan loves to twist the Word of God and Judge not is probably his favourite verse in the Bible to twist. Every sinner and ungodly person in the world is quick to say Judge not when their sin is brought forth and preached against, yet the Bible says that the natural (carnal) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14). A sinner in the world cannot possibly interpret the Bible correctly because they are in the flesh and have a carnal mindset, so it is impossible for them to correctly interpret the Bible. Its sad that much of the church though has the same carnal mentality as the world when it comes to the subject of judging. It must first be established that every person who is quick to say judge not or only God can judge me in an attempt to justify their sin is ALWAYS a hypocrite because there is not a person alive who does not judge. It is impossible not to judge to be frank. What we have to learn to do is judge CORRECTLY an righteously and according to how Gods Word instructs us to judge and not according to our own opinions/carnal mentality. God has already established and judged what is sin in His Word and we have a right to preach what He says is sin. The context of Matthew 7 is not at all saying that it is wrong to judge under any circumstance, but rather the context is clearly referring to HYPOCRITICAL judgment and not righteous judgment. Notice, Jesus says FIRST cast out the beam out of our own eye, and THEN we will be able to see clearly to cast out the mote out of our brothers eye (Matthew 7:5). He is simply saying not to judge as a hypocrite...God does have guidelines and rules that we must follow when it comes to judging though. Firstly, judgment cannot be hypocritical and it cannot be based according to the appearance (the way a situation seems without having all the facts). Secondly, all judgment must be based on the Word of God and righteousness as the standard. Jesus told us, judge not according to the appearance, but judge RIGHTEOUS judgment (John 7:24) Jesus told us that we would recognize false prophets by their fruits (Matthew 7:20). We have to make a judgment and an observation to recognize false prophets in order to reject them. Paul describes a fornicator in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 and judged the man (verse 3) even though he was absent and told the church at Corinth to judge (verse 12) those that were within the church. The church was to disfellowship and shun the man until he repented and came back to God. Paul also said, But he that is spiritual JUDGETH ALL THINGS, yet he himself is judged of no man. (1 Corinthians 2:15) People who have the mind of Christ and are filled with the Holy Ghost have every right to judge according to the standards of the Word of God. One of the characteristics of a righteous man is judgment. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. (Psalm 37:30) One of the characteristics of EVIL men is that they do not understand judgment. Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things. (Proverbs 28:5) It was the wicked men of Sodom and Gomorrah who accused Lot of judging them (Genesis 19:9) when he told them not to do so wickedly (sodomy) to the angels in human form. Sound familiar, eh? People always want to accuse the people of God of being judgmental...but they are right...yes we are judgmental, because we serve a righteous God who is a judge and He has set his standard in this earth and we have a right to preach and proclaim his judgments/statutes! We serve a very loving and merciful God, but He is also a judge and He will judge this world in righteousness.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 03:46:09 +0000
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