How many times have you heard, Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1, KJV) taken out of context, by those that claim to profess faith in Christ, to mean that one should not be concerned or pass judgment on one that is openly sinning against what is clearly written in Gods Word as sin? Well, for those, consider this at the ending of James. My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20, NIV). In context, the passages tell us to pray for the one that has turned away and offer them guidance of the acknowledgment of their sins. Further, we should be willing to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16a). The Greek word translated confess is, ἐξομολογέω transliterated as, exomologeó. The word means, to confess, admit, acknowledge (Strongs); yet, so many will not even acknowledge their sin, much less admit it! The second point I want to make of the passage is how might a Christian be able to wander so far from their faith that they are in the danger of death? This is a issue for those that claim that they might be able to continuously sin against the written Word of God and He will continue to forgive those sins because they were once saved and believe that they are always saved. Those should take into consideration passages such as Ezekiel 33:10; 2 Peter 2:20-21; and Hebrews 10:38 in addition to the passage referred to here. I wanted to spend sometime concentrating on this passage because so many misinterpret Matthew 7:1 to state that we should remain quiet at all times to even Christians that malign the Word of God. Instead Jesus here is referring to a hypocritical, self-righteous kind of judgment, and not a share of concern for those who profess a faith in Christ as indicated in James. This should also by no means advocate legalism and encourage one seeking to bound another to the Law or even ones that make up new Laws that are unwritten because they do not like a particular thing or action. Many cases such as these are widespread where one takes the Scripture and purposely takes it out of context to apply to something not Scriptural. It is instead to be applied to those who claim to love Christ, yet fail to keep His clear commandments (John 14:15). We should love, pray, encourage, confess to one another, and positively point out each others sins if it is going by unacknowledged.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 18:10:43 +0000