Now that we have seen the wrong way of judging others. let us look at the right way to judge. RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT In John 7, our LORD confronts those who have judged Him wrongly for healing a man on the Sabbath. His teaching about righteous judgment is found in John 7:21-24. “JESUS answered and said to them, ’I did one deed and you all marvel. On account of this Moses has given you circumcision…and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath that the Law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”‘ In John 7:24 we see immediately that there is a right way to judge the actions of another person, as JESUS tells them to judge His own actions righteously. While harsh, critical judgment ends in the condemnation of others, righteous judgment discerns between right and wrong for the purpose of avoiding what is evil and clinging to what is good. The Intention is never to simply put someone down. We are all “down,” as Paul shows in Romans 3:10. The passage says, “There is none righteous, not even one.” Instead, righteous judgment serves to help keep us “up” by warning us of what is wrong and calling us to what is right. Let us see how it works in this passage. The Jews had judged JESUS superficially, thinking that by healing a man on the Sabbath, He had “worked,” and had thus violated the Sabbath. The LORD JESUS pointed out to them that they will shed a man’s blood in circumcision on the Sabbath and consider that to be the keeping of the Law, and then condemn JESUS’ healing of a man on the Sabbath as a violation of the Law. In trying to keep the letter of the Law, they have overlooked the spirit of the Law that is summed up in the second greatest commandment of all–which is to love your neighbor as yourself. JESUS had done that in healing the man. “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12). Their judgment of JESUS is impaired because they have not taken the totality of the Scriptures into account, but have judged Him solely on one aspect of Bible truth. They see the Written Word and miss its intention of love just as they saw the Living Word’s actions and missed His intention of love. To judge righteously, we see that we must have more than a superficial knowledge of the Word. We must meditate on it so that the Holy Spirit can reveal its full meaning to us (Psalm 1:2). Paul demonstrated righteous judgment in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, where he says that he had judged a man involved in an incestuous relationship. Having righteously judged that this man’s actions were wrong, Paul recommended that the church disfellowship the man so that he may see the error of his ways and repent. Notice that the goal here was not to condemn the man, but to save his soul, as verse 5 of the passage indicates. This is a good example of righteous judgment, which acknowledges wrong that is committed, and seeks the good of the individual who has committed it. If, however, Paul were passing a self-righteous judgment on the man, he would probably have slandered the man’s name among the people of the church and advised them to disfellowship him because the church had no use for “that kind” of person. But someone may ask, “Who does Paul think he is–judging the man like that? Isn’t that still a ‘big-headed’ thing to do? Isn’t that prideful?” It may seem like pride on the surface, but Paul was first and foremost a man of humility. In 1 Timothy 1:15 he called himself the “foremost of sinners, and in 2 Corinthians 12:11, he called himself “a nobody.” Paul did not pass judgment out of pride, but judged righteously as an empathetic, fellow human being, interested in the good of others. His desire was to save souls, not to condemn them (1 Corinthians 9:22). He also did not think himself beyond being righteously judged by others. In fact, he invited the Corinthians to judge his teachings in order to test whether they were right or wrong (1 Corinthians 10:15). Righteous judgment, then, is something that Christians are expected to perform. The Greek word for “discern” (“diakrino”–related to “krino”) carries a similar meaning to the word “judge” and is listed as a good gift of GOD in 1 Corinthians 12:10. Its purpose is to discriminate between a spirit of good and a spirit of evil. Righteous judgment is also a mark of the mature Christian. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). Notice in this verse that GOD uses our practice of discernment in the experiences of life to help develop godly living. It is indeed wise for us to practice discernment now, for GOD has a future calling for us to judge the world and the angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). We should also remember that righteous judgment is not only for the purpose of confronting evil, but also for magnifying what is good. Paul tells us to “approve the things that are excellent” (Philippians 1:10), and to “let your mind dwell on these things” (Philippians 4:8). Dwelling on the good we have discerned lifts us up spiritually and gives us more to share with others. In fact, part of our transformation in CHIST is to simply “behold” the LORD in our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:18). Just “seeing” Him by faith changes us for the better. The Christian, then, is to avoid slanderous judgment, which is the self-righteous and destructive condemnation of others. Rather, the Christian is called to practice righteous judgment, which is the humble, wise, and constructive discernment between good and evil for the sake of GOD and the benefit of others. By fulfilling this calling, we will be better equipped to follow GOD’s command to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 23:05:03 +0000
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