Don't Judge Others, Part 4

1 Cor 5:11-13

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 idolater, 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.(KJV)

1 Cor 6:1-5

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?(KJV)

1 Cor 11:28-32

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned

with the world.(KJV)

1 Cor 14:26,29

26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge (KJV).

John 7:24

24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.(KJV)

Good Afternoon. As you know we are taking a side trip into 1 Corinthians this week because many would say, the Bible contradicts itself. First it tells us not to judge, but in 1 Corinthians it talks about us needing to judge others. Well, I want to resolve the dilemma people get into on this and show you how the Bible is really not contradicting itself.

Let’s do an overall picture of the issues Paul was dealing with in 1 Corinthians. In Chapter 5 we see the issue coming up of whom to associate with. Paul is making it clear that you have to differentiate between believers who are walking the walk and those who aren’t but are living in sin. And you know, common sense tells you that, but society now a days wants to take it so far as to not condemning evil behaviour in others. Judging others from a personal standpoint which is what we were dealing with in parts 1-3 is totally different from judging the rightness or wrongness of someone’s actions. And we have in scripture the obvious things which are declared to be wrong, and it is not wrong to declare what is wrong according to scripture. And again we must remember to be sure we don’t have that log in our own eyes. We must be sure we are not guilty of the things that we say others are doing. We defeat the effectiveness of our witness if we are guilty of those same things.

Do you notice the instructions Paul gives to the Corinthian church? Look again at verse 11 of chapter 5. He says with whom you should have nothing to do. And he also says that this has to do with those who are part of the church in verse 12. Those who are within are the ones in the body of Christ, those who are without are those who are non-believers.

Now the Corinthian church had a problem with one of its members. Chapter 5 begins with that issue. Someone was involved in incest. Paul had the Corinthians put the guy out of the church. They excommunicated him for a period of time, or shunned him for a period of time. This was to convict the man of his sin, for we read in 2 Corinthians where Paul says to welcome the man back into the fold. Now the fellow must have repented or Paul would not have said that in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians. He didn’t want this guy to get so depressed and down that he gave up any faith in Jesus Christ.

The type of judging we see referenced above is scriptural. Remember the instructions Jesus gave in Matt 18:15-17. In that set of verses, Jesus says if the person doesn’t listen, to have nothing to do with them. Well, the Corinthian church had to judge and meet out punishment to one of its members. And the word "judge" that Paul is using in 1 Corinthians is the same word used for judge throughout the whole New Testament most every single time. Very few instances is it different, and when the noun is used, the same noun is used consistently. Paul puts on Christians the responsibility of judging right or wrong of people’s actions when it is truly obvious they are sinning against God.

Now in Chapter 11:28-32, Paul is talking about the Lord’s Supper, Communion. And telling folks they need to examine their own hearts, judge their own hearts to be sure they are right with God before taking communion. Otherwise they bring condemnation on themselves. Then he adds in verse 30 that because of not examining themselves there were many who were weak and sick and even some had died. They had partaken of the body and blood of our Lord with impure hearts and stayed in their sins, instead of letting the sacrifice Jesus made for us impress them into repentance. Hence their health went down hill. And some actually died. Then Paul points out that we would just judge ourselves, we would not come under any judgment and if we did come under any judgment, it was for chastisement’s sake, not for condemnation. So in these verses, on the issue of judging, Paul is making it clear that we must be our own judges. And in doing so we keep ourselves walking in the light.

Now the next batch of verses he is talking about order in the church service and brings up the subject of judging prophecies. For you see in the early church there were folks that prophesied and the mature among them had to have the discernment as to whether these were actually from the Lord or not. More than likely it was the leadership’s responsibility to judge the worth and validity of a prophecy. Mind you, prophecy is not merely telling of future events, it is also speaking forth what God says. And remember too, in those days the Bible as we have it now was still being completed. They had the Old Testament, but the New Testament that has been written down -more by Paul than anyone-was still being written. So as to being able to judge a prophecy, they had to know their old Testament scriptures. I am sure there must have been Jewish believers in the Corinthian church and the gentile believers probably looked to the Jewish believers for understanding the Word of God..

So you see, in the church group setting there was the responsibility of judging church members if they were sinning, as well as judging of prophecies. Something you will find interesting is Paul’s statements-- in 1 Corinthians 6 he states Christians have the responsibility of judging both the world and angels. Now different translations seem to write out verse 4 differently from each other-one translator puts that verse as a command, another puts it as a question. Regardless how you read it in your translation, Paul makes it clear that the Christians are not to go to court against other Christians in a court of the world, but to take issues to the church to discern the just and right thing to do. Paul states that using a secular court and judge is something to be ashamed of.

Now why would Paul say that the church has the responsibility to judge the world and even angels? I believe that is because it is the church to whom God has given His standards of righteousness. And one day the whole of Christiandom-risen and not will be involved in dealing the anti-christ his death blow.

Now with taking all this in consideration, you can see there is a difference between judging others as an individual because of your own personal tastes or opinions and automatically judging people’s motives. Christians are to judge actions, mainly. The actions will reveal the motives. Paul spent a lot of time trying to teach the early church not to be proud and judgmental and condemning toward others. He was operating in societies that had great prejudices not only toward different social classes, but different nationalities. I believe we all can learn from Jesus and Paul when it comes to the subject of judging. And let us certainly not decide someone is going to hell, unless he really has rejected Jesus. But remember, you never know who will make it. My father-in-law was heading to hell in a hand basket, till about 3 weeks before he died of cancer. It wasn’t until he was really at death’s door that he was willing to listen to the message of the gospel. When he understood it, he was saved and for the first time peace came into his heart.. So we don’t know who we will see at the end of the road. And don’t give up praying for someone’s salvation. They may not be going to heaven right now, but that doesn’t mean God can’t turn them around to go in the right direction.

Well, I think this just about exhausts the subject of judging as we are taught in the New Testament. Next week we will get into Romans 2 some more and get into the next issue that Paul discussed with the Roman church.

Have a great weekend.  The Good News Lady