Judging

	"Therefore you are without excuse," Paul warns in Romans 2:1, "every man {of you} who passes judgment."
	We hear it frequently, don't we?  "You don't have any right to judge me."  "The Bible says we can't judge other people."
	Is this a truthful picture of biblical teaching?  Let's examine what the Bible really has to say as we consider our word for this week, "judging."
	There can be no doubt that the New Testament condemns some kinds of judging.
	"Therefore you are without excuse," Paul continues in the passage we started, "every man {of you} who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.  And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same {yourself,} that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?  But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.  {There will be} tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For there is no partiality with God."
	"Now accept the one who is weak in faith," Paul expresses in Romans 14:1, "{but} not for {the purpose of} passing judgment on his opinions."
	"Who are you to judge the servant of another?" Paul asks in verse four.  "To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand."
	"But you, why do you judge your brother?" the apostle wonders in verse 10.  "Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God."
	"Therefore let us not judge one another anymore," Paul concludes in verse 13, "but rather determine this-- not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way."
	"Do not speak against one another, brethren," James 4:11-12 instructs.  "He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge {of it.}  There is {only} one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?"
	Do these passages say that we may never judge, or that we may not judge certain things?  Do they teach that we may never judge, or that we should be careful to not be guilty of the same offenses?  Do they state that we may never judge, or that we must be ready to be judged in the same way?
	There can be no question that we are not permitted to judge certain things.  For example, we cannot judge motives.  Romans 8:27 tells us that God is the one Who searches our hearts.  Only God can really judge our motives.
	It is also clear that we may not pronounce a sentence of condemnation on someone.  The word "judge" sometimes means to "pronounce judgment."  We do not have this authority.  And this is what the Bible does not allow.  But "judge" sometimes means to arrive at a conclusion.  What does the Bible tell us about this kind of judging?

	We cannot judge motives.  We cannot issue a sentence of condemnation.  But does the Bible teach that we may never judge anything?
	"It is actually reported that there is immorality among you," Paul expresses in 1 Corinthians 5:1-8, "and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.  And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.  For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.  In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,  {I have decided} to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump {of dough}?  Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.  Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
	Paul says that he has judged this person.  Is Paul violating his own instruction against judging?  Or is he just arriving at a logical conclusion based on obvious facts?
	"Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 6:1-6.  "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent {to constitute} the smallest law courts?  Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life?  If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?  I say {this} to your shame. {Is it} so, {that} there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?"
	Has Paul decided to totally abandon his teaching about judging, or is he indicating that we are expected to be able to evaluate facts and arrive at a conclusion?  Paul, writing through inspiration, obviously does not condemn acknowledging a fact or an action.  We are expected to exercise this kind of judgment.  Are we expected to judge anything else?
	"For there are many rebellious men," we read in Titus 1:10-16, "empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not {teach}, for the sake of sordid gain.  One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'  This testimony is true. For this cause reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.  To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by {their} deeds they deny {Him}, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed."
	God not only allows us to judge false teaching, He demands it.
	"But false prophets also arose among the people," 2 Peter 2:1-3 teaches, "just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.  And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in {their} greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." 
	"And especially those who indulge the flesh in {its} corrupt desires and despise authority," the passage continues in verses 10-22. "Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.  But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the {son} of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own transgression; {for} a dumb donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.  These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant {words} of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.  For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them.  It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A dog returns to its own vomit,' and, 'A sow, after washing, {returns} to wallowing in the mire.'"
	This makes it sound like God expects us to judge many things.  It appears that He wants us to constantly be on the look-out for false teaching.
	"But these men revile the things which they do not understand;" Jude 10-16 confirms, "and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.  Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.  These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.  And about these also Enoch, {in} the seventh {generation} from Adam, prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.' These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their {own} lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of {gaining an} advantage."
	The Bible's instruction against judging others is certainly no excuse for tolerating false teaching.  But it is so clear that we must not be quick to judge.  What guidelines, then, must we follow in deciding what to judge?  First, we cannot go beyond what it written in the Bible.
	"Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ," 2 John verse 9 states, "does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son."
	We cannot go beyond the Scriptures in deciding what to allow.
	"Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time," Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 4:5-6, "{but wait} until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of {men's} hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other."
	We cannot go beyond the Scriptures in deciding what to condemn.
	Second, we must always remember that we will be judged as we judge.  If properly applied, this concept alone would eliminate about 99 percent of the problems associated with judging.
	"But if you show partiality," James 2:9-13 cautions, "you are committing sin {and} are convicted by the law as transgressors.  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one {point,} he has become guilty of all.  For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not commit murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.  So speak and so act, as those who are to be judged by {the} law of liberty.  For judgment {will be} merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment."
	"Do not judge lest you be judged," Jesus commands in Matthew 7:1-5.  "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.  And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
	How can we sum up all of these instructions in a way which brings them into focus for every-day application?  Perhaps we should ask these five simple questions before judging.  Am I doing something equal to or worse than that which I am judging?  Am I arriving at a conclusion or condemning?  Am I judging motives and opinions, or facts?  Am I judging out of love or out of selfish motives?  Am I willing to be judged the same way?
	Friends, let's not judge where the Bible tells us not to.  Let's be equally dedicated to judging where the Bible tells us we must.  And let's be sure to properly judge the truth so that we may be set free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.lockman.org)