JUDGE OR JUDGE NOT

Judging is unavoidable. We judge our children; a teacher judges her students; the employer judges her subordinate; a spouse raises critical issues against her husband; the church disciplines its members; we even judge when we vote.

Against the assertion of some, Jesus did a lot of judging Himself. However, Jesus insisted that judging has to be done with great care. For one thing, we first have to judge ourselves before we are in any condition to judge another:

·       “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log [blindness and self-deception] out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck [the smaller sin] out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:4-5; ESV)

Paul taught the same thing but in a different manner:

·       Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (Galatians 6:1-5)

Paul made it clear that, sometimes, judging or correcting is necessary. However, not everyone is in a “spiritual” state where they can judge. We have to be gentle! Where does this come from? From examining ourselves! What do we find? That we are “nothing” without Christ and His forgiveness.

When we examine ourselves, any basis for pride is eliminated. We find that we stand only by the grace of Christ. How do we acquire this necessary self-awareness? Through the Bible’s requirement that we love: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

When we attempt to love others by bearing their burdens, we discover that we fall far short of Christ’s calling. This is why Paul wrote: “But let each one test his own work.” When we do examine ourselves with an un-blinded eye, we are humbled by our failures.  However, our failures can reinforce our understanding of the mercy of Christ.

Notice that Paul didn’t write that we come to this self-awareness by comparing ourselves with others. This might just breed arrogance and pride. Instead, Paul wrote: “But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in [comparison with] his neighbor.”

This is not an acknowledgement that any of us have a reason to boast. Instead, boasting is our human tendency. We want to feel good about ourselves, even superior to others, and so we look for occasions to boast by comparing ourselves to others. We, therefore, tell ourselves, “I’d never do what he did. I’m better than that.”

Instead, we have to measure ourselves against an absolute standard – Christ Himself. This standard takes the air out of our sails, as it is intended to do. We see our spiritual failures, and this humbles us.

Does this mean that we are not “spiritual” and that we cannot judge? Of course not! We are required to judge. However, it does mean that only those who have been humbled by the truth and continue to confess their sins can judge. It is these believers who can judge humbly, gently, patiently, and redemptively.

But can we judge with confidence and boldness? Yes, we can! How? We know that we are in the light and, consequently, are judging by the light of God. We also know that our corrections or judgments are not of our own invention but come from Him.

Therefore, when someone accuses you of judging, you can respond, “My judgment is now my own. It is my Lord’s.”

You might also turn the table and rhetorically ask, “Well, aren’t you judging me?”

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION AND THE BIBLE

Here is a definition of the practice of mindfulness meditation:

·       "A kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is." (Wikipedia)

While the Bible has nothing against self-awareness - we are instructed to examine ourselves - it has a lot to say against non-judgmentalness.

From a biblical perspective, we are to know ourselves so that we can confess our sins, repent, and make the necessary adjustments.

Paul had criticized the Corinthian church for not judging themselves:

·       “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.” (1 Corinthians 11:30-31)

Jesus taught His disciples that they had to first judge themselves by recognizing their own blindness (the "log" in their eye) before they could see clearly enough to remove the "splinter" from their brother's eye (Matthew 7:1-5).

Scripturally, spiritual growth depends upon self-examination and corrective action, starting with confession:

·       “The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” (Proverbs 20:5)

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” (Proverbs 28:13-14)

However, the non-judgment of mindfulness leaves out this vital component, ignoring the fact that we are moral beings, and, as such, we have to live in accordance with our moral nature, as the bird must live in accordance with flight by grooming its feathers.

For optimal living, we cannot leave any part of our nature out of the equation. My natural tendency had been to justify and rationalize my wrongdoing. However, I could not completely silence the truth, conscience, and my moral nature, which had been indicting me of my crimes.

This meant that an internal but barely seen battle was raging within, depriving me of peace. My nature was telling me that I had done wrong, while I was trying to silence it.

Peace depended upon self-judgment. I had to acknowledge my sins before God and to receive his forgiveness. Nothing else would suffice.

How does mindfulness handle this problem? By disassociating from a critical part of ourself - our moral nature and guilt!

However, we cannot completely do this. When wronged, we judge. Besides, it is right to judge the pedophile who rapes and kills a two-year-old. However, such necessary judgments are inconsistent with mindfulness philosophy.

Contemporary society has found many others ways to disassociate - drinking, drugging, distracting, exercising, and even achieving. However, none of these address the real underlying problem - that we stand guilty before our Lord and must seek reconciliation with Him and even with ourselves!

SPIRITUAL HEALTH REQUIRES JUDGING AND CORRECTING

 

We are to be self-critical. If we do not examine ourselves, God will, as Paul had explained:

* Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:28-31; ESV)

If we do not judge ourselves, there will be serious consequences. We are also required to judge our brethren:

* My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

Of course, before we judge others, we must hold ourselves accountable to a standard at least as stringent as the standard we use to judge ourselves. This is what it means to be "spiritual":

* Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

We have to first be humble, realizing that we too are liable to the same kinds of temptations. We should never think that we are above them, lest we fall (1 Cor. 10:12).

There is also a calling, especially for pastors and teachers, to correct other Christians in leadership positions, lest they bring disrepute upon the Church. In this regard, apologetic or discernment ministries play a vital role. For example, Hank Hanegraaff has often exposed the false teachings of prosperity ministers:

* Paul Crouch, founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), went so far as to suggest that if God does not kill “heresy hunters,” he will. Benny Hinn took it a step further. On TBN’s Praise the Lord program, he said, “You have attacked me. Your children will pay for it.” On another occasion Hinn shouted, “If you care for your kids, stop attacking Benny Hinn; you’re attacking on the radio all the time. You will pay, and your children will. Hear this from the lips of God’s servant. You are in danger.” Other threats could be cited, including the time Hinn ominously snarled, “I’m not exactly the normal kind of guy, you know. I’m from Israel. Sometimes I wish God would give me a Holy Ghost machine gun. I’d blow your head off.” ("Christianity in Crisis: The 21st Century")

If the Church fails to expose and to distance themselves from ungodly teachers, then the world will distance themselves from the Church and the brethren will be led astray.

For an example of the disrepute that these teachers have brought upon the Church, Hanegraaff writes:

* This cancer has now reached the epidemic stage, and is spreading with such speed as to genuinely warrant the words “Christianity in Crisis.” It has so disfigured the face of Christianity that pagans looking on from without either smile with condescension and cynicism, or, with CNN founder Ted Turner, caricature Christians as “bozos” and “idiots.”

However, the damage done to the Body of Christ by false teachers is even a greater concern. Therefore, Paul warned the Ephesian elders:

* “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31)

Because of the inevitability of false teachers arising even within the church, the elders had to be vigilant. Why? Because false teachers could ravage the flock! Consequently, Paul had insisted that the elders had to be able to scripturally defend their churches:

* He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. (Titus 1:9-11)

The only remedy to error is truth. The only answer to Scripture twisting is sound teaching and correction.

This means that we must judge, if we love the Church. Besides, sometimes even loving God requires us to judge. For example, God had warned the Church at Pergamum to repent for tolerating false teaching:

* “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:14-16)

Their tolerance of false teaching was a sin against God, and they were called to repent of this sin.

To be a friend of the world by tolerating what we should not is to be an enemy of God.

The Prophetic Ministry: The Denunciation of Evil

Should we denounce evil? Recently, a local pastor defended his decision to not protest New York City’s unjust ruling, barring the churches from renting space in the NYC schools:

• Unfortunately, one cannot rejoice at persecution while fighting for one’s rights in persecution. The two cannot go together…

Granted, we should be rejoicing, even in the midst of persecution, but does this prevent us from denouncing evil? Certainly not! However, this is just one of many reasons why Christians are reluctant to speak out against injustice. Others will defend a hands-off stance by invoking their belief that Jesus is soon returning, and therefore, our focus should be the “great commission” - evangelism. Similarly, the evangelical columnist, Cal Thomas, warned against speaking forth on the national platform:

• Real power doesn’t reside in Washington. Real power is Christ within you. Surely the Gospel is a more effective tool than the Republican or the Democratic Party. Just one example: More babies are being saved through pregnancy help centers than through anything Washington has done.

Thomas might be correct, but does this preclude raising our voices against the shameful infant holocaust? Doesn’t our calling require many forms of engagement? Shouldn’t we be raising our voices to demand justice and protection for the vulnerable? Isn’t this what the Hebrew Prophets were directed to do?

On the other side of the spectrum are the social-gospel folk – the liberals and emergent-churchers – who conflate the Gospel with social activism, reducing the Gospel to a set of actions. They forget that, instead, the Gospel is our launching pad – our joy, peace, confidence and love in the Lord – that energizes and directs everything else. It produces the fruit, which honors the tree.

If we love Jesus, we will keep His commands (John 14:21-24; 15:7-14; 1 John 5:3). Consequently, we will not only love one another (John 17:21; 13:34-35), but we will also, if need be, speak out to expose the hypocrisy that threatens them (Matthew 23; Eph. 5:11). Isaiah had called upon the people to,

• Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:16-17)

I think that the majority of evangelical churches recognize that we have a calling to care for the downtrodden. But we have largely forgotten that we also have a responsibility to “rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

Mercifully, our God is concerned about exposing and punishing evil. He consequently ordained a criminal justice system to address His concerns:

• Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (Romans 13:1-4)

Consequently, we too have a responsibility to expose, denounce and restrain evil:

• Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Ephes. 5:11)

This kind of talk usually invites the charge, “Well, you’re legislating morality! You Christians are always imposing your views on others!”

Not to mention the fact that denouncing evil is part of the common law which God wires our hearts (Romans 2:14-15), this is also a vital part of the democratic experience. Aren’t we all supposed to have a say, as do others? Besides, isn’t every law an exercise in legislating morality, even if law doesn’t change hearts? Martin Luther King addressed this issue poignantly:

• “It may be true that a law can’t make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”

God also thinks that this is “pretty important!” However, many evangelicals warn against this kind of thing. Michael Spencer believes that the church’s prophetic ministry detracts from its first ministry:

• “Evangelicals have linked their beliefs with political conservatism and the culture war, which non-Christian leaders perceive as bad for society…We have done so at the detriment of our faith. Christians have been so wrapped up in the political process and especially over the last couple of years…that we have ignored our number one mission, which is to tell the world about a loving and merciful God.”

Although I don’t see how the prophetic ministry is in opposition to the Gospel ministry, I think that Spencer’s point should sensitize us regarding the causes we espouse and the way we espouse them. However, it is important to note that God associates denunciation and awareness of sin and moral failure with receptivity to the Gospel (Romans 3:19-20). The “bad news” has to precede the “good news.”

Jesus and Paul certainly exposed people to their “bad news,” not to belittle them, but to show them their need for repentance and forgiveness:

• At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" (Acts 23:2-3)

As a surgeon has to open and expose the wound in order to correct it, so too must the spiritual doctor. Stephen exposed the festering wound of Israel, even as he cried out to God to forgive them (Acts 6-7). Jesus denounced the Pharisees but then cried over them (Mat. 23:37).

However, aren’t we alienating the very world we are trying to bring to the light by such involvement? Indeed, many express great contempt for us and misrepresent us. In Why the Religious Right is Wrong, Robin Meyers writes:

• Religious fanatics who run the country…are close to realizing their vision of a heaven on earth: an American theocracy.

Likewise, in Religion Gone Bad, ex-evangelical speechwriter Mel White writes:

• We must resist before fundamentalists do what they have promised and turn the world’s oldest democracy into a theocracy ruled entirely by “righteous men.”

Although we might have brought some of the contempt upon ourselves, we can’t forget the fact that the world crucified Jesus – the model of love and perfection. He warned us that we have to take the contempt in stride:

• "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:18-20)

We are going to be hated, especially if we are the light in a dark, self-justifying world. We therefore can’t use the response of the world as a measure of whether or not we are doing the right thing. The measure has to be our Lord Himself, as the Apostles affirmed, after the court forbade them to speak of Jesus:

• But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20)… Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! (5:29)

Ironically, the world has censured the church for speaking out, but has also censured us for not speaking. An article in a militant atheistic journal put it this way:

• European Christianity failed to prevent the mass slaughter between the faithful in the Great War and actually contributed to World War II, insofar as conservative churches supported fascism. The failure of the churches to provide sound moral guidance may help to explain the [European] Continent’s postwar lack of enthusiasm of religion.(“The Big Religion Questions Finally Solved,” Free Inquiry, Jan. 2009, 29)

Although the church was the only body that resisted Hitler and although it can be argued that the German churches had lost their Biblical rudder after years of radical criticism of the Bible, this article is certainly correct for censuring us for not resisting more proactively. To those who would retort: “Well, the politics of this world don’t involve the church,” I would simply refer them to James’ words:

• Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)

If this world is God’s world, it is also ours, and we are responsible for its people. We are our brother’s keeper, as God made plain to Ezekiel:

• “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (Ezekiel 33:6)

Mustn’t we blow the trumpet when we see the sword approaching? Mustn’t we warn about the murder of the unborn or about our pornography and decadent movies that are perverting the rest of the world? Even now, the radical Muslims gain credibility by pointing to the porn and violence coming out of the “Christian” West!

Sadly, many pastors are not being prophetic; they are not speaking out against those sins which are now popular in Western culture. However, we are culpable when we fail to do this. The Apostle Paul had “boasted”:

• “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.”  (Acts 20:26-27)

Few of us can make a similar boast. Some pastors justify their silence by arguing that they don’t want to turn away any of their parishioners from sitting under the Gospel. However, I think that we wrongly assume that healing can take place apart from identifying the disease.

Instead, we can’t separate the two. Diagnosis and cure go together. The false prophets of Israel never taught against the Mosaic Law. However, they often preached that there was “peace” – that everything was okay – when there wasn’t peace (Ezek. 13:8-10; Jer. 8:11-12). However, Israel’s God was deeply grieved by this, because it failed to uncover the festering disease, and therefore this comforting message obscured the hope of a cure:

• The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading. (Lament. 2:14)

We tend to be myopic in our pragmatic preoccupations, and therefore need the lens of Scripture to see telescopically, even microscopically. We wrongly think that our passivity will better shield the church from the secular onslaught. However, even now, many are clamoring for the State to impose the same hiring standards upon the church. Others are indicting the Bible as “hate speech.” In Europe, Christian schools are increasingly required to teach on subjects ranging from evolution to same-sex marriage. The sword is now upon us!

This doesn’t mean that we should all be judging and denouncing sin. It is reserved for only those who have first judged their own sins, confessing them to our Savior:

• "Do not judge, or you too will be judged…You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

We first have to confront our own blindness, rationalizations and denials before we can have the clarity to confront others. Without first judging ourselves, we become hypocrites when we attempt to judge others. But judge, we must!