Does the Bible Tell Us Not to Judge Others?

The Christian Diarist ^ | October 21, 2012 | JP

[CHRISTIAN DIARIST]

“Only God can judge me.” - Elizabeth Escalona, 23-year-old Texas mom who beat and glued her 2-year-old daughter’s hands to a wall.

“Holier than thou critics have nothing on Lance Armstrong.” - de Volkskrant, the Netherlands

“Be Cool. Be Kind. Don’t Judge.” - A tee shirt on sale at the Ellen Degeneres online store.

Ever notice how often those who lead Godless lives, who engage in immoral behavior, who commit unspeakable acts invoke the words of the Lord to defend their unrepentant sinfulness?

“Judge not lest ye be judged.”

Usually they direct the words at Christ followers, whom they disparage as “judgmental” or “sanctimonious” or “holier than thou.”

Of course, if the Godless, the immoral, the unrepentant actually read the Bible, rather than selected verses, they would understand the context in which the Lord said “Judge not.”

He was talking about hypocritical judgment.

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” the Savior admonished.

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

What the Lord was saying is that, before those of us who believe ourselves upright presume to judge those we perceive as ungodly, we should examine ourselves.

If I am an adulterer, if I consort with prostitutes, if I frequent strip clubs, if I download pornography on the Internet, who am I to condemn others for their sexual sins?

If I have a gambling problem or a drug habit or a violent temper, how can I chastise those who similarly struggle with demons?

If I forget the Sabbath day, choosing football over church, if I kill, by supporting institutions that support abortion, if I steal, by working for a business that cheats its customers, what standing do I have to criticize those who break other of God’s commandments?

But those who are committed Christ followers, who are not just hearers, but doers of the Word, not only have the moral authority to judge the ungodly, they have a God-ordained imperative to do so.

Indeed, the Psalmist declared, “The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgment.” The Apostle Paul echoed that “he who is spiritual judges all things.”

It’s not about condemning sinners to hell. It’s about calling them to repentance, so that their eternal souls are not cast into the lake of fire of which the Bible warns.

It’s not about hating on transgressors, for we are, every one of us, sinners, who fall short of the glory of the Lord.

It’s about hating the sin.

So Christ followers do the will of God when they call out those who brazenly flout His law; who unabashedly and unrepentantly persist in their sins.

The unsaved may acknowledge God. They may even quote the Lord. But that matters not.

So they believe in the Father and the Son. That’s well and good. “Even the demons believe,” the Bible notes, “and tremble!”

[TurkeyLurkey]

James 4:17 is one definition of sin, not a sin nature. Other definitions of sin: Gen. 3:1-7; Is. 53:6, 1 John 3:4, 5:17; Romans 14:23, 1 Cor. 6:9-10.

Jesus came to deliver us from sin. The power of sin was broken at the cross and became true in our lives the moment we trusted in Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin.

I didn’t say believers never sinned. I said believers do not have a sin nature. If you mean by “sin nature” that which came in Adam when Adam sinned—a believer is no longer in Adam, he is in Christ, he is a new man, a new self, a new creation—those are the terms the Bible uses.

All that a believer was in Adam has been crucified with Christ, has been buried, and a new man has been raised to walk in newness of life—that’s the true believer. The believer is a new man in Christ and begins to walk, or live, in accordance to the Holy Spirit’s leading and power and the power of the Word of God in the believer’s life.He now lives by faith, not as he did formerly, in the lusts of the flesh.

In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul is addressing believers who WERE dead in their trespasses and sins and FORMERLY WALKED according the the course of this world & according to the prince of the power of the air and of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

And Paul tells these believers, v. 3: Among them we too all FORMERLY LIVED in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and WERE BY NATURE children of wrath, even as the rest.

v. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we WERE dead in our transgressions, MADE US ALIVE with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:20-32 tells those who profess to be believers to lay aside the old self—this is in the context of behavior—and put on the new self [aorist imperfect tense: do it now, daily & moment by moment].

True believers have a new walk, a new spirit, a new heart, the presence of the triune God within through His Holy Spirit permanently, and the Word of God. His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

So, though believers sin, they are not called sinners, but saints in the Bible. When Paul talked about his salvation in 1 Timothy 1:15, he said, “Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” He was expressing contemporaneous action—foremost of sinners—when he was first saved. He had just said in the few verses previous that he was FORMERLY a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent agressor and yet was shown mercy, because he acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus (v. 13-14).

In Ephesians 3:8 Paul describes himself as the very least of all saints; in 1 Corinthians 15:9 he calls himself the least of the apostles...not fit to be called an apostle, because he persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am,...

Though believers sin, they are not slaves to sin, they do not walk, or live in sin, but they are increasingly being saved from the power of sin in their lives, as they put away the deeds of the flesh in faith. Their spirits wage war with the lusts of their flesh, but they can have the victory over sin experentially by believing Christ, by confessing their sins, (1 John 1:9) and turning from them. Believers have an Advocate with the Father who sits at the right hand in the heavenlies, as well as lives within us.

God will finish what He began in every believer. If there is no evidence of faith, no change of mind and action, no fruit, there is no salvation.

As far as 1 Corinthians 8 goes, our consciences have been cleansed by the blood of Christ as well. The passage concerns things sacrificed to idols and warns the strong brother not to participate in eating that which has been sacrificed to idols (even though he doesn’t believe in idols), so that the weak brother doesn’t stumble. Maybe you could explain how this passage fits in with having, or not having a sin nature?