I though we weren’t supposed to judge!

The saying in the title to this post is a reference to the Scripture “Judge not, that you be not judged” spoken by Christ in the gospels. I have heard this often thrown back on us Christians, and sometimes the application is valid, and sometimes it is not. Properly understood and applied, this a good and appropriate principle for both those inside and those outside the faith. It is not, however, always properly applied. It is applicable in the context of our discussion last day of our interaction with other cultures in this sense: It is wrong to come down harshly and judgmentally on isolated indigenous cultures. Christians are also wrong when they come across as self righteous and judgmental. This is not Christ like. In fact it is the very opposite, for in John 3:17 we read “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Self righteous and judgmental attitudes are wrong, and Christ's teaching warns that those who exhibit such attitudes will be judged in the same way they judge others. If we want mercy, we need to show mercy. We can't expect to have mercy for ourselves and judgement for the other buddy. It doesn't work that way!

But we need to ask if Christ meant (as some people interpret this as saying) that we should never say that anything is wrong, that we should simply remain quiet “butting out” of everything? In saying “judge not that you be not judged” was Christ agreeing with the “who are we to say this or that is wrong” philosophy? Was He was saying we should turn a blind eye to ongoing injustice and oppression, to man's inhumanity to man? And as last day's post shows some do advocate this with their “no intervention” stand with regards to other cultures. I can hear them asking “Well, we're not supposed to judge, right?” as a justification for their stand.

In order to see that this is not what Christ was advocating, all we need to do is to look at what he did in the Temple to those who were cheating the common people. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and drove them from the Temple. They were cheating the people as Christ makes clear when He says “You have made it (the Temple) it into a den of thieves.” No, Christ was not unmoved in the presence of injustice. So then if this is not what He meant then what exactly did He mean?

In Biblical interpretation it is important not to single out only part of a teaching. We are in danger of doing this when we pick out just a single verse on a subject. We will not fully appreciate the wisdom of what the Scriptures teach if we do this. Often there are other verses that throw light on what a particular verse means. In this case it is important to consider another of Christ's sayings that has to do with judgement. I am thinking of another teaching of Christ in the passaage “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). We need to look at both sayings. The context of this second verse is that the religious people in the Temple were criticizing Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. We are all fond of imposing rules on others, and Jesus was saying that we need to look past some of our rules at times and make a reflective evaluation of what is really going on.

In last day's post I was asking “whatever happened to wisdom, to sound judgement, to thoughtful consideration of the issues?” It would not be reflective wisdom to claim that murder is not wrong, even if a culture does not consider certain instances of it to be murder! “Ethnic cleansing” is not considered murder by those perpetrating it, but I still want to call that murder even if they don't! In his rationalization of the murder of six million Jews, Hitler referred to the Jews as “Untermenchen” (under people). He was saying Jews were not really human, so it is alright to kill them. We do need to say that these things are wrong. I am not saying we should be self righteous here, but sound and thoughtful consideration would surely lead us to say that certain things are simply wrong. If a murderer in a court of law told the judge “You're not supposed to judge, so but out” we would laugh at him. “Nice try buddy, but you can forget that!”

Part of the problem here is that words are so inadequate. In the English language the same word can have different meanings. We can usually determine the meaning from the context. For example right can be the opposite of wrong, or the opposite of left. I am fond of telling my English relatives that in Canada we drive on the right, and you English drive on the wrong side of the road :-). The word judge similarly has two meanings. In the sense that Jesus means it in the first of the two quotations He is talking about a judgmental, self righteous attitude and warning that if that is you, watch out because you will be judged the same way. In the second quotation He is talking about making sound, thoughtful and just evaluations as the situation warrants.

So the meaning of judge in the 'judge not' quotation is about not having a judgmental attitude that carries with it self righteous condemnation, and the command to judge justly has to do with having a humble gentle, thoughtful and insightful discernment that something may be right or wrong. An example of this latter attitude would be when we tell little Johnny that is it wrong to take a toy that does not belong to him. This attitude is needed both inside and outside the Church. Too often Christians (those who are, and those who only say they are) major only on rules and regulations and finish up condemning those who do not follow them. But this is to live under the law, not under grace. As always Jesus is the model here. In particular He does not condemn the woman caught in adultery, but He does tell her that she should go and sin no more (John 8:2-11). In other words He speaks the truth in love, and He judges (as in discerning right and wrong) righteously and deals with others with grace, mercy and truth. His example and teaching very much reflects that God prefers mercy to judgment, and that when we follow Him, mercy triumphs over judgment!

The instructions for us Christians to deal with moral issues within Christian community are very different from the way we are told to deal with the very same issues outside of our communities. The NIV of 1 Corinthians 5:12 reads “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” The Scripture is specific about the type of “outside” issue that is being talked about here. In particular in verse 11 Paul lists sexually immorality, covetousness, extortion and idolatry. So here is an explicit instruction to Christians not to judge the World (judge - as in self righteous condemnation) on these issues. Unfortunately not all Christians are obedient on this one! On the other hand, I think that it is important to say that Paul is not taking here about (as in including) issues such as murder or rape or infanticide.

To answer the question “are we to judge those inside,” from the last Scripture, the answer is yes, and Galatians 6:1 tells us which of the two “judgements” we are talking about here. It reads “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” So yes we are to judge within the community, but it is to be done gently and with humility. Please note "humility" here is not the false humility of thinking that we must not even say that something is wrong. If that were the case, we could not even discern that someone was caught in a sin.

To sum it up in just a few words then. Neither the Christian not the one who has no such profession should judge in the sense of being self righteous and judgmental. On the other hand this does not mean we should not discern right from wrong, nor that we should ignore human rights violations and the like (I am thinking of Christ in the Temple). Christians are called to a higher morality than we should expect the World to follow. The motivation for the Christian for not doing these things is that they damage our relationship with God, and cut us off from the life of the Spirit. On the other hand Christians are specifically told not to judge the World on these issues, that is not our job! Notwithstanding this, the Scriptures are very clear on how God feels about injustice, oppression and man's inhumanity to man. Christ did not turn a blind eye to these things and neither should we!

I believe that if we properly understand the Scriptures, we would run to them because not only are the things that Scriptures teach good and right and proper, they are smart! So let me invite you to judge (discern) the Scriptures discussed here with sound and just judgement (discernment).