I made a passing statement in church on Sunday that we are actually required to judge our brothers in Scripture.  This caused some questions, as I knew it would, so I wanted to follow up with a little more depth. 

Somehow, in our society, we have been taught that the greatest virtue in the world is to never judge anyone. I have no idea where that came from, but it is an idea that is foolish, unlivable and unbiblical.  We have to judge people everyday.  We judge the contractor before he works on our house, we judge the boy before he takes our daughter to the movies, we judge our neighbors before we give them an extra key to our house, we judge criminals and punish them accordingly, we judge a pastor before we commit to bringing our family to his church.  These judgments are not always right, but we all make them based on the information we have, and we should make them.  We just need to judge people fairly, which means not based on outward appearances, financial or social status or other earthly measures, which are shallow and foolish, but based on the 'content of their character', as Martin Luther King, Jr. so famously said.  But how do I see a person's character, you ask?  That is easy, you just watch what they do and you will see their heart.  Greedy hearts don't give money generously, immoral hearts don't stay faithful, lazy hearts don't work hard, etc., etc.  It is not rocket science.  Who we are comes out in what we do, period. 

Now there can be seasons of exception, but if you watch a person for 3 months and all you see and hear is greed, why do we hesitate to make a judgment and say that person is greedy?  When we see and hear of that same behavior in a contractor (made by other people who judged him), we make that judgment quickly and don't give him the contract to build our home.  But when we move this everyday principle into the religious realm, we lose all sensibility and say, "I am not to judge anyone."

The fact of the matter is that no one is to lead in the church unless they have been 'judged' morally and spiritually and found to be hospitable, temperate, able to teach, self-controlled, gentle, not argumentative, etc., etc.  These are moral judgments we have to make about people.  Furthermore, we judge everyone before they work in a ministry at Radius, even giving a background check before they work with kids (and if we find certain crimes on the background check, we would judge them unfit for that task).  Even further, our entire system of accountability within the church is based on judging each other.  I often sit with some of our elders and we judge each other - Gasp!.  They ask me, "What kind of husband have you been this last week?"  If I have done well, I am judged and pass the test, but if I have done poorly, I am judged to have been a poor husband this past week so they follow up and ask how they can help this poor husband be a better one next week.  You see, I don't mind being judged by a fair and impartial judge, as that ultimately makes me better.  I just don't want to be judged by a crooked and corrupt judge.  Wait a minute, did I just judge that judge by calling him crooked and corrupt?  There I go again, judging other people, just like you.

So what is the answer?  It is this - it is fine to judge other people as long as it is done fairly and according to God's standards, not outward appearances or race or religion or social status.  But we are NEVER TO CONDEMN OTHERS - that is the distinction.  God is the only one with the authority to condemn, but we can make judgments and then act accordingly.  I personally think we just confuse the English language and that is what people mean when they say we are not to judge, they really mean we are not to condemn, which would be right.  I don't condemn the Muslim, or the homosexual, or the greedy or the addict.  

The Biblical case for this is in 1 Corinthians 5, where we are commanded to judge those inside the church, those that wear the name Jesus.  There they had an immoral man in the church and they weren't doing anything about it.  Paul told them to never judge those outside the church for such grossly immoral sins, but he commanded them to judge those inside the church for gross immorality.  In fact, he commanded them to EXPEL this immoral brother.  In order to do this, they had to judge him to be immoral, then they had to expel him for being immoral.  Why so harsh, Paul?  Because he was running around flaunting his immorality in Jesus' name and bringing a bad reputation to both Jesus and Jesus' church.  He was judged by the Corinthian church and refused communion for a season, till we see in 2 Corinthians that their loving rebuke of him worked and now he was back in the church, minus the blatant immorality.   He was judged, but not condemned, and the judgment of the church actually brought about a good result in his life, and he was welcomed back in the church.  Here is the passage where the command is given (1 Corinthians 5:9-13, New Living Translation):

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

There you have it, it is in black and white.  It just says there is a responsibility that comes with wearing the name Christian or believer or follower of Jesus or whatever the label of the day is.  If you don't wear the name, we will never judge you, but if you wear the name of our Lord, we have responsibility for you, just as I do for my children.  Don't you despise the parents who have kids strung out on drugs and they refuse to see the reality of it, refuse to make a judgment about them and take action to help them?    Isn't that pitiful?  Isn't it just as pitiful for a church to call itself a family and yet have a member of that family sleeping around on his wife, breaking his children's hearts, and yet no one has the courage to judge him, rebuke him and offer him a path of restoration with his family and with his God?  It happens all the time in our churches and it is naive at best, total cowardice at worse.

One final argument here.  As Protestants we are all big on saying there is no difference between our pastors and our lay people, we are all the same before God, and that is true.  So why is it that we have no problem whatsoever judging pastors who sin, yet it is viewed as evil to judge lay people who commit the same sins?  If we are ok with our members being greedy and running their businesses as cheats and say that it is none of our business and we shouldn't judge them, then we should be ok with our pastors being greedy and running their finances unethically as well.  We all know that is not the case, so why the double standard?  It is because we have somehow been taught that we can judge pastors and leaders, but to judge anyone else within the church is a heinous sin, but we have been taught a great theological error.  So go ahead, judge me, just judge me fairly and as Jesus said, judge me by the same standard with which you want to be judged yourself.

But what about Matthew 7, you ask, where we are told not to judge others?  I will tackle that one in my next post.