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Learn To Be a Good Judge

August 28, 2022 Speaker: Brian Wilbur Series: Crucial Teachings for Chaotic Times

Topic: Christian Life Basics

LEARN TO BE A GOOD JUDGE

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: August 28, 2022

Series: Crucial Questions for Chaotic Times

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

INTRODUCTION

Don’t Let the World Throw You Off-Balance

In today’s sermon, I am asking you to dig deep and give careful thought, as I will be addressing an important but frequently misunderstood issue. When an important issue is misunderstood, it undermines our capacity to live a faithful Christian life. When we have an unclear combination of half-truths bouncing around our head, it interferes with the capacity for good fruit. When it comes to what the Bible teaches, we should desire as much clarity as possible, so that we can get on with the holy task of living in accordance with what the Bible teaches.

The issue I have in mind is the act of judging. There are spiritual forces at work in the world that are designed to put you on the defensive, knock you off balance, and silence you. There are satanic schemes at work in the midst of the visible church that are intended to prevent you from judging. These forces and schemes can have the appearance of plausibility, but upon closer inspection they are problematic and misleading. One person can take a Bible phrase out of context (such as “Thou shalt not judge”) and put it onto a sign that you hold up in the bleachers during the football game. Another person can put a phrase like ‘Leave the judging to Jesus’ onto a t-shirt and expect that people will buy it. Someone else can pressure you with statements like ‘don’t be so judgmental’ or ‘it’s not your place to judge’ or ‘who are you to judge?’. The world’s intention is to cultivate an atmosphere in which we fear being labelled ‘intolerant’ and want to avoid any situation where someone levels the charge, ‘I feel judged by you’. When these forces, schemes, and pressures are blended with poor teaching, we might conclude that we should never pronounce or enact judgments on any matter or against any person.

But isn’t it a curious thing that even though the world urges us to be tolerant and to pass no judgment, meanwhile the world itself is becoming increasingly intolerant, judgmental, and punishing? What’s up with that? Well, when the world pressures you to refrain from passing judgment, it is not because the world doesn’t believe in passing judgment. The world does believe in passing judgment, as long as it is the one passing judgment. What the world doesn’t want is you passing judgment.

But the world has no qualms about passing judgment. When a news article reports that someone “falsely claimed” something, it is making a moral judgment. When the word “denier” is thrown into the discussion – “pandemic denier” or “election denier” or “climate change denier” – a moral judgment is being made. Every time a social media company sees fit to flag a post as “misinformation” – it is making a morally serious claim regarding truth and error. We live in a “cancel culture” because certain people make judgments that other people don’t measure up to the appropriate standard. When The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby from its ranks, and when it banned Will Smith from attending its awards ceremony for the next decade, it was brokering in moral assessments. When almost one year ago President Biden said to unvaccinated Americans – “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us. So, please, do the right thing.” – he was making a moral judgment as to “the right” course of action. The world has no qualms about making moral judgments and pronouncing them for all to hear. And I would simply like to add: neither should you. But, as you might expect, this requires some explanation and qualification.

In telling you that you should make and pronounce moral judgments, I am not telling you to do it because the world does it. The world is not our standard. So, I am not arguing that since the world excels in passing judgment, you should too. That’s not my point. What I am doing is simply bringing to your attention that when the world and the media and the thought police tell you not to make moral judgments, they are being hypocritical because they themselves make moral judgments all the time. Don’t let their heated rhetoric throw you off balance.   

To be honest, it is inevitable that human beings will make moral judgments. To be a human being – to be an image-bearer of God – is to be a creature with moral consciousness. Every human being has a view of the world, every human being has a sense of right and wrong, every human being has a sense of fairness and unfairness – and as surely as the rooster crows and the clock strikes twelve, it is inevitable that human beings will make and pronounce and enact moral judgments toward other people. There is no such thing as a judgment-free human society.

The question is not whether you will judge, but how you will judge. The question is not if you will assume the role of judge, but what kind of judge you will be. The act of judging – the act of appraising and assessing and assigning praise or blame – all of this is inevitable. It is foolish to pretend otherwise.

You will make moral judgments, and my intention in this sermon is to persuade you from Scripture that you ought to make moral judgments. The question is not if you will make moral judgments, but whether you will honor the Lord when you do so.

Four Types of Judging

Before we go any further, we need to recognize that the responsibility to make moral judgments falls into at least four different categories.

First, we must judge ideas. Anytime someone attempts to speak forth theological and moral truth – such as I am doing in this very sermon – you ought to be assessing and determining whether or not what has been said is true. The Jews in Berea were commended for doing this very thing when Paul and Silas proclaimed the gospel to them: “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)

Second, we must judge courses of action. We’re supposed to live our lives deliberately, with our eyes wide open, giving careful thought to our steps. Ephesians 5 says, “Walk as children of light…, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord…. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:8, 10, 15-17) If we ought to walk this way and not that way, then a judgment must be made.

Third, sometimes we must judge disputes between people. The apostle Paul instructed the Corinthians that in light of the fact that the saints will one day in the future age “judge the world” and “judge angels”, even now in this present age at least some of us should be “wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers” (1 Corinthians 6:2, 3, 5). Pauls says, “And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3)

Fourth, we must judge people. I’ll spend the majority of the message on this one, but all four categories are inter-related. We judge people on the basis of the doctrine they profess, the habitual courses of action they undertake (which reveals their character), and their manner of relating to other people. 

What does it mean to judge?

We must judge. But what does it mean to judge? We have to be clear what is meant by the word ‘judge’. Don’t equate ‘judge’ and ‘condemn’; don’t equate ‘judge’ and ‘criticize’; don’t equate ‘judge’ and ‘judgmental’. One of the Merriam-Webster definitions of ‘judgmental’ is ‘characterized by a tendency to judge harshly’.[1] I am not encouraging you to ‘judge harshly’. What I am encouraging you to do is to judge and judge rightly. One of the Merriam-Webster definitions of ‘judge’ is ‘to form an estimate or evaluation of’.[2] That’s good. The Bible requires that we form right and proper estimates of everything. Sometimes the act of judging results in a negative judgment (and this might require us to confront or rebuke), but at other times the act of judging results in a positive judgment (in which case we might approve or praise or vindicate). At a basic level, to judge involves at least three activities:

First, to judge begins with assessing or evaluating a thing or a person.

Second, on the basis of the assessment, to judge is to determine the quality of the thing or the person. The determination could be that the thing or the person under consideration is right or wrong, wise or foolish, good or evil, mature or immature, blameless or blameworthy, qualified or unqualified.

Third, to judge is to take whatever actions are necessary in order to put the determination into practice. You might have to verbally announce the judgment. In the case of a negative judgment, you might have to break a relationship or impose a disciplinary action. In the case of a positive judgment, you might commend someone or commission someone to a new task.

For example, consider what was involved when the apostles told the congregation to “pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty [of distributing food to the Greek-speaking widows]” (Acts 6:3). These believers had to confer among themselves as to which men met the criteria, which means they had to exercise judgment. But it was not a theoretical exercise – once they mutually agreed upon seven men who passed the test, they actually had to go public with their decision by actually setting these men “before the apostles” (Acts 6:6) who then commissioned the men into service.

The passage in Acts 6 is just one example where Christians are called to make a judgment concerning people. There are many such passages, which we’ll get to in just a moment. The upshot of these passages is that the church must get over its discomfort with judging and assessing people. Some of you might wish that I was using a word other than ‘judge’ because it often has such a negative connotation. But I believe we must recapture the term because the world and the devil are using that negative connotation to silence us in areas where God has told us to not be silent. So, we need to stop being paralyzed by the world’s hypocritical insistence that we not judge people. Instead, with humility and grace, we need to be resolved to do what God commands.

THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE

Now here’s the fundamental issue that I’ve been getting at all along:

We must let God’s standard govern the way that we think and speak and act concerning everything and everyone.

The reason why the world wants to judge you but doesn’t want you to judge it, is because the world loves its own standard and hates God’s standard. “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own” (John 15:19). If you were of the world, if you adhered to the world’s standard, if you represented the world’s value system, if you played by the world’s rules, then the world would cheer you on as you make moral pronouncements and file lawsuits against ‘preferred pronoun objectors’. “[But]”, Jesus continues, “because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19) Since you are not of the world, since you have become a citizen of God’s kingdom, since you are committed to the unchanging principles of God’s Word, since you are a representative of King Jesus, the world is utterly opposed to you declaring the King’s Word in the public square. If you want to entertain the King’s Word in the privacy of your own heart and home, that’s one thing. But don’t you dare to speak up and call the world to account. Don’t portray your faith publicly for all to see. Don’t build a church that publicly proclaims and embodies the truth of the Bible. The world – by which I mean the people who are joined together in systematic rebellion against the Lord – this ungodly world hates you. And you, dear Christians, cannot conform yourselves to their agenda:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).

Since “we are the temple of the living God”, we must strive to be separate from the world system (2 Corinthians 6:16-18). With all our heart and mind, we must pursue holiness, honor Christ, walk in the light, and seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. The only way to do this is to let God’s standard govern the way that we think and speak and act concerning everything and everyone.

FIVE KEY PRINCIPLES GUIDING OUR JUDGMENT OF OTHERS

With the groundwork set, now let me set before you five key principles that must guide our judgment of others.

Principle #1: God’s Word authorizes you and requires you to judge others.

Here is the first principle: God’s Word authorizes you and requires you to judge others.Remember, to judge others means to assess and make a determination, then take whatever actions are necessary in light of the determination. What follows is a sampling of what God commands – and these commands authorize us and require us to make moral judgments concerning other people.

Similar to the instruction that I mentioned earlier about the choosing of the seven in Acts 6, Paul tells Timothy that prospective deacons must “be tested first; then let them serve as deacons” (1 Timothy 3:10). The character of prospective deacons, as well as the character and doctrine of prospective elders (which is mentioned earlier in 1 Timothy 3), must be assessed before they are commissioned into service.

In Philippians 3, the apostle Paul tells the Philippians to pay special attention to people who are setting a faithful example: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17) The only way to “keep your eyes on those who” are walking the walk, is to first of all have assessed that they are doing so. You have to judge them faithful before you can decide to keep your focus on their faithful example.

In Romans 16, Paul says, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” (Romans 16:17-18) You cannot avoid troublemakers unless you have first of all determined them to be troublemakers. You must exercise judgment.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul tells the church, “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14) Jude says, “And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” (Jude 22-23) Now here’s the thing: people don’t walk around with self-identifying words flashing across their t-shirts that say things like “faithful example” or “enemy of the cross” or “divisive” or “caught in the fire” or “full of doubt” or “idle” or “fainthearted” or “weak”. Instead, you have to judge people – you have to judge people in relation to the quality of their ideas, the quality of their habitual courses of action, and the quality of their relationships. You must judge them for their good, so that you know how best to help them. And you must judge them for your own good, so that you know whether or not to let them influence you (do they set an example worth following? or are they a troublemaker who must be avoided?).

When Lydia invited Paul and his team to lodge in her house during their ministry work in Philippi, she didn’t expect Paul to accept the invitation due to the power of personality. Instead she told him, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” (Acts 16:15)

And do you remember what we learned in the sermon two weeks ago from 1 Timothy 4:6-16? We learned that a pastor must set an example for the congregation and that a pastor’s progress should be evident to all. The only way that works is if the congregation is actually observing and evaluating the pastor’s manner of life on an ongoing basis – otherwise they wouldn’t know if the pastor was making progress in his life and ministry.

The apostle John teaches us to have our eyes wide open to the lived out character of other people, and to draw the proper conclusion:

“Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning…. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:7-8, 10)

In the next chapter, John commands us to test people who claim to be delivering a message from God:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” (1 John 4:1-3)

These passages make it clear that the work of judging, discerning, assessing, evaluating is a necessary part of obedience. None of this instruction is designed for the purpose of stimulating your intellect or making you feel good about yourself. All of this instruction is eminently practical. We don’t judge because it makes us look good or puts us on a pedestal. There is no pedestal. Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand, and we are His humble servants. At His direction, we judge others because we want to protect and promote the health of the church family, and because we want to know how to relate to and minister to other people.

Principle #2: God’s Word is the standard of judgment.

So the first principle is that God’s Word authorizes us and requires us to judge others. Now here is the second principle: God’s Word is the standard of judgment. This is hugely important. You are a moral creature who is making moral judgments on a regular basis. The question is: what is your standard of judgment? There are only three options: your self-made law, other men’s man-made law, or God’s revealed law. Those are the only three options. What is your standard?

You are not authorized to judge people on the basis of your opinions, preferences, and feelings. Don’t go down that path – it is the path of lunacy and ruin, and countless multitudes are going down that path, slaves to themselves and their endless and ever-shifting desires. Countless multitudes are willing to judge others on the basis of personal feelings or cultural traditions. Few people are resolved to judge others on the basis of Scripture alone.  

Scripture also teaches us that our beliefs about important secondary issues must not be the basis of reaching negative judgments concerning others. God’s Word in Romans 14:1-15:7 instructions me that I must not quarrel with you or pass a negative judgment on you on important secondary issues that constitute matters of conscience. One believer’s conscience allows him to enjoy a glass of wine at dinner; another believer’s conscience does not allow for that. So be it. No judgment is to be levelled in either direction. One believer’s conscience allows him to enjoy recreation on the Lord’s Day; another believer’s conscience requires a stricter observance. So be it. No judgment is to be levelled in either direction. That’s the context for the instruction “let us not pass judgment on one another any longer” in Romans 14:13. In context, the instruction means ‘let us not make critical judgments toward one another on debatable matters or on matters of conscience.’ That’s the sense. I am not authorized to judge you on the basis of how my conscience operates on important secondary issues. This doesn’t mean that we can’t have mutually edifying conversations about these issues and challenge each other to grow. But there is to be no quarrelling, no negative judgments, no troubling others on these matters. 

When God authorizes us to exercise judgment toward others, the authorization requires that we make judgments on the basis of God’s Word. The same Paul who said “not to quarrel over opinions” in Romans 14:1 did not say ‘not to quarrel over sexual immorality’ (read 1 Corinthians 5). We must contend for and faithfully apply the clear doctrinal and moral standards that Scripture sets forth. When professing believers violate these standards, we are obligated to show them their error and urge their repentance. If they refuse to repent, then we are obligated to take disciplinary action and exclude them from the fellowship. Both Matthew 18:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 teach us that the church is obligated to pronounce a negative judgment against professing Christians who refuse to repent of their gross violations of God’s standard. Jesus says to treat them like an outsider (Matthew 18:17). Paul says to expel them from our midst (1 Corinthians 5:13). This pronouncement and enactment of a negative judgment is the culmination of the entire judgment process: we have assessed, we have made a determination, we have interacted with the alleged offender on multiple occasions, and only after all that and their failure to repent do we kick them out. The main point here, however, is not the logistics of church discipline, but the fact that Scripture alone is our standard of judgment:

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Therefore:

“preach the word; … reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

Regarding God’s Word, God tells us neither to add to it nor to take away from it (Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19). We must turn neither to the right nor to the left (Joshua 1:7). So, when it comes to assessing others, we must learn to die to our opinions, our preferences, our feelings, our personal conscience issues, and our cultural traditions. At the same time, we must learn to submit to the authority of Scripture alone as the divine standard for Christian faith and practice.

Principle #3: God’s Word requires that you judge yourself first.

The first two principles, taken together, are that God’s Word requires you to judge others in the light of Holy Scripture. Now to the third principle: God’s Word requires that you judge yourself before you judge others. You must be in the habit of faithfully and consistently applying God’s standards to yourself before you attempt to apply God’s standards to other people. This doesn’t mean that you have to achieve perfection before you can render judgments about other people, for in that case no one would be qualified to make moral judgments about other people. What this principle does mean is that you have to have integrity: you have to be honestly dealing with God’s standards in your own life before you can helpfully apply God’s standards into the lives of other people. Matthew 7 is clear about this:  

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see 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,’ when there is the log 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.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

Even within this very passage it is obvious that the instruction “Judge not” is not an absolute prohibition on judging other people, because the passage envisions you actually being able to “take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (v. 5). Further, the very next verse says “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs” (Matthew 7:6), which would be impossible to obey without first assessing people and determining that some of them are the spiritual equivalent of dogs and pigs. I am reminded of Proverbs 9:8, which says, “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” Know who you’re dealing with!

Matthew 7:1-5, teaches us that we must not engage in hypocritical and hypercritical judging. Hypocritical judging is addressing someone else’s sin while refusing to address your own sin. Hypercritical judging is expressing greater concern about other people’s minor faults than your own major faults. On both counts, the person who does the hypocritical and hypercritical judging is actually blind and in no position to helpfully assess and serve others. I really would like your help in taking the annoying little speck out of my eye, but not if you have a two-by-four protruding out of your eye and swinging in the direction of my face. Those who refuse to judge themselves but rush to judge others are, in fact, a danger to others. So, what Jesus is teaching in Matthew 7:1-5 is that we must be repentant and diligent in dealing with our own sin. Only then will we be humble, clear-eyed, and gracious in dealing with other people regarding their sin.

Another way of articulating this is to say that God’s Word requires that you become utterly unimpressed with yourself, before you make judgments about others. If you are familiar with the Pharisees whom we encounter in the first four books of the New Testament, then you know that they were impressed with themselves – they were righteous in their own eyes – and this led them to look down upon and have contempt for other people. Pharisaical judgmentalism is obnoxious in God’s sight and poisons human community. But something beautiful happens when you realize that you are a great sinner who has been forgiven by the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you. And something beautiful keeps happening as you realize that throughout your Christian life God continues His mercy toward you and He keeps on treating you far better than you actually deserve. The cross of Jesus devastates our pride and produces humility in our hearts. Before the prophet Isaiah declared God’s judgments to Judah and to the world, he came face-to-face with God’s holy standard and cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost” (Isaiah 6:5). Then God forgave Isaiah and purified him (Isaiah 6:6-7). Only then was Isaiah ready to declare God’s judgments to others (Isaiah 6:8-13).

Be sure of this: the grace of Jesus does not make us wishy-washy regarding God’s unchanging standards, but the grace of Jesus does make us tender-hearted toward our fellow sinners. You must be resolved to judge rightly, but you must not relish the thought of judging harshly.

Regarding our fellow believers, Paul said: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Regarding those who are lost, Paul said: “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.” (Philippians 3:18, italics added) Paul exemplifies the miracle of transformation which the world does not understand: he had an uncompromising commitment to God’s standard and, at the same time, he had a deep and heartfelt compassion for other people. Frankly, only a person with a tender heart, judicious mind, and skillful hand is equipped to get in my face and gently remove the annoying speck that is in my eye. And that tender heart comes from dealing with your own sin first, and dealing with it in view of God’s mercies.

Principle #4: God’s Word requires that you relate to professing Christians differently than the way you relate to non-Christians.

There are two final principles that we must briefly consider before we finish. Here is the fourth principle: God’s Word requires that you relate to professing Christians differently than then way you relate to non-Christians. This principle operates on the assumption that you should expect Christians to act Christianly, and you should expect non-Christians to act non-Christianly. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:

“I wrote you to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

This is a really important principle and today’s study would not be complete without it. We have a special responsibility to judge people “inside the church” that does not extend to people “outside [the church]”. We bear responsibility for holding our fellow Christians accountable to God’s standard. If a man professes to be a Christian and participates in our church community and is thought to be a Christian brother, but falls into a serious and sustained pattern of grievous sin, then we have a responsibility to pronounce a negative judgment against him and to enact judgment against him: do not associate with him (v. 11), do not eat with him (v. 11), and expel him from the church family (v. 13). This should be done with a heavy heart, with love for him (that the disciplinary action would wake him up and produce repentance, as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 5:5), and with love for the church (knowing that unaddressed sin in the body will spread like cancer throughout the body, as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 5:6).

But when it comes to non-Christians – those outside the church – it is not our place to take disciplinary action against them. Of course, we must evangelize them: we must inform them of God’s standard and urge them to repent of their sin and believe the gospel. For example, in Acts 24 Paul spoke with Governor Felix “about faith in Christ Jesus” and Paul “reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:24, 25). So, we are free to interact with unbelievers, and we should do so with an eye on teaching them God’s Word and persuading them to put their trust in Jesus. But we have no expectation of them conforming their lives to God’s standard until they are converted. But for those who are already converted or who at least claim to be converted, we have a special responsibility to hold them accountable to obeying God’s Word. And sometimes this accountability will take the form of tough love.

Principle #5: God’s Word requires that you be profoundly aware that you are not the ultimate and final judge. 

Finally we come to the fifth principle: God’s Word requires that you be profoundly aware that you are not the ultimate and final judge. This should strike us as manifestly obvious, but it must be mentioned. One reason it must be mentioned is because sometimes people will mis-use this truth as a reason why we shouldn’t judge others at all. But I hope that I have persuaded you that such reasoning is unfaithful to Scripture. My goal as a Christian and as a Christian teacher is to reason the way that the Bible reasons. The Bible teaches that God alone is the ultimate and final judge, but the Bible doesn’t reason that therefore we shouldn’t judge others. The Bible is clear that we do have a limited but important role in making moral assessments and enacting certain judgments in this present life.

The knowledge that we are not the ultimate and final judge, and the knowledge that God is the ultimate and final judge, should have at least three effects.

First, knowing that the Lord is the ultimate and final judge should make us sober-minded:

“… we make it our aim to please him [the Lord]. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)

Second, knowing that the Lord is the ultimate and final judge should make us acknowledge our limitations in judging:

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:2-5)

We must always let Scripture interpret Scripture. Taking all of Scripture into account, the passage above (1 Corinthians 4:2-5) shouldn’t be used as a reason to disobey other passages that instruct us to make judgments. But what this passage impresses upon us is that we must humbly recognize that our judgments, which we must make, are limited and provisional. Our judgments, at best, are partial and imperfect approximations of the comprehensive judgments that the Lord will pronounce on the day of judgment. Therefore we should never pronounce a judgment as if our pronouncement is the decisive and final word on the matter. It isn’t. But when the Lord comes, all will be clear.

Third, knowing that the Lord is the ultimate and final judge should make us eager to conform our judgments to the standard of judgment that the Lord has revealed in His Word. We want our present limited judgments to faithfully represent the Lord’s future perfect judgments. When Paul says, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our messsage” (2 Timothy 4:14-15), Paul is anticipating that Alexander is in big trouble, unless he repents. On the other hand, when Paul speaks about Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2) and “Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3), Paul is expressing confidence that these specific people are true believers who are bound for heaven. In both cases, Paul is assessing people. Paul knows that his assessment is not final and ultimate, but at the same time he has reasonable confidence that his assessment is in line with the Lord’s future perfect judgments. If we stay close to the Bible and have our eyes open and are resolved to see all things in the light of Scripture, then we also may have reasonable confidence that our present limited judgments will faithfully represent the Lord’s future perfect judgments. After all, the Lord is not playing games with us: He has already given us the standard – Holy Scripture! – by which He will judge the world, and we are to utilize and apply this same standard now in this present life.

CONCLUDING WORD

Brothers and sisters, God’s Word requires that you make judgments; that you make these judgments on the basis of God’s standard as set forth in Scripture; that you judge yourself first in view of God’s mercies; that you have a special responsibility to exercise judgment inside the church; and that you be humbly aware that the Lord alone is the ultimate and final judge. 

Blessed is the church that is diligent to do what God’s Word requires, and that does it because of God’s transforming grace.

 

ENDNOTES

[1] See Merriam-Webster’s entry for ‘judgmental’ online at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judgmental.

[2] See Merriam-Webster’s second entry for ‘judge’ online at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/judge.

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