Judge Righteous Judgment

Yesterday’s post was on the subject of “judge not,” so it may seem strange to some that today’s post is on “judge righteously.” But the fact is, everyone judges all the time, whether about situations, people, or any myriad of things. And there is nothing wrong with judging, as long as we aren’t judging things erroneously or judging people without mercy. But let’s focus on judging people, and what it means to do it rightly. First of all, as believers in Christ, our first and foremost duty in judging is to judge ourselves. The apostle Paul made it clear that we must do so, and why we must do so, when writing to the believers in Corinth: “For he that eateth and drinketh [of the spiritual things of God] unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (I Cor. 11:29-32). So if we partake of the worship of God through his Spirit, with sin in our lives, we are doing so unto our own hurt and damnation, unless the Lord can get our attention and turn us from our sins. And this goes to the point of judging others rightly as well. As quoted in our post yesterday, the apostle Paul told the Galatians in regard to this point; “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). So you see, we could not restore someone who is in a fault unless we are able to judge that they are in a fault. The point is, as the apostle said, do so with the right kind of spirit and motivation; but nevertheless, do so! No doubt we are all familiar with the famous scripture; “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” and with good reason. Jesus said that all the law and the prophets hang on that statement, along with “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength.” But it is what is said just in front of the original stating of that scripture that I would like to point out: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:17,18). So according to the law of God, if we do not reprove a brother or sister who is holding sin, then we hate them. And the original giving of this commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself” was given in that context, as we see here by the scripture. And in this vein, Jesus commanded us likewise: “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him” (Lk. 17:3). Notice how he said “take heed to yourselves”? If we love ourselves rightly, then we will rebuke our brother for trespassing against us; that is if we love him as we love ourselves.

What does this all mean, you may ask? It’s as simple as this: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Unless we are holy, meaning literally without sin in our lives, we cannot and will not be saved. Period. We are clearly informed in Rev. 20:6 that only those who are holy will be partakers of the first resurrection, which takes place at the second coming of Jesus to this world. True holiness is what everything comes down to, and that is what no one seems to care to understand or believe. The apostle Paul believed it. He scorned the elders in Corinth because they did not judge the sin of someone in the congregation who was continuing therein and refusing to repent (I Cor. 5:1-13). He let them know in no uncertain terms that all of their worship was worthless and that everyone in the congregation was accountable for this man’s sin, if it was not dealt with and him removed from their fellowship. And ultimately why was it so significant that this man and his sin had to be removed from the congregation? Because without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and because this man’s sin negatively affected all the congregation, as the apostle stated. When Israel came into the land of Canaan and took the city of Jericho at God’s command, they proceeded from there to take Ai as well. But they were defeated at Ai and Joshua sought the Lord for the reason of their defeat. God spoke to him and let him know that it was a simple matter. Sin was in the camp and God commanded Joshua to find it and remove it, threatening to leave him if he failed to do so (Josh. 12:1-7). And why did the sin of Achan mean so much to God? Because without holilness no man shall see the Lord, and because the presence of sin in the camp negatively affected everyone in the camp, as was evidenced by their defeat at Ai. The failure of the individual members of the body of Christ to judge each one’s own sins, and the failure of the so called leaders of God’s people to rightly reprove and judge sin in their camps is the reason for the abundance of sickness, weakness, premature deaths; and evident lack of God’s love, power, unity and peace among his people today. And it is all encompassed in the lack of understanding of the love of God, that the love of God is holy and that it requires holiness [being without sin] in each and every one of us (Hos. 4:6). And why have we found ourselves in such state? Because we have accepted and upheld the doctrines and traditions of Christianity which uphold and give safe harbor to sin. And that leaves us with the exhortation that states the following in regard to the Christian religion that does not literally deliver from sin: “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power [to deliver from sin] thereof: from such turn away” (II Tim. 3:5). And all I can add to that is, Amen.