Judgment and Scripture

I would like to say some things today about a popular saying and claim that many love to say and claim today. It's simply called, "Only God can judge me." OOOOOOH how pious that sounds! Well, not really, but a lot of folks are dumb enough to try it out for size anyway. Problem is, it just doesn't measure up to what the Bible tells us, or the way God thinks. Nonetheless they put it on t-shirts, they put it on TV shows, and they put it everywhere they can think of in fact. But it doesn't matter how many people say it, or how many people claim it, or how many people believe it; it's still just horse s_ _t. There are actually many people who profess faith in Christ hold to this ridiculous school of thought. I wonder if they have ever read the book of... JUDGES! Oh, my bad, I forgot that Judges is just an old testament book. That stuff is all phased out by the new covenant, right? Wrong! The apostle Paul raked the congregation at Corinth over the coals because they were NOT judging people in their congregation who were holding to sin. Yeah, I'm not kidding. Here it is: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?" (I Cor. 6:1-5)

Is that convincing enough? No? Okay, let's back up one chapter and take another look: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (I Cor. 5:1-5). Now that my friend is judgment, and it is also a rebuke to these people for NOT having judged this man for his sins. Paul went on to explain that the body of Christ is not responsible for judging people who are NOT in Christ, but they ARE responsible for judging those who are in the congregations of the Lord: "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?" (I Cor. 5:12) Okay, so this is all new testament stuff, and it's all about how those in leadership in congregations are responsible to judge sin among the congregations, when people are not repenting of sin. The same apostle Paul said in this same letter to the Corinthians, "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. 11:31,32).

So the idea circumstance is that we do 'judge ourselves,' meaning if we've sinned, we simply confess, repent and get it out of the way. Of course in the case of a very major sin, especially one that affects others, some further form of judgment will probably be needed. The congregation at Corinth was obviously not judging sin as they should have been, which obviously means that judging is a normal operation of things in the order of God for his people. The thing these people do not understand is that it is a blessing to be judged by someone on earth, rather than to be left strictly to the judgment of God, which they pretend to be just fine with. That in fact is what the apostle Paul was speaking of in the last passage I cited from 1 Corinthians 11. He spoke of the judgments that were coming from God on the people at Corinth because they were NOT judging themselves and one another for their sins that they were evidently holding to: "For he that eateth and drinketh 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 [die prematurely]" (I Cor. 11:29,30). Judgment of man by man is a gift from God, and it serves as a cushion of impact between the judgment of God upon men; because as is evidenced by the citation from 1 Corinthians 11:29,30, God's judgments are more severe than man's judgments. The reason for that is because men in Christ are supposed to be judging their erring brethren, and when that order is bypassed it goes to a higher level of judgment. In that case two judgments are issued from God when men have failed to execute righteous judgment among themselves; one for the sin, and the other for the failure to judge the sin. Both of these things are sin, as is evidenced by Paul's statement that "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" (I Cor. 5:6).

In regard to people who are not in Christ thinking that only God can judge them, well, that's really just a fairy tale. Just go out and commit yourself a couple of juicy crimes, and you'll find out really fast that police will judge you, the courts will judge you, and the penal system will judge you as well. It's really one of the most ridiculous claims I've ever heard, to be honest. If only God can judge us then there is no need for government on any level, law enforcement, or anything else that accompanies sanity and order in the world. What people are really expressing with the 'only God can judge me' ideology is that they want anarchy, which is to say everyone does whatever the heck they want to do, and they don't have to answer to anybody for anything. Anarchy is doing it's level best in fact to reign supreme in this country today, and if it were up to the political left that is exactly what we would have. The former administration of government did everything it possibly could to cultivate an environment of anarchy. The wicked were justified on every hand, and criminals who were killed committing crimes were venerated as cultural heroes. The wicked liberal press praised every bit of it every step of the way too, forwarding the affliction. Now that we have an administration that wants to establish some semblance of law and order in the land, it is being severely defamed by the political left for doing so, as well as by the wicked liberal media which supports the political left. The 'only God can judge me' ideology at its root simply does not want anyone to have the dignity or integrity to call evil what it is, which is just plain evil. In fact that school of thought supports what God condemned by the prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20)

But Jesus doesn't think like that at all, and he also instructed those who would believe on him contrary to that faulty school of thought: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me" (Jn. 16:7-9). So how do you suppose that God's Spirit is going to "reprove the world of sin?" I haven't heard God speaking out of heaven with a surround sound system lately. The holy Ghost is supposed to reprove the world of sin by means of those who HAVE the Spirit, meaning those who are following Christ. And what did Jesus have to say about his people who are afraid to call sin what it is in this world? "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mk. 8:38). Any questions about that? I think it is perfectly clear that anyone who is intimidated by this world's 'only God can judge me' mindset, and thereby refuses to reprove the sins of people when it's time to do so, will just be damned forever. Anyone who is ashamed at the Lord's coming is just flat done! That's it. No more chances. And why? Because Jesus thinks like the apostle Paul. I'm just making a point; it's obvious that Paul thought like Jesus, not Jesus like Paul. We need to think likewise if we expect to live forever in glory.

My point is that Paul was displeased with God's people NOT judging one another's sins, because it was really JESUS that was displeased with his people failing to judge in his stead; as Paul actually did do in the case of the man in Corinth who was living in fornication. The reason that Jesus is displeased with the lack of judgment against sin among his people, is because he DOESN'T WANT to have to issue the harsher judgments that are inevitable when we don't do our part by judging ourselves, or being judged by leadership when needed. So when it's all said and done, the aspect of men judging men is as I said, a gift from God to keep us from incurring the harder judgments of God against sins that are not repented of. And that gift is the LOVE of God, because God is good, and wishes no ill upon anyone. As Jeremiah so pointedly noted: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness... For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:22,23,33). To punctuate the point that it is a gift from God that we are able to judge ourselves and one another, we have the second coming of the Lord to look at. When Jesus comes from heaven, "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;" it will be to finally judge all of those who refused to judge themselves honestly, and chose rather to live in their own chosen mode of anarchy. Now THAT is going to be a very severe judgment that will come upon all the earth because men have refused to comply with the God-given mode of law and order, and compliance with the greatness of his love that he has shown through Christ.

When Jesus comes with the armies of heaven, with no mercy for the unrepentant wicked, there will simply be no excuse for anyone; because it has long been known what Jesus said two thousand years ago: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should NOT PERISH, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (Jn. 3:16,17). So for all who have NOT believed in the magnitude of his love, he will come again to give them what they have demanded; which is TO PERISH! The bottom line is that everyone who does NOT JUDGE themselves now, and call sin what it is in this world; will have actually judged themselves to condemnation by NOT BELIEVING on Jesus, even as Jesus said as he continued his sermon to Nicodemus in John 3: "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (Jn. 3:18,19). So the bottom line is that we can be judged now, either by ourselves or by others; or we can stubbornly hold to sin and our own misguided ideas, and store it all up for the grand finale when Jesus comes from heaven to judge and destroy everyone who has refused all manner of judgment, in favor of their own little world and ideology of anarchy, which is to say lawlessness. Anyone who believes that 'only God can judge me,' actually doesn't even believe in God, much less on his only begotten Son who died for us all. They are believing rather in "the god of this world," whom Jesus said, "savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (II Cor. 4:4; Mat 16:23). Amen.