How Do We Judge?
By Mari

People who do not believe in judging anything or anyone, often because they are concerned that if they judge another, the sin or error in their own lives might in turn, be pointed out by the person or thing they are judging! People do not want to be judged about what they do or do not do, therefore they are against judging of any kind.

Because not judging in any matter is prevalent today, it has become “politically incorrect” to judge or reprove most anything! This brainwashing of the world has infected the church and made it weak, often no longer willing to stand up for the righteousness they preach. Either not fully understanding that accepting open sin is weakening the power of the word of God in the lives of other saints, or they turn legalistic by casting away anyone who has to deal with their flesh in any way, which is the folly of their own self-righteousness.

Some believers judge only in the silence of their minds. But if one judges only in silence, one may get to the point where they may no longer even see the sin themselves! This is the risk of not leading the sanctified life that God has set us when we believed, by being drawn into the world of evil all around us. Beginning to accept evil as normal, instead of godliness and holiness in our lives.

There was a story of a preacher crying out against the immorality all about him. When a man told him, “Why do you continue to object, you’ll never change them!” He replied, “I continue to cry out so they won’t change me.”

It seems to be human nature that accepting, approving sin and wrong doctrine leads one to sin and deceptive, incorrect beliefs.
Today the world would like to impose a gag order on everyone, Christians in particular! The world teaches “live and let live,” and is trying to enforce the idea of not judging anything by a godly and righteous standard of judgment.

In addition, false preachers try to protect themselves from the exposure of their false doctrines by misusing the Scriptures. They try to enforce a gag order on fellow believers with verses like these:

1Ch_16:22 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Today, in the dispensation of grace there are no anointed priests…and there are no prophets, as there were in Israel. And while there are offices within the church, we ALL are called to have the ministry of reconciliation. We ALL are called to be ambassadors for Christ. We each give an account to God directly through no other man than our head, Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 11:3)

2Co_5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2Co_5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

To keep believers quiet, those who point out the false doctrines of false teachers are chided and slandered by being reminded that it is the devil who is the accuser of our brethren.
Revelation 12:10 “accuser of our brethren”

Yet, those believers who refuse to judge these false doctrines are likely to be led astray by the false doctrines, just as those who refuse to judge sin are likely to fall into that sin.

To make a judgment is simply to make an evaluation.

We have to make judgments about many issues that surround us in our everyday lives to determine what is true and what is false. Things such as how long it will take us to reach point B from point A, what we should wear according to the weather, what we should write, what is the credibility of others who tell us things. We judge political candidates based on different criteria, etc.

Judging can also be a subjective thing.

Since two people can look at a hand, one sees the top of the hand and the other the palm of the hand, our perceptions, and therefore our judgments, are based on our differing understandings, our sights and perceptions, and our differing vantage points. Remember the blind men trying to describe an elephant?

This is why judgments can vary between two people! This is why no man’s judgment can be based on absolute truth!

THIS explains why there is always an accusation behind the world’s declaration not to judge! You know…”Who are YOU to judge?!” Or “What makes you think YOUR judgments are right or better than mine?”

This is why we should never judge based on our own judgments, which would only be opinions based on our limited point of view, but we ARE to judge based on the judgments of God found in Scripture, which ARE based in TRUTH.

We have a plumb line, and ours as believers is the completed word of God. Stand for the truth of God rightly divided.