Should Christians Judge? — Paradigm Shift

/ Vincent S Artale Jr

Christians sometimes get confused with the concept of judging. Biblically we are commanded to judge (John 7:24 says, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make it right judgement”). Then at the same time we are biblically told that we are not to …

via Should Christians Judge? — Paradigm Shift

31 thoughts on “Should Christians Judge? — Paradigm Shift”

    • Dear Sarco, when linking to “To Judge or “Judge Not”” we did not find garbage but reasonable analysis looking also at what Jesus said: ” “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and the same measure you use on them will be used on you.” And then he illustrates his point with this intentionally sarcastic metaphor: “Why do you focus on the speck in your brother’s eye and ignore the log in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me pull the speck out of your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own? You hypocrite! First pull the log out of your own eye, and then you’ll be able to see clearly to pull the speck out of your brother’s.””

      We also could notice a good capturing: “Condemnation doesn’t fix anything, it merely vents, making the accuser feel superior, and in dong so, harms both. “I’m better than you” is the small print Jesus exposes when he says, “Why do you focus on the speck in your brother’s eye and ignore the log in your own?””

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  5. Is an opinion the same thing as a judgement? I have asked myself that question many times. Right now I have a terrible opinion about Evangelical leaders who are actually giving Christianity a bad name. They are so condemning of others, but those they choose to support, like Mr. Trump, for their own political power and agenda. And thus they have no true beliefs. I don’t like their beliefs anyway. Puritans were awful, I have studied their terrible judgments of others, all they do is condemn and judge instead of caring with open arms of love and understanding and so Evangelicals are really Puritans in disguise. They judge even God, in his design of human beings. I don’t doubt that God designed all of us just as we are for a reason. We are to learn from those reasons, compassion, caring, and love. Even those who do not love other humans of a different color, as God designed them, deserves love, like Trump, but that means that everyone deserves the same understanding, not wanting to criminalize someone because God designed them differently. I just believe in his purposes and it all comes down to love one another, above all else. To love, understand and care for others makes us more like God, in his image. A loving God, who cares for everyone, not one who condemns what God designed for a reason. Thank you for listening.

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    • K.D., You reached a good conclusion. Yet I would challenge you to read more of the Puritans for I believe that they preached the same conclusion you reached. It is a most difficult thing to be a flawed human being and yet stand in the righteousness of God. As a parent, I get this. I am seriously flawed, and yet I need to lay down rules that I struggle with myself. If I am lenient with them because I don’t want to be hypocritical, then I fail them and myself. I open the way for harm. My responsibility, then, is not to lay off stating truth unapologetically, but to walk WITH them in learning TOGETHER how to walk with God in holiness and righteousness. This means vulnerability about my own failure. And there is a time to part ways. I believe the prodigal son’s father was wrenched of heart so allow the son to leave, and yet the heart of the son was set on his sin. They parted ways, but the father never stopped looking for the son, and somehow…and this must be considered…the son knew that he could return. He knew the lights would be on in the window. And surely, more than that, the father met him on the road! Opinions that are my own are probably not beneficial. But the opinion of God is a responsibility of mine to share; so that the Word may know that He is God and what kind of God He is.

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      • I have very different beliefs than you, but I hold in high regard your right to believe as you do. I have studied the Puritan’s religion at length. In reality, they were Calvinist and did not hold to Jesus’s beliefs or God’s as we know him. They followed the old testament, the Jewish history and made up stuff by Calvin, who was mentally ill, a preacher who was tossed out of the Christian Catholic church and most other Christian churches in Europe. The Puritans where kicked out of England and Holland. I do not hold with their beliefs whatsoever. They were bullies, cruel, they whipped woman, stripped them to their waist for all to see, and they treated women like chattel and they owned them and the children were owned by the father and the mother could be forced out of the home and beaten and were never allowed to see their children again. That was a constant threat. Puritans were were very much like Nazis.You need to study the Puritans as they really were.

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      • K.D., Thank you for your high regard. I just wanted you to know that I read your post and value you, too. You are more important to Christ than any human disagreement, and are so to me as well. I have heard you and regret that we seem to be speaking of apples and oranges. I missed the heart behind your initial response, and I apologize. The initial post and responses pose good questions and food for thought and heart, so we’ll just continue pondering together. ;D

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    • Matthew 7:1-5 is not telling us that we should never judge or should not think about matters that happen and form an opinion. We should look at events and form an idea if what happens is right or wrong. In such an instance we have to make a judgement but it is not judging to condemn.

      Obviously, we should make ‘judgements’ every day between right and wrong. Like the writer of the article indicates “What Jesus is telling us here is to not judge others hypocritically. He is telling us to remove the plank from our own eye so that we may help the other person.”

      In the world of human beings, there are many people who want to have their opinion about others and do not mind having terrible judgements of those around them. We might even see that all they do is condemn and judge instead of caring with open arms of love and understanding. Today we may find several fundamentalist Christians, lots of name Christians who not really follow Jesus Christ but present themselves as Evangelicals. K. D. Dowdall is right to even notice that they even go so far to dare to judge God, in His design of human beings and handling of the world.

      No matter what skin colour or what culture or religion, all people are creatures allowed to be here on earth by the Divine Creator. We should show respect for those different human beings and all other creatures (animals, but also plants).

      K. D. Dowdall believes in God’s purposes and is right to say “it all comes down to love one another, above all else.” That is also the golden rule Jesus presented his followers, and we should not only take notice of it but should also practice it.
      To love, understand and care for others makes us more like Christ and furthermore also like God, in His image we are created.

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    • K. D. Dowdall you say you have studied the Puritan’s religion at length and found that in reality, they were Calvinist and did not hold to Jesus’s beliefs or God’s as we know him. May I say they perhaps might have partly followed the Old Testament, the Jewish history, but for sure did not yet want to follow the real Nazarene master teacher and belief the same as him or worship the same as him. But the majority of (name) Christians did not want to follow Christ Jesus nor the Holy Scriptures, but preferred to hold on human false doctrines, like the Trinity, and human heathen festivals and traditions. Not only Puritans were infested by made up stuff by Calvin, who was not mentally ill (like you think) though he was a preacher, like many others, who was tossed out of the ” (Christian) Catholic Church” and “most other Christian churches in Europe”, because he did not agree with their false teachings. Only a few kept to the real teachings of Jesus Christ and kept worshipping the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

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    • It looks perhaps very easy to be a Christian in church, though when we look at the teaching of Jesus and see how church is following or not following them, we could have another impression.
      Everybody should be of the same mind and trying to live a life that is consistent with God’s principles. But outside of the church, things are so different for most people. People have different priorities. Those who choose to follow God need to muster the courage to stand against sin. – When the world had ‘gone bad’, Noah stood against the trends of society and, in doing so, inherited righteousness (Heb 11:7). Equally, Moses, rather than accepting an easy life in Pharaoh’s household chose to suffer alongside his people and, ultimately, deliver them from Egypt (Heb 11:24). – In this world, the majority of people choose to follow human tradition and prefer to join the majority or those who are liked or loved by the majority. As such the majority does not want to take time to examine the Scriptures to see if all those teachings of that church are really in agreement with the Scriptures or the Word of God. Often they also just follow the dictates of their church leaders and use that to judge others, without forming their own righteous opinion.

      Worse is that at times, like today, there always have been political leaders who loved to use those religious groups to put in front of their own cart and to help them to exclude certain people or to make others ‘bad’.

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  7. The word didn’t instruct us to judge people because we ourselves are sinners and we continually sin no matter what. But what God wants us to do is share His goodness, share the truth and share our love to people 🙂

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  10. By having an opinion that does not mean we are judging or even worse condemning an other opinion or vision. We may and sometimes even must express our vision and for sure should use our voice to protect those without a voice (be it plants, animals or even people who are pushed in the corner).

    Sharing Good News and helping others to find the right path, without condemning them, that is what we should do. but we may not stay silent when we see things going wrong. Then we may be judging and then we should also look for our own position in the matter and where we too can go wrong or where we would be able to go right. In giving correction we should do that in a agapè manner, but should know as brethren and sisters in Christ it is also our duty to correct others when they go wrong (and such correction demands a seeing of the wrong going and a ‘judgment’ of the act).

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