To Judge or Not to Judge

It's a point I've made before, but in this day and age of misuse and misunderstanding, the error can never be corrected often enough.

Frank Turek's column at TownHall.com today deals with the oft-used (over-used) defense many liberals use today to shield themselves from criticism of their bad behavior: judge not.

Almost any time a person says a behavior is wrong, and there is even the slightest hint of a Christian foundation for that statement, liberals usually respond with a perverted use of Christ's admonition in Matthew 7 not to judge.

On the surface, one might think Jesus was telling us never to recognize anything as wrong, and certainly never to tell anyone about it even if we thought so. But then what would we do with Ezekiel 3:18, or Christ's admonition to be salt and light in a dark, decaying world, or passages where judgment is spoken of positively like Matthew 7:16, Matthew 7:20, Luke 7:43, Luke 12:57, Acts 4:19, 1 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3, 1 Corinthians 6:5, and 1 Corinthians 10:15?

Sometimes it's very simple to tell what is right and wrong. Murder, theft, homosexuality, adultery...the Bible is pretty clear on these things. But what about those passages that may not be clear, or may seem to be in conflict with other passages?

Like any written document, the Bible must be read in context. Not twisted to mean what we want it to mean, but to understand it's intended meaning. We do that by reading the whole Bible to see what God said on a subject. In most cases, the truth will become clear with a little study.

Here is what Turek says:

Notice Jesus isn’t telling us not to judge—Jesus is telling us how to judge. He actually commands us to take the speck out of our brother’s eye—that involves making a judgment. But he also commands us to stop committing the bigger sins ourselves so we can better help our brother. In other words, when you judge, do so rightly not hypocritically.

Jesus expressed this same idea when he said “stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment” (John 7:24). Jesus would never tell us to stop judging-- that would be suicide! Just think about how impossible life would be if you didn’t make judgments. You make hundreds, if not thousands, of judgments every day between good and evil, right and wrong, dangerous choices from safe ones. You’d be dead already if you didn’t make judgments.

The Christian is not to judge the individual and their eternal destiny, but there is every obligation to judge the behavior according to the Bible as to whether it's right or wrong.

So the next time someone tries to twist this Scripture to shut you up and escape the truth about their bad behavior, don't let them. Not because you have to be right or get the last word, but because God wants them to know the truth...because the Truth is what sets us free.