As To Be Judged

Posted on April 24, 2018 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” — Romans 2:1 (NASB)

If you’ve been following along with me over the past few weeks, you had to notice my topic of choice. The issue of judging and judgement has been a sticking point of mine until recently. It isn’t that I’ve had some new revelation that I came across, it’s just that it finally hit me in the head that there is an appropriate way found in Scripture to handle it. There are many warnings in God’s Word that don’t get their full context across to us because we basically settle for the “don’t judge” part and stop there.

Like the verse I have I opened with today. If you back peddle from Romans 2:1 and go back as far as Romans 1:28 and then read ahead to Romans 2:3, you’ll get the full picture of what the apostle Paul is trying to convey. Because once you’ve got your head around this, Paul will ask this question, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)

Now one of the takeaways with the issue of judging is that we seem to condemn in others the very thing we are struggling with ourselves. So, if we overlook or ignore the sins of others (like the New Tolerance Revelation would have us do) we can do whatever we want to do with a freedom from consequence…or that’s what we end up telling ourselves. The idea of coming to repentance doesn’t come to the forefront, so we end up in chaos and then find ourselves reeling in the verses of Romans 7 and shouting out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

Another takeaway is our desire to protect our loved ones from the same struggle we’re going through. We get all crazy in the head when we find that person doing what we know is wrong and go overboard to save them from the very pain we ourselves are enduring. I think it lead to the phrase, “Do as I say and not as I do” that I had heard a lot while I was growing up.

And I’m not saying that one has to be perfect in all aspects of their life to be capable of rightly judging. What I am saying, however, is that if you haven’t had victory over the very thing you’re condemning in others, or at the very least acknowledge this very thing that you’re struggling with, then you need to do this very simple action…shut up and deal with it first, then come back around and share your victory with others. I think that’s a very modern way of saying “take the plank out first, then come remove the speck, don’t you? Anyway…

As I close out the topic of judging allow me to say this. If God hasn’t spoken clearly on something you think is wrong with an issue in others, it may be best to fall back to see if you’re not adding to something that didn’t need your addition. The Pharisees did that and Jesus had to rebuke them at every turn. Some of the issues we face today get a spiritual spin placed on them, maybe a Bible verse or two gets thrown in as well, and there isn’t anything mentioned in Scripture about it at all. Yet we’ll raise up our Bibles and give Secularland it’s ultimatum. Or at the other end of things, we’ll argue which theologian was right about the issue of salvation, John Calvin or Jacobus Armimius, without seeing what the full counsel of Scripture would say about our election.

We need to judge with the grace imparted to us from Jesus Christ. The cliché, “Hate the sin, love the sinner” can easily be said in terms of looking at others but it also needs to be an inward glance as well. The instruction is pretty clear with judging others. God wants us to judge in the same way we both judge and love ourselves. Call sin, sin but respond with an abundance of grace and mercy. Let’s keep the encouragement of Jesus in the forefront of our minds, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything. Except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.” (Matt 5:13) The New Tolerance Revelation would love to march all over your salt, so be careful. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) is married (Kathy) with two grown children (Kevin and Karen) and has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.

The Daily Bible Reading: Psalm 43-45, 49, 84-85, 87|You can download our 2017 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

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Daily Quote: “A proper understanding of when and how to judge is an important step toward spiritual maturity. Without it, we can end up at either one of two dangerous extremes: winking at sin in the mistaken belief that we have no right to judge the beliefs and actions of others or unintentionally condemning ourselves with our harsh denunciations of the very things we struggle with—or God could care less about.” — Larry Osborne

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope. Psalm 119:49

 

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