“Judge not, that ye be not
judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
“Judge not, and ye shall not
be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be
forgiven:” (Luke 6:37)
“Judge not according to the
appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)
When society is neck deep in
sin and a Christian says, “This isn’t right,” the first thing you hear from
someone is, “Judge not.” One homosexual sympathizer stated the other day on a social
media site, “The Bible says we are supposed to be accepting of others and understanding.”
I have heard this tripe so
much it wearies me. The world loves to take the verses above out of context and
use them for their defense, and totally ignore everything else. The part that
really wearies me though is when I hear this from those who claim to be a
Christian while defending sins that are so blatant only an idiot could miss it.
When reading Matthew 7:1,
“Judge not, that ye be not judged,” has anyone taken the time to read the other
verses that go along with it? Matthew 7:1 is referring to judging others with a
hypocritical self-righteous attitude (read verses 2-5). In order to fulfill the
commandments that follow throughout the remainder of the chapter one has to be
able to judge what is holy, who are dogs, what are pearls, and who are swine.
In the sixteenth verse we
read, “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or
figs of thistles?” Then in verses seventeen through twenty Jesus speaks of good
trees, bad trees, good fruit, and bad fruit. Don’t you think there might be
some “judging” going on here? Of course there is. Notice verse twenty: “Wherefore,
by their fruits ye shall know them.”
It’s very clear to me that a
Christian, when “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) is able
to identify good trees from bad trees and good fruit from bad fruit. In other
words, I think we can accurately identify what is sin and what is not from
God’s Word.
Let take a look at the third
verse above. “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment.” (John 7:24) I like how John MacArthur states this: “While Jesus
forbade harsh, censorious judgment that self-righteous legalism promotes (Matt.
7:1), He demanded the exercise of moral and theological discernment.”
If Christians can’t make a
judgment call of what is right and wrong and who is right or wrong, we are no
better off than a leaf being blown around in a strong wind. This is exactly
where our society is today. Nothing is wrong and nothing is right. It’s just whatever
you think is okay. However, the Bible doesn’t see it that way.
Someone may think the Bible
is just an old outdated story book, but in reality the Bible is the very Word
of Almighty God, and what is contained therein is Truth.
The world wants no absolutes,
but the Bible is absolute in everything it says. If it says that something is a
sin, the discussion is over. That’s it. It’s a sin. Period.
In the following verse Jesus
told his disciples to judge people based on the reception they received.
“And whosoever shall not
receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your
feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”
(Mark 6:11)
If the word of the disciples
was rejected, the people were condemned because of judgment that was pronounced
against them by shaking the dust from under their feet. Whole cities were
judged for refusing to hear the Truth.
The Apostle John judged those
who forsook the Truth. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 John
2:19)
In this passage, he was
basically saying that these people claimed to be Christians, but they were not,
because they turned their back from the Truth.
I wonder how many today are
claiming to be Christians but are not, and the proof is in the fact that they
have turned their back from the Truth. This is something we need to get serious
about. If we think we are a Christian, but we walk hand in hand with what the
world is saying today, we have a serious problem. This is a problem that could
have eternal consequences, and needs to be dealt with immediately.
We are now living in a
society that is calling down judgment upon its own head because of sin. It says
“Judge not,” yet it is bringing down judgment upon us all as a nation. Our
minds are so twisted and our souls so black, I am convinced that we have gone
past the point of no return. The following verse is a snapshot of our darkened
souls.
“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! Woe
unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
(Isaiah 5:20-21)
Jesus makes it even clearer.
“And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For
every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought
in God.” (John 3:19-21)
This is exactly why we refuse
to acknowledge our sins before God. We love the darkness and hate the light.
When someone says that murdering babies is a sin, the world screams with anger.
When someone says that homosexuality is a sin, the world wants to kills us. And
these are only two of our blasphemies against God!
Our President, Congress,
Supreme Court and lesser rulers in this country (with some exceptions) are
corrupt to the bone. Many of our business leaders are corrupt. Most of Hollywood
reeks. The sports world is eaten up with greed and corruption. And then there’s
the religious crowd. Jesus said.
“So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
(Revelation 3:16)
America’s churches (not to
mention others around the world) make Jesus, God in the flesh, want to throw
up. It is very difficult today to find a local church that rightly handles the
Word of Truth.
The Apostle Peter said, “For
the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first
begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1
Peter 4:17)
Folks, if we don’t start
making some judgment calls based on God’s Word and stand tall for the Truth,
judgment is coming. We can spout off about “Judge not” all we want, but our
sins are still sins and judgment is still coming. We may pollute the Gospel by
saying that we are to be understanding and sympathize with sin, but that is
nothing but another lie from Satan’s repertoire.
Again, Matthew 7:20 states,
“Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.” That is judging. We had better
be judging, or we will be judged.
Many times when I was young I
picked apples from apple trees. I learned very quickly which ones were ripe,
which were spoiling, and which were just rotten. I knew which to accept and
which to reject. That’s called judging. Let us become fruit pickers, not
self-righteously but morally and theologically.
Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
