Religion & Spirituality >
Christian Doctrine & Issues
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs it against Christian principles to judge others?
Results so far:
| Yes | 76% | 986 votes | Total: 1292 votes | |
| No | 24% | 306 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesChristians Who Hate
If you don't worship God you are going to burn in Hell forever. Accept Him now or else! Homosexuals are horrible, disgusting people who are not worthy of the love of God. Who hasn't heard these ideas thrown out before? What is Christianity? Is it a religion of judgment and hate? You would certainly think so if you listened to some "Christian" groups. Where did these ideas come from and are they truly based on Biblical principals?
If perhaps we were to sit down and read the gospels, we would quickly see that these principles and ideas do not correlate with the teachings of Christ. True Christianity is the following of Christ's example and teachings. Christ taught to love everyone, even those who treat you badly. He also taught not to judge anyone. Christ's love for humans was unconditional. Even when he was being nailed to the cross, He did not say to those killing Him, "You're going to burn in hell." He said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:32-34) Christ was the personification of God's character. He showed us God's complete mercy, forgiveness and love. When the prostitute was condemned to die and the people were going to stone her, Jesus didn't chime in, "Yeah, she deserves to suffer. She should go to hell. She is a bad, disgusting person." Instead He pointed out the fact that not one of them was without sin. How can anyone who sins judge others for doing the same? We are not capable of judging each other because we are all on the same level. Only God can act as judge because He is sinless. Since there are verses in the New Testament that imply that Jesus will be our judge in the end, we have to wonder. If Jesus would not even condemn the men who were killing Him in a horrible and painful way, then how much mercy will He have on the rest of us? God is love and He offers mercy. How sad that many Christians have turned this beautiful concept into one of hate and alienation.
Why then are there so many rules of right and wrong in the Bible? If we are not supposed to tell people when they are doing something wrong, why would God give us so many rules. God gave moral laws so that we could examine ourselves. While we cannot judge others for their mistakes, we certainly should look to ourselves to see what we can improve upon. Anyone who looks at himself and sees someone perfect needs to clean their mirror. The only way to be free of sin is through the forgiveness of Christ. Does that mean when we accept Him, we will never sin again. No.
Let's first understand something about the approach we take to the Bible and Religion. Many are raised to approach religion as a set of rules. If you keep these rules then you will go to heaven, but if you don't then you will burn in hell. However, Paul clearly teaches that no law can save you. Only Christ's sacrifice and grace and can save. The problem, not a single one of us is capable of keeping the law correctly, we will all at some point fall short of it. Disagree? Have you ever yelled at your parents or lied to them? Then you broke the law. I don't' think I've ever met anyone who hasn't lied at least once in their life. This is why we cannot be saved by keeping the law. We are sinful and thus we are drawn toward sinful nature. The law instead shows us our sin. It is through the moral code of the Bible that we understand when we have committed a sin. But it is through Christ that we are redeemed from these sins. Does this mean we should just do whatever we want because Christ will forgive us anyway? Definitely not.
The idea is this. God is love. By recognizing this and seeking to know God we will find a deep love for Him and for others. The more we read and understand His word, the more God's love will be revealed to us. Through this relationship and this love, we develop a desire to please God. We are led by His Holy Spirit to love His law because we love Him. God's love is a selfless love and if we develop that relationship we will also find ourselves to possess a selfless love. We follow God's laws because we love Him, not because it is going to save us. This why Christian hatred is so opposed to the true system of Christianity.
You cannot expect someone to desire to follow God's laws if they do not know God. Rather than throwing a list of rules at people and condemning them to hell for not doing what God has convicted you to do, Christians should be teaching people of God's love. No wonder so many people have a negative view of the Bible. No one knows what it really says. Christ says we will be judged by the measure we use on others. Thus, if you judge someone for not keeping God's law, you too will be judged for not keeping it.
Lastly, understanding Christian judgment may be the most important thing in stopping its occurrence. Why do Christians hate? Why do they feel the desire to condemn? This is the same desire the Pharisees had in the gospels. And these are the same Pharisees which Jesus rebuked for condemning others. Christian hatred appears to come from a need to feel better than other people. A self-righteousness develops and a "Christian" feels that somehow that are elevated to a place of greater existence where others cannot enter. Thus, they feel superior and powerful looking down on those who have not accomplished what they have. Why the need to feel superior? Because we live in a society that is taught competition from the time we are young. Not just competition in sports, but competition in life. Everything is about progressing farther than the next person and being better than they are at any given opportunity. Thus, Christian hate gives misguided individuals this opportunity. It is not a teaching that comes from God, but rather a sad need of human beings met by the twisting of God's words. It is exactly what the Pharisees did in Jesus' day. They enjoyed the power they received from knowing the law and so they held it over the peoples' heads.
This is the path that many Christians find themselves falling into, a path of judgment hatred and self-righteousness. It is something that can only be overcome by admitting our own humanity and sinfulness. We must all realize our need for a Saviour everyday. We must also be willing to admit our selfish need of wanting to be better than others and ask God for His help in overcoming this problem. We must be willing to humble ourselves and put others first in everything we do. By doing this we will lead others to see the unconditional love of God and they will have a desire to know Him more.
Learn more about this author, Jordan Thyme.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
When a person says "don't judge me or why are you judging me" they really are saying, "I know this isn't right." They've judged themselves already by God's standard...their conscience is not clear, for guilt is from within. They want a break for wrongdoing. But by the same token, they will judge another without compassion. There are two sets of rules: rules for them and rules for everybody else. The reality is judgments are made numerous times throughout our daily lives. Many are righteous, many are critical. So what does God say?
When told we are not to judge others, Acts 5:29 tells us another story: "...We ought to obey God rather than men." Truth is not to be determined how each of us sees it. Truth is not relative. Truth upsets their wish list, but truth is what God says it is. Despite what is socially accepted by most of the world, God calls the believer to judge and give straight answers. He tells us how to judge, but places limits on how we are to judge.
What believers are not called to do is hypocritical or condescending judgment. Many times Christians see everything without seeing everything. Rush to judgment, wrongful judgement and harsh judments are wrong and not what God had in mind. These judgments cause rifts and turn relationships upside down. Judgments of criticism are forbidden, for they are sin. People are not supposed to feel our wrath, it's the opposite approach. Biblical judgment carries the idea of fairness, for correction and in the spirit of love.
Men in total control would be disastrous. Mankind would face certain doom. Without godly judgments, there would be no right or wrong, no does or don'ts, no balances or checks to what one might do or not do. Here is the trouble with such an idea. With no moral or legal judgment, no rules, regulations, laws or governing body, our world would literally be turned upside down. It would be in total and complete chaos. Unwatched men are dangerous to themselves, but the real victims are their fellowman.
People just want to do what they want without being checked. They don't want to follow rules. They don't want to deal with anyone that brings the truth; many people don't want to deal with another point-of-view for that matter. They would gladly take their chances as long as they didn't have to come face-to-face with truth. They think this would be a sweet life. It wouldn't. What goes around comes around. But a believer knows better, but many times we get carried away, sometimes swept far away, simply because we won't heed the warning the Holy Spirit sounded from the beginning. What a steep price to pay for ignoring God.
Christian judgment is needed to stand up for truth, identify and correct moral wrongs, errors and other problems. Judicial judgment is also needed for legal issues such as correction, retribution, penalty and punishment as required by law and according to the law.
The primary verse used to defend the 'false teaching' against judgment is Matthew 7:1. But Matthew 7:1-5: all goes together.
7:1 - "Judge not, that ye be not judged." If we stop here, the verse appears to teach judging others is wrong. But the thought does not stop at the conclusion of verse 1. Therefore we have an incomplete thought. If we read all of the related verses, we get the true meaning and what the Lord is telling us.
7:2 - "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
7:3 - And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
7:4 - Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
7:5 - Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
After the complete thought is read, we see Jesus is not condemning all judging. He was dealing with hypocrites and their hypocritical judgments. They judged folk according to their own self-righteousness, which was far short of God's holy standards.
Scriptures are not to stand alone. They are to be read in the context of the subject. Meaning the topic if read correctly will be consistent throughout the chapter, throughout the book and there will be a common thread on the topic through the entire bible. If many scriptures stood alone, anyone could literally pick and choose whatever verses they wanted and get whatever meaning they so chose. Not telling the truth causes less pain for whom? No one. It causes more pain and in some cases there are deadly consequences. The truth is not going away.
Judging others is taught many places in the bible, here are a few:
2 Corinthians 6:14 - We are called to not marry an unbeliever. That's a judgment.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 - We are called to judge other believers and other church members because we love them and want to correct the error or deliberate wrong-doing.
Matthew 7:15-20 - We are to rightly judge the doctrinal positions of our pastor, other preachers and teachers who claim to have been called of God.
1 Timothy 3:1-13 - We are to judge possible leaders of the church based on biblical qualifications.
1 Corinthians 11:31 - We are to judge ourselves, to see if we are truly in God's family.
Jn. 7:24 - We are to judge righteously.
1 Cor. 5:3, 12 - We are to judge sin in the church.
1 Cor. 6:5 - We are to judge matters between other Christians.
1 Cor. 14:29 - We are to judge preaching.
Now here are some limitations God has place upon Christian judgments.
Romans 14:1-23 - We have no right to comment on a personal choices that are non-moral issues.
James 2: 1 - We are not to judge by appearance or treat anyone more or less than another.
1 Corinthians 4:1-5 - We can't judge others work for God.
James 4:11-12 - We should not criticize or comment on another's actions without knowing all of the facts or the motivation behind their actions. These judgments are non-moral.
There is something else. We ourselves don't handle criticism that well. When people judge us it just gets next to us. Sometimes we even struggle mightily with righteous judgement. It's not a good feeling when we're on the other end of it. But if the judgement is righteous, we are to accept it graciously with love and thanksgiving, make the correction and adjust our lives accordingly. This is a good thing. This is maturity and growth. And the judgment should be considered an act of love. If the judement is criticism, right or wrong, we are to listen to it, respond if we must, but we must do so in a godly mannner. If at all possible, accept it without retaliation or counter criticism: Philippians 1:29 - "...not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." Matthew 5:11, 12 - "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you...and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake,...for great is your reward in heaven."
We are always to defend truth, take opposition against sin: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24), eventhough much of society wants us to stay quiet. Staying out of Godly affairs is not what Christians are supposed to do. God has set the bar high for us, we are called to set the record straight.
Learn more about this author, RNorrisFaulkner.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
- Christian Doctrine & Issues
- Is it necessary to be baptized in the name of Jesus?
- Should German schools be required to teach Christianity alongside the occult?
- Is there room in Christianity for other beliefs?
- Did Jesus mention homosexuality?
- Is Joel Osteen spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ or just making people feel good about themselves?
