JUDGING #1

Bikers Church Cape Town

JUDGING #1 by Pastor George Lehman People tend to judge others about various aspects, including: Appearance Personality Behaviour Choices Beliefs Mistakes Background Successes Remember, judging others often stems from personal biases, insecurities, or limited understanding. Practicing love, empathy and self-reflection – these will help us become more accepting and less judgmental. “In public, guard your tongue. In private, your thoughts.” I think, when it comes to the subject of Judging. It’s possibly one of the misunderstood and difficult subjects to come to grips with, because it starts with me first. Why do I say this? Well, it’s because Christians are partly ignorant and partly disobedient. The result is, we act contrary to scripture “and thereby, just satisfy the flesh”. Our default is to judge. And OH!! Boy can we get ourselves in hot water. “We should be rigorous (strong) in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.” - John Wesley I think we need to look at this teaching on Judging with the following scripture as our guide. Romans 2:1-3 (Amp) - “Therefore you have no excuse or defence or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce]. 2 [But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things. 3 And do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His sentence and adverse verdict? The word Judging (oordeel) as shown throughout the New Testament scripture. The Greek word used in the bible 114 times is “KRINO”: To Judge in the sense of condemnation, to sentence or punish. – To express a usually negative opinion about someone or something, to criticize. When I do this I open a door to the enemy and I am the one who suffers. Just by reading this we can see for ourselves that Judging this way is very bad, unacceptable and dangerous. Because it gives the devil a foothold, destroys relationships, breaks up ministries and neutralises your testimony. How important is this: Make sure you have all the facts before you set yourself up as judge. Most problems arise from this very important failure!! Taking sides. Think about this. What colour robe does Jesus give to believers? White. What colour robe do judges wear – Black. There might just be a lesson here. Galatians 2:6 Paul says – “God does not judge by “external appearances” In other words, God looks where it’s really going wrong: - He looks at the heart. God is in the heart correcting business. Jeremiah 17:9 - “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? Scripture warns us not to judge others based on our own self-righteousness because we all fall short of the glory of God and only God can know the state of anyone’s heart You see judging is a heart thing, and an attitude thing. Jesus said in John 7:24 – Be honest in your judgement and do not decide at a glance (superficially and by appearances); but judge fairly and righteously) It’s when I’ve done the mirror on the wall test first – In other words, I Corinthians 11:31 - “For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged and penalty decreed [by the divine judgment]. A guy was sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After going to see the accommodations, he came up to the reception’s desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship’s safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege, but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other berth. Judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The receptionist accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, ’It’s all right, bishop, I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has been up here and left his for the same reason!’“ Jesus tells us, “Judge not lest ye be judged” Matthew 7:1 It should be obvious to any practicing Christian; Jesus didn’t intend for this verse to obliterate (uitwis) our ability to judge between behavior that the Bible encourages and behavior that the Bible forbids. The beam (balk) Splinter thing Then and only then may I even look at the situation – then with an attitude of great care and caution make your judgement. What a different place this world our homes our work, our church and our relationships would be like if we practiced judging at this level. We are all struggling, so let us be gentle with one another. We most times don’t know what their struggles are. Let us focus on our own growth, and issues we need to overcome. We all have lots to deal with. 1 Corinthians 11:31 – For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Romans 2:4 (Amp) - Or are you [so blind as to[ trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact ] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)? Next week we will be looking at things like – Who is authorized to Judge? When is judgement called for? What are we authorized to Judge? Where are our limits? Why does our attitude matter?