Most people, including atheists, the LGBTQ, and others know about Matthew, chapter 7. They like to use verse 1 against Christian evangelists who are sharing the gospel message to the lost. They hate it when we tell them what sin is in the sight of God, for they feel judged. This judgment, they feel is wrong and goes against what Jesus said. However, their issue is that they did not keep reading through verse 5. Those verses read, “judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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? 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.” (Matthew 7:1-5) So if we have not gotten right with God in the same or different area with God then we have no right to be judging anyone else.
What people don’t realize is that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are also living for God. His holiness and righteousness are abounding in their lives. This is why they can see clearly and not judge falsely. Accusations go out the window and righteous judgments enter in. The same way we can rightfully judge our children on how they should act, we can now rightfully judge others on how they should be living for God. Jesus spoke of this and said, “judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” (John 7:24) Lastly, God taught Moses in a similar fashion and said, “ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.” (Leviticus 19:15) The proper way for anyone to judge another person is in the righteousness of God, not in our pride. When people are proud, judgment calls are done out of spite and often hurt many people. However, when people are in good standing with God, He gives people words to speak, in order to give clarity to situations. Praise God! Amen.
Let us pray:
Oh Lord, I pray that more people will come to You, Jesus. May they find time in their days to seek You, Lord. This life goes by way too fast and I don’t wish for anyone to lose out on their chance to be saved. Give me wisdom, Lord. Help me to know how to reach different people who are lost for Your kingdom’s sake. In righteous judgments, help me know how to speak to one another in kindness, respect, and love. I want people to know what sin is, but do this in a way that is not offensive but conversational. In heaven, no unclean thing can enter. You have taught me this fact, and I only wish to help people prepare to go there. Eternity is a very long time, indeed, and I don’t want any willful sins to keep me from Your heavenly home. Lord, look at my heart and see if there is any sin that needs to be rooted out. Look into my mind and cast out any thoughts that should not be there. You are the anker of my soul, Jesus. Awake my soul to live for You like never before. Speak to my soul and I will obey. I love You more than this life itself. People can take it away, but in death, I will be with You forever. Amen.
Amen! Judge righteous judgment. It is not true that we can never judge or that we can never judge sin or that we can never correct wrong behavior such as in our children and/or others or that we can never try to defend and protect ourselves and stand up for ourselves and set boundaries ect. We often ask people to do certain things or to not do certain things or to start doing certain things or to stop doing certain things. God has the best and greatest and most right to this. We must judge righteously though. That’s the key. We must have the Holy Spirit to make sure that we are judging righteously and with righteous judgment and to make sure that we are truly hearing from God and thus judging the way He wants us to judge and would have us judge. We must make sure that we are judging His judgements or the way that He would judge.and not judging from our own thoughts and from our own hearts.
Punishment is sometimes needed and we must call out sin and wrongdoing. If we are to never judge, Christians couldn’t be judges in the earthly court system and thus there could be no Christian judges in the earthly court system. Sin and wrong doing have to be judged and it is sometimes necessary to tell people of their sin and wrongdoing and warn them of coming punishment for it. We must do so with pure hearts and minds though. True, pure and righteous judgment is key. We must allow God to help us judge.
Sin should be judged but without pride or hypocrisy.