JUDGING UNAVOIDABLE

There are few topics over which there is more confusion and disagreement than judging. If you criticize a person for committing adultery or for lying when he has committed adultery, the average person will respond: "You have no right to judge." When an individual insists that you have no right to judge, guess what he has just done. Has he not judged you for judging others? The truth is and every reasonable person on earth should recognize this: It is impossible to live without judging. You and I judge when we vote for one politician as opposed another. We judge when we decide to attend one church and not another or not to attend any church. Today I shall focus on the topic: "Judging Unavoidable."

Is it possible that our reluctance to judge other people's beliefs or conduct has resulted in thousands and thousands of instances of the flagrant disregard for decency, honor and integrity? Millions of Americans apparently and conveniently believe our Lord forbad all judging when he said: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt. 7:1). When we pretend we are going to refrain from judging others, we have already judged them. For example, if a man and a woman are living together in adultery and we fail to oppose such immoral behavior we have judged that adultery to be neutral, that is, it does not affect the lives of the people involved and will not keep them from our heavenly home. You should be able to understand that it is impossible to avoid making judgments, but we must strive to make judgments according to truth. If we do not judge evil to be evil, we are condoning evil.

The popular media in the United States imply, if they do not actually say, that conservative people should not judge the rightness or wrongness of any action, such as, gambling, getting drunk, viewing pornography on the Internet or engaging in sexual immorality. But regardless of your political or religious beliefs, you make moral judgments everyday - even if you do not realize you are making judgments. If you think adultery is good or at least permissible, that is a judgment - a foolish and an unreasonable judgment, but a judgment nevertheless. If you think it does not matter one way or the other, that also is a judgment. If you oppose sin with all of your might - as I try to do - that is a judgment, too. The question ought to be on adultery or drunkenness or gambling: Which position is closest to the teaching of scripture? Once we have made the judgment on the basis of scripture, we must have the courage to stand by our convictions. We cannot remain silent on evil.

Your position on sexual immorality always stems from your judgment in this area of human behavior. Christians ought never to say, "I believe adultery is wrong because my church teaches that it is wrong" or "I believe it is wrong because I do not like it." It is perfectly permissible for a person to say: "I do not eat broccoli, squash and spinach because I do not like them." Moral issues cannot be handled in this way. Every person on earth makes a judgment regarding sexual morality, but genuine followers of Jesus Christ must make their judgment on the basis of God's inspired word. Your preferences or predilections have absolutely nothing to do with the truth regarding human conduct. We must study the Bible to learn God's attitude and then commit our lives to his will. Have I made a judgment? Absolutely! Is it a legitimate judgment? If our beliefs and actions agree with the teaching of scripture, we know they are right judgments. If they do not agree with the Bible, we know we have made wrong judgments.

I need to go a step further. If you hear me preach that baptism is essential for the salvation of alien sinners, do you believe that is a human judgment or is that the teaching of scripture? If it is a human judgment - whether mine or someone else's - it is not binding on anyone. If men and women are required by the law of God to be baptized for the remission of sins, what you or I think has nothing to do with the truth. What did the Apostle Peter tell the believing Jews on Pentecost to do? "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). How did the Jews understand the command? "Then they who gladly received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:41). As I have already indicated, our judgments must be based on truth or they are not worth much.

One often hears when we are discussing baptism or almost any other topic: "That is your opinion. You have no right to judge others. Did not our Lord say, 'Judge not that you be not judged?'" God's requirements for salvation do not belong in the area of human judgment. They come from God almighty through his inspired word. Honesty and sincerity have nothing to do with the truth of the Bible. When God speaks on any topic, if we want to have his approval, we simply say, "Speak, Lord, thy servant hears." Some may call it judging, but it is responding in faith to our Savior.

Faithful gospel preachers for years have vigorously opposed the use of mechanical instruments of music in the worship of the Lord's church. We have done so on one primary basis: The New Testament, which is the standard for the work and worship of the church, does not authorize them. Singing is explicitly authorized, that is, it has the stamp of divine approval. Please give attention to these divinely inspired words: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him" (Col. 3:16-17). We can sing in the name of the Lord. We cannot play on musical instruments in the name of the Lord.

If you think churches of Christ are the only ones who take this position on mechanical instruments of music in worship, it is because you have not done your homework. Dr. John L. Girardeau was a prominent Presbyterian preacher and a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Dr. Girardeau's students asked him why he opposed instrumental music in worship. In response his students' questions, he wrote a very scholarly book, Instrumental Music in the Public Worship (Fayetteville, TN: International Gospel Hour, n.d., a reprint). He introduces his book with these observations: "Attention, at the outset, is invoked to the consideration which serves to establish the following controlling principle: A divine warrant is necessary for every element of doctrine, government and worship in the church; that is, whatsoever in these spheres is not commanded, in the Scriptures, either explicitly or by good and necessary consequence from their statements, is forbidden" (p. 15). Incidentally, John Calvin, John Wesley, Martin Luther, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon also strongly opposed mechanical instruments of music in New Testament worship.

If we speak out against instrumental music in worship or the burning of incense or interpretive dancing, the usual response is, "You have no right to judge other people's worship." Where have people learned that concept? They certainly did not discover it in the pages of God's holy word. Both the Old Testament and the New are very critical of those who introduce unauthorized practices in worship to God almighty. Do you remember what the book of Leviticus says about Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, the Jewish high priest? They "took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not" (Lev. 10:1). The English Standard Version says the fire was strange because it was "unauthorized." Did engaging in unauthorized activities really make that much difference? "And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord" (Lev. 10:2).

If you had lived during the days of Moses and Aaron, would you have objected to God's treatment of Nadab and Abihu? After all, it does not seem all that egregious to substitute strange fire for the fire the Lord authorized. We need to remember that God demands and that we explicitly obey his commands and precepts. Hundreds of times in the Old Testament the great prophets demand that the Israelites do exactly what God commanded in the way he commanded it. I have time to give you one example. The Lord said to the Israelites: "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: A blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known" (Dt. 11:26-28).

The book of John records a meeting between our Lord and a woman of Samaria. The Samaritan woman wanted to know which worship God approved - the worship of her people in Mount Gerizim or the worship of the Jews in Jerusalem. Jesus did not hesitate or equivocate. "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, and now is, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:21-22). But was worship in Jerusalem really all that important? Worship to God in Mount Gerizim was not authorized; worship in Jerusalem was.

But the God who desires and demands our worship surely would not be that mean-spirited or exacting, would he? You could never read the prophetic writings of the Old Testament and come to any other conclusion. It is true that many offerings and sacrifices were not acceptable to God, even though they were authorized. The Jews had to learn that keeping the Sabbath, burning incense and engaging in other acts of worship were not well pleasing to God if the worshippers lied, committed adultery, cheated their neighbors in business deals and engaged in other ungodly practices. For worship to be acceptable under the Mosaic covenant it had to be according to God's directions and accompanied by godly living. That was the reason the 8^th century B. C. Jewish prophet charged the Jewish people: "Hate the evil, love the good, and establish justice in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph" (Amos 5:15).

The New Testament authors also demanded godly living of all who worship God. In the very chapter from which I read a moment ago about singing and doing all in the name of the Lord (Col. 3:16-17), Paul exhorted his brothers and sisters at Colosse: "If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil passions, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3: 1-5). Worship and godly living must go hand in hand. Worship on the Lord's Day or at any other time cannot compensate for rebellion against God's law. We must imitate the Lord's attitude. "I do always those things that please him" (John 8:29).

If church members cannot judge, how can they ever comply with the Bible's demand that the church withdraw from ungodly members? The church in Thessalonica had some members who were not working to take care of their families. They apparently had misunderstood what Paul wrote about the Lord's second coming and the end of the age. Paul said to the members: "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who walks disorderly, and not after the traditions which he received of us" (2 Thess. 3:6).

We do not have to guess the meaning of the word "disorderly." Paul explains: "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies" (2 Thess. 3:10-11). What does "disorderly" mean? It means working not at all. Did the Thessalonians have the authority to judge the men who were not working at all and were busybodies? They not only had the authority for doing so. They were commanded to do it.

The church at Corinth had a very serious moral situation. A man in the church was sleeping with his father's wife. Maybe members of that church thought they did not have the right to judge the sexual behavior of that brother. Paul accused the church members of being puffed up and failing to mourn, "that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you" (1 Cor. 5:1-2). I ask you to listen carefully to this verse. "For I verily, as absent in the body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him who has done this deed" (1 Cor. 5:3).

Had Paul forgotten our Lord's admonition: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt. 7: I)? He told the Corinthians he had already judged. He had the facts in the case and could make an informed judgment. And what was his judgment? "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 5:4-5). Paul knew the truth and judged according to truth. Must not modern churches do the same?

I am fully aware that some judgments about ungodly behavior of some church members are extremely difficult. For example, Paul provides a list of people with whom church members must not have fellowship: fornicators, covetous people, idolaters, railers, drunkards and extortioners (1 Cor. 5:11). It should be fairly easy to judge if a brother is a drunkard. But judging covetousness (or greed) is another matter. I know the church can do so or the Holy Spirit would not have demanded that the church withdraw fellowship from covetous people. Would not withdrawing fellowship be impossible if Christians are forbidden to judge?

So what did our Lord have in mind when he charged his disciples: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Mt. 7:I)? Charles Williams translates the verse: "Stop criticizing others, so that you may not be criticized yourselves." Do you understand what it means to interpret a word or a verse in its context? Please listen to what Christ said in Matthew 7. "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eyes, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye" (Mt. 7:1-5).

Some versions translate the Greek "speck" rather than "mote." W. E. Vine says the word means "a small, dry stalk, a twig, a bit of dried stick, or a tiny bit of wool, such as might fly into the eye, used metaphorically of a minor fault" (volume 3, p. 85). The word "beam" means a log. Jesus was teaching very plainly: How can a man who has a log in his eye see to cast out a small speck from someone else's eye? The lesson could hardly be plainer. It is as if a brother has committed murder is judging another brother who has run a stop light.

Jack Lewis has a Ph. D. from Harvard University in Greek and a Ph. D. in Hebrew from Hebrew Union. He was one of my graduate professors. In his commentary on The Gospel according to Matthew (Austin, TX: Sweet, 1976), Dr. Lewis makes these pertinent observations on Matthew 7: The expression, "judge not, that you be not judged," "is neither an admonition to neutrality nor a prohibition against exercising the critical faculty in discriminating between right and wrong.... The form of prohibition here makes it clear that it is the habit of censoriousness that Jesus is condemning" (volume 1, pp. 109-110).

Do you remember what Paul asked the Romans? "You therefore who teaches another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal" (Rom. 2:21)? Every reasonable person on earth knows that judging is unavoidable. John quotes Jesus as saying: "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334