Judge with a Righteous Judgment

“Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1:32 ESV)

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” (Romans 2:1-5 ESV)

Now, this is one of those passages of Scripture which is often taken out of context to declare that all judging is wrong and that all of us are equally guilty of committing the same sins, so not one of us has the right to stand in judgment over another. But that is not what this is teaching. This is speaking of hypocritical judging of others, when we judge others for their sins but we are truly committing the same sins, or worse. This is speaking to a very specific group of people, not to everyone.

These words addressed here are to those who are making sin their practice, while they look down on others who practice the same, or much less. These are people with hard and impenitent hearts who are not repentant over their sins but who go on sinning against the Lord and against other humans, even knowing that they deserve death, but possibly while often denying it. And so they take a superior attitude as though they are not also guilty of walking in sin while they look down on those who may have sinned even less.

And so they give themselves a pass, as though they deserve a pass, but the others do not. And I see this a lot with people who adopt the cheap grace gospel as their security, believing all their sins are forgiven and heaven is now guaranteed them, but while they continue in deliberate and habitual sin. They regard themselves as righteous in the eyes of the Lord because of a profession of faith they made in Jesus Christ. And so they will cast judgment on the unbelieving world while their sins oftentimes surpass those of others.

Yet not one of us has a right to judge others for their sins if we are ourselves habitually and deliberately sinning against the Lord and against other humans without genuine repentance. And especially this is egregious if we are literally committing the same exact sins as they are, or if we are committing greater sins while we judge someone who did little by comparison. An example of this is if we were living in adultery against our spouse but we got angry at someone for throwing trash on the ground.

Now some of you will say that sin is sin and therefore all sin is equal. Not in the eyes of the Lord. For he divides us into two groups. The one group is those who are still walking in deliberate and habitual sin, in practice, who are not walking in holiness and righteousness, and who are not obeying our Lord, in practice. They are the true unbelievers. They are the true ungodly of this world, not just those who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. For we can profess faith in Jesus and still walk in sin and die in our sins.

The other grouping are those who have died with Christ to sin and who are living to God and to his righteousness, in practice. They are not perfect people, but they are not living in sin. Righteousness is what they practice, by genuine faith in Jesus Christ, in his power, and they are those who are obeying our Lord’s commandments, in practice, although not necessarily with absolute perfection (1 John 2:1-2). We are regarded by God as those of genuine faith in him who have the hope of eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

And we who are following the Lord in obedience to his commands are instructed in the Scriptures to judge sin for what it is, and to judge the church and sin within the church. And we are instructed to test the spirits to see if they are of God, and we are to make judgments every day about what is right and what is wrong, and what is just or unjust, or what is moral or immoral, so that we reject what is wrong and that is evil, and so we reject the lies and we expose them, and so we lead others away from sin to God.

The judging that is wrong for us to do is hypocritical judging; judging others unfairly by ourselves, assuming that they are like us; judging by appearances (without any facts); judging unjustly by not giving someone a hearing to learn what he does; and judging others according to the flesh and not by God’s standards. But we are to judge known sin in the life of a brother or sister in Christ with the intent to help them to come out of that sin, especially as it is impacting the entire body of Christ. 

[Gal 6:1-5; Jas 5:19-20; 1 Co 5:1-13; Matt 7:1-5; Jn 7:24,51; Jn 8:15-16; Rom 2:3; 2 Co 10:12; Jude 1:22-23]

So, don’t judge hypocritically, unfairly, unjustly, by your own self, by appearances only, by the flesh, by your culture, by your traditions, and without even listening to others to hear their side of the story. Judge with a righteous judgment based upon the teachings of the Scriptures and with a purpose to help, not to hurt, and to restore, not to cast aside, and to lead in a path of righteousness, not to condemn. Even if you warn of God’s judgements against those who walk in sin, it should be with a heart of love.

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

https://vimeo.com/379484387