Colossians 3:12-15 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
“12Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity. 15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.”
Judging Justly
Are we to tolerate, accept, appease, and pacify sin in the
lives of fellow Christians who are living in deliberate and habitual sin
against God? No! We are not! Should we then speak out against all deliberate
and habitual sins going on within the lives of those who profess faith in Jesus
and within the gatherings of the church? Yes! We should! But we should do so in
love, and never hypocritically. But it is not hypocritical to call people to
repentance and to obedience to Christ unless we are also living in deliberate
sin against God.
And that is the subject I believe the Lord would have me
write on this afternoon, i.e. hypocritical judging. For not all judging is
wrong. The Scriptures teach that we
are not to judge other people hypocritically, unjustly, by human standards, by
our own traditions, by comparing others to ourselves, or in hate, with the
wrong motives, prejudicially, by appearances, and/or without first giving the
person a hearing or a chance to defend themselves. But we can judge sin in
sinful humans according to God’s Word.
[Matthew
7:1-5; John 7:24,51; John 8:15-16; Romans 2:3; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1
Corinthians 6:1-6; 2 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 11:1-4; Galatians 6:1-5;
Ephesians 5:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; James 5:19-20; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 1 John
2:18-25; 1 John 4:1; Jude 1:22-23; Revelation 2:2]
Hypocritical
Judging
So what does hypocritical judging look like? This has to do with anyone who calls themselves Christians who condemns another professing Christian who they have determined has sinned or is sinning against God and/or against other humans, but while they themselves are habitually sinning against God, sometimes where everyone can see what they are doing, too, or while they embrace others who are definitely habitually sinning against God in practice. So they are sinning, accepting others who are sinning, but while condemning others who they perceive have sinned, even if the others have repented.
So they are picking and choosing which habitual sinners,
including themselves, to approve of and to accept and to associate with while
they condemn others who have sinned, even if the others have repented of sin.
Or they may condemn others with whom they disagree on a subject, even if their
contention is not supported in the Scriptures and is, thus, a lie. And this is
a lot like the Pharisees who brought the woman (not the man) caught in adultery
before Jesus expecting Jesus to have her put to death. But Jesus knew their
hearts, so he said, “He who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Compassion and Kindness
Jesus had compassion on the woman caught in adultery. He in
no way approved of her sin, and he told her, “Go and sin no more.” So we, too,
can have compassion on others who are caught in sin, who are living in
addiction to sin, and we can still let them know that sin against God is wrong
and if they continue in those sins, while professing faith in Jesus Christ,
that the Bible teaches they will not have eternal life with God. This is not
being hateful! This is not being mean! This is being loving and showing
kindness knowing full well we may be attacked for calling people to repentance.
But if we attack other Christians for wrongs we think they
may have committed (but wrongs they may not have committed) all the while we
are worse sinners than they are, because we are living in deliberate and
habitual sin against God (I am not, by the way), then we are being hypocritical
as well as we are being unjust, unfair, unloving, and unkind. Jesus loved
sinners, but he hated the sin. But he rebuked the hypocrites who were willfully
sinning against God while they judged others for their sins. And he called all
sinners to repentance and to obedience to God’s commands.
So, love and kindness is not tolerance and acceptance of
sinful behaviors. Love speaks the truth in love, calling sinners to repentance.
But love requires that we love our enemies and that we pray for them and that
we do good to them and that we speak truth to them that they need to hear, too.
And love is not showing preference to one person addicted to sin while we reject
another person addicted to sin. And we are to forgive all who have sinned
against us as God forgave us. It is hypocritical for us to accept our Lord’s
forgiveness while we refuse to forgive those who sinned against us.
Forgiveness: [Matthew
6:14-15; Matthew 18:21-22; Mark 11:25; Luke 6:37-38; Luke 11:4; Luke 17:3-4; 2
Corinthians 2:5-7; Colossians 3:12-13]
Judging Others
Unjustly
An Original Work / September 17, 2026
Christ’s
Free Servant, Sue J Love
Teach Me, Lord
An Original Work /
June 12, 2011
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Teach me, Lord, to
walk in Your ways,
And observe all You
command.
May I ever hasten to
You,
And desire to not
offend.
Teach me how to
follow Your steps,
Gently guiding me
each day.
May I love and serve
You always,
Loving others, this
I pray.
Teach me, Lord, to
listen to You
Speaking Your words
to my heart.
May I never stray
from Your truth,
And from Your law
ne’er depart.
Teach me how to
instruct others
In the way that we
should go,
Leading them by my
life witness,
So that Jesus they
should know.
Teach me, Lord, to
be a light in
This dark world of
grief and sin.
May I always care
for others;
Share their burdens;
help to mend.
Teach me how to
share with them that
Jesus came to set
them free,
So that they could
be forgiven;
Live with Christ
eternally.
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