March 11th Daily Discussion

I struggle with this too, almost daily.

I think we all struggle daily with being judgmental in some regard. I think this is what we call "being disciplined"! I will agree also that I am doing that very thing He commands us not to do. It seems in today's society we are bombarded with self-righteousness and never ending external stimulus that teach us to live for ourselves. It's all over the TV, movies and so-called "self-help" seminars and books, etc. We've forgotten who we really are and our real purpose...that is to worship our Lord and live in accordance with His rules, not ours.

I certainly do more than my share of judging! I think this passage is one to keep in the forefront of my mind.

I am convicted daily by this scripture! However, God still gives His grace, compassion and love and provides hope that by repentance we who judge today may still be granted peace in eternal life through faith.

Thanks Tami!

Isn't there a right way and wrong way of judging? The passages in Romans 2:1-11, aren't they the continuation of Paul's thought in the previous passages? So isn't he talking about the unrighteous who judge others, basically those who have not removed the plank out of their own eye before judging others? And if we look at Romans 1:18-32 where he calls out the unrighteous for their unrighteous deeds, doesn't Paul look like he's judging? Yes, he is. But he's doing it the right way. I think the judging is conditional. Who are we to judge if we do the very thing ourselves?

Anyway, I like how Paul builds up his case. Romans 2:6-11 is even more confounding I think, for it says that those who do good will have eternal life. Works righteousness, anyone? But of course later on he says, no one is righteous, no not one. Then he lays out the Good News...

I think this verse also reminds me of the verse in Matthew 7:1 "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged..." I know that I don't want to be judged the way that I judge others when I find myself doing these things I make sure to repent right away. But it is a powerful verse that we should be very mindful of.

God is good and just and merciful. As one who has been judged both by the church and the world for failures and inadequacies, I cling to the loving grace of God. His judgments are fair and forgiving, but the life consequences of sin are the most unforgiving.

When I am now judged by people, I ask myself, "What is their standard and motive?". Then by the light of God's Word, I ask myself, "What is mine?".

Good morning,
I remember back when I never looked at or judged myself regarding the things I did or said. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who indwells each believer. Reminding us, or convicting us sometimes with the Word that we have put in our heart. Its not my place to Judge. I know now to obey the Word of God and not my Feelings.

Examples: forgive them for they know not what they do. Or, Forgive 70 Times 7 daily, plus many others. But, I find it gets better everyday when we are hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit in our heart. Tell the person that I made a judgmental statement toward, that I was wrong, and ask God to forgive me. Put my feelings aside and obey the Word of God always has the best results. Praise God the renewing of the mind. Giving each one of us a new perspective in how we look at people and things.

This passage is certainly sobering and convicting. It is easy to judge the person rather than the sinful act. Take for instance, the homosexual issue. It is easy to point the finger at gays and declare them to be hardcore sinners. God does not grade sin, and we are all sinners. Those of us who proclaim, and truly believe, that Jesus is our savior are covered by His grace. But we are still sinners - sinners in a process to become more Christ-like. Would Jesus condemn the gay man, or would He love them enough to help them out of the sinful lifestyle?

Thanks for the work you do Tami.
Sterling

Great comments, thank you!

Paul uses the the word "they"; which, caused me to ask, "who is he talking about"? I am thinking he is talking about the previous verses, they unrighteous and ungodly. Which leads me to think it is the way we judge. Do I condemn someone for sinning, when I have done the same? Or do I lovingly help them see their sin and lead them to the Lord and/or back to the Lord? Can and should I look at a situation judge for myself it is right or wrong? My conclusion is we are not to judge people (for God judges the heart), but, we can judge an action.

Judging has a fine line and we must come to carefully and PRAYERFULLY.

I really appreciate what Debbie M has to say here. A fine line it is, and this line is only discernable through the Holy Spirit's leading. Paul tells us to admonish, exort, encourage, and other verbs that clearly advise the Christian to call sin what it is when we see other Christians in error. However, I find that if I can ask another believer to pray with me about my shortcomings and failures, God uses that experience to convict the other person also. I also am able to see a hard heart if that person refuses to pray; then I know I have to let God rebuke and I back off in prayer.

Great comments. I know that I do judge other people, but I truly beleive that it is in our nature to do it. There is part of our own self esteem and ego that needs to vindicate itself by comparing (judging) ourselves to others. As much as we try to be lead by the Spirit and not do it at all, or do it in a sin separated from the person kind of way, we have to realize that we all do it. We need to look at the motives of our judging and repent if those are not Godly.

Tami, I hope you can still see these from last month. I've been gone from my office a lot this past year so far, so I’m still catching up on my B2TB email lessons - don't judge me! This is a little long, but I want to add something that the other bloggers didn’t really specifically mention in scripture for interpreting Paul’s comments in Romans 2:1-11 or in Romans 7:1. I think it’s important as Christ’s church that we get this one right because we are seeing a time in His church where we are required to make sure that false doctrine and sin aren’t allowed to fester within the church because we misunderstand what Paul was talking about in these passages.

As a couple bloggers commented, you have to go back and see Paul's comments in context. In Romans 1:18-31, he is specifically addressing the unrighteous -haters of God- and God's wrath against them. Chapter 2 isn’t a new story, Paul is continuing here regarding how the unrighteous (meaning those Jews and Greeks who are not followers of Jesus, but rest on their own works apart from God’s grace through the sacrifice of Christ) judge others.

To be more specific, as someone who had to take a sinning and unrepentant brother all the way through the, Matthew 18:15-17 church discipline process, I spent countless hours in scripture and talking to senior pastors regarding the scripture foundation for this subject. And while disciplining a brother scripturally is not easy, it is nevertheless an absolute necessity in keeping Christ’s church healthy and doctrinally sound in these last days. This is especially hard when so many believers don’t understand what scriptural discipline is and confuse the issue of judging believers behavior within the church with judging those outside the church – whether believers are judging non-believers, or non-believers judging non-believers. The only passage believers and non-believers alike can recall is, “judge not, lest ye be judged,” without understanding the context within which it is set. Let me tell you, the issue of “judging others” was specifically mentioned by a few church members – and we had a ready scripture to explain it – when we had to take a brother I love, and who I forgave (forgiveness and repentance are mutually exclusive - I can be forgiven by a brother and still continue to sin) to the church body because he was unrepentant and continuing to sin, which caused significant pain in the body where I worshiped.

As a former pastor of mine always says, “the first law of Biblical hermeneutics is to let the Bible interpret the Bible.” This is where we draw our understanding of what Paul means by judging in Romans 2 and 7 – and how as believers, we are to practice righteous judgment, scripturally: carefully read (in context) 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. Specifically, in verses 9-13, Paul clearly shows who and how Christians are to judge, and we have to be prepared to do just that if we are facing believers who are sinning and unrepentant within the church body. We are to do this in love and in accordance with scripture - and if we don't, then we ourselves are sinning by allowing sinning brothers and sisters to continue what they are doing without scriptural rebuke, because we wrongly think this is "judging" them. This is made even worse - as what Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 5 - because by letting their sin continue, it can infect others in the church body and cause significant pain and damage to individual believers, and even damage a church's corporate witness to the unbelieving world ("sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans..."). We are to be set apart and holy, in the world, but not of the world.

Thanks for all you do Tami, and God Bless your ministry – and that of Back to the Bible!