When to Judge
Many professing Christians are unwilling to do something because they fear it may backfire on them. Therefore, they tried to avoid correcting, rebuking, and even judging the wrongdoers of the Word.
We may be under the scrutiny of the beholder. Still, then again, they may observe and judge only according to their senses without considering the basis of that judgment, some may judge us wrongfully without going into detail about our actions and decision, and worst is extending it publicly and hurting someone. It becomes a threat to divide the Body of Christ.
Judging someone’s belief and correcting their wrong actions and decisions are some of the many things we try to avoid in fear of being judged. This action will give freedom to the fraudulent practice of faith and hope and give the wrongdoers of the words a free ride and continue to deceive more people and put the Word of God in vain as well as jeopardizing the soul of people who submitted to false teachings due to ignorance and lack of knowledge of the true gospel. Misinterpretation stated in Matthew 7:1-2 will cause us to fall victim.
Matthew 7:1-2 (WEB) “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you make, you will be judged; with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.” Jesus said that when you judge, it should not be hypocritical. Do not pretend to have more virtues, more fantastic religious beliefs, and more divine principles and be morally correct. When we continue reading the context in Mathew 7 up to verse 5, we will find the completeness of what Jesus tells us. We need to open our eyes to what the Bible mentioned about judging for fear that they would be considered judgmental of brothers.
The epistle of Paul to the Corinthians was recorded in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (PHI) “Don’t mix with the immoral.” I didn’t mean, of course, that you were to have no contact with the immoral of this world, nor with any cheats, thieves, or idolaters—for that would mean going out of the world altogether! But in this letter, I tell you not to associate with any professing Christian known to be an impure man or a swindler, an idolater, a man with a foul tongue, a drunkard, or a thief.
My instruction is: “Don’t even eat with such a man.” For those outside the church, it is not my business to judge. But indeed, it is your business to judge those inside the church—God alone can judge those outside. Therefore, you must “put away from yourselves that wicked person.”
In other Bible verses, Christians are supposed to use their judgment by the Scripture, but within the limit of the church. For example, John’s epistles advise us to correct, rebuke and encourage believers. Throughout the Bible, many Scriptures tell us that it should be a justified action direct one’s mind towards truth, be on the lookout: in testing and proving all divine truth is from God, and only allow Spiritual man to judge all things according to the Word of God.
There is a requirement in judging others; we need to clean our own backyard before attempting to help others clean theirs. We cannot just point out how wrong they were in their walk-in Christian living without looking at our relationship with fellow Christians, its value and influence among others, how we change their life after finding the truth of the Word of God and return to God with joy. Romans 2:1-6 is commonly misinterpreted as a command not to judge anything when that is not what is being said.
Roman 2:1-6 says; (WEB), “Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge, practice the same things. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who “will pay back to every one according to their works:” [a]
Righteous judgments or judging in line with the Scriptures is the right thing to do, and not judging a person because you do not like the behavior, want to get even from previous misunderstandings, or because of the powerful emotions the judgments even went further like person’s destination is going nowhere but hell. Those acts are false judgments. So Romans 2:1-6 supported the believers to judge rightly according to the Word of God and the righteous way.
Our responsibility is to test and prove someone’s teachings and adequately judge their doctrine to make sure that it is Scripturally supported; 1Corinthians 4:5 “stated and must not be misinterpreted as less authoritative and avoid proper judgment: “What it was saying was to be careful in hasty and premature judgment.
“Don’t criticize people, and you will not be criticized. You will be judged by how you criticize others, and the measure you give will be the measure you receive.”
God is All in All