In a discussion in a longtime Thursday morning men's group, centered in our faith in Jesus Christ seeking the answers to how shall we live through the understanding that "the bible alone is the word of God," judgment was brought up.
As is the case with the question of judgment, Jesus' words " Do not judge or you to will be judged" (Matt. 7:1 and Luke 6:37) are quoted and become absolute without the context. * Look at John 7:24 with Jesus saying "Judge with a righteous judgment." What's up with that?
Context! Jesus is saying not judge with differing measures. In other words it is not good to say, "do as I say, not as I do." Take a look at James 2:1-13 as judging with favoritism.
The Bible in the Old Testament has set forth a principle "that the standard of judgment must be distributed equally and used without favoritism."*
Look at Lev. 19:35, Num. 15:16, Deut. 16:18, Deut. 25:13
"Jesus opposes the way in which some people judge not judgment itself."
What standard will we use in making judgments?
* Quotes and thoughts in this post are from Gary Demar's book "Myths, Lies, & Half Truths," (Chap. 4) a recommended reading.
- John Block
- A former NBA All Star and 10 year veteran. A retired 22 year career collegiate basketball coach, founder of Oakbridge, a Young Life property and Lord's Fitness Community Development Center, an inner city ministry. Married almost 40 years to Margie with daughter Allison and son in law Dave and son Jeff and daughter in law Leanna.
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3 comments:
"Jesus opposes the way in which some people judge not judgment itself."
Okay, I will buy this...I guess the idea is that we can't just grab our Bibles, look up Judging, and then see ALL the meanings put together neatly. Context in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles is as vast as the geography found in them. So as I pull as many of these gigantic planks out of both my eyes, I am better able to discern situations, people, relationships, and choices all around.
Still it would seem that if we can be as LEAST judgemental as possible, there might be more compassion, hunger, wealth, abundance of all kinds--because in our judging we tend to exclude an extricate far too often.
As I reflect more and more it just puts me deeper and deeper into prayer and hope. Maybe there are just too many planks to pull out-or maybe there is somekind of "plank factory" INside my eyeballs.
Thanks John--I will be a regular here at your blog.
Chris
We all have to remember that Jesus is concerned about our heart throughout the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus wants to have our thoughts and our hearts come out of His heart. So whatever we do we do out of the heart of Jesus which would include judging. Judging with the heart of Jesus is not then a negative and will not exclude compassion, hunger, wealth, abundance of all kinds.
Blessings coach
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