Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Christians That Judge

I was web surfing earlier (earning every cent of my paycheck ;-) ) and came across a blog regarding a law that supposedly is before Congress that will limit the topics that Christian ministers can preach on. The main one in question was the issue of homosexuality (no, this is not another post about homosexuality).
One of the commenter's to the post posted a remark stating that Christians should quit preaching a hate gospel and start loving everyone as Christ would have. This comment of course was made between the cursing and ad hominems toward conservative Christianity. The remark that triggered me though was the attempted quote of "judge not lest ye be judged" Mat 7:1.
Did anyone ever read Matthew 7:2? "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you". This is exactly what I want to happen. I desire to be judged in the same light as everyone else, which is by the Word of God and my faithfulness to it. The context is saying that you shouldn't judge if you're guilty of doing the same thing. This is talking about past guilt though it's talking about current guilt i.e. unrepentant sin. For example if I'm about to rape someone it wouldn't be make sense for me to scream into the other room to my son and say "boy quit watching that sex tape!!". I would be contradicting myself. This is what Christ is saying to specifically the Pharisees that attempt to condemn everyone when they themselves are guilty of heinous crimes.

Christians are called to judge.....I will allow a second for the gasps to settle. Yes, as a Christian you are called to discern truth from lie, right from wrong, light from dark, and also point it out to others. This is called preaching the Gospel. Spreading the good news of Christ by telling of his redemptive blood to save us from our SIN. Yes everyone has it (sin that is).

Read 1 Cor. 6:2. It outlines that we as saints of God are going to be the judge of the world. How is that? It is by walking a holy lifestyle before them.
I recently got married and maintained my virginity (not born again celibacy) for 22 years. That's in the modern age of pornographic images pumped out adolescents 24/7 especially young men. Glory to God!!! By doing that I have upheld a standard for everyone everywhere that it is possible and there is no excuse, thus judging. I judge by saying that Christ can give power to do all things if you are faithful and then proving it.

Let's keep the context of scriptures if we're going to quote them please. I am especially called to judge those of the "household of faith". If you are calling yourself a Christian then I have an obligation to hold your actions up to the light of scripture. More importantly I have an obligation to rebuke you then "restore you gently" as the Apostle Paul writes.

I do preach a gospel of love, but it's not this world view of love where everything is accepted and tolerated. Tolerance means I disagree with it but will put up with it not that I accept and agree that it may be correct. I preach a LOVE of righteousness and God's commandments, therefore I MUST HATE unrighteousness which is anything contrary to the Word of God. Starting first by attacking it within my own life and then working outward.

If I love I must hate. I love my wife so I have to hate unfaithfulness. I love working so I must hate being unemployed. Every love has a hate. If you hate good though then you must love evil. If you hate Christianity than you have to love the opposition to it. Think about....or should I say judge it to see if I'm right or wrong.

No comments: