Judging, Is There A Conflict Here Between Jesus And Paul?
Jesus says: Matthew 7:1
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
Paul Says: 1 Corinthians 6:2,3
“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?”
Christians are often told that according to their faith they should not judge others, that Jesus told us not to judge. But is that true? In Romans 2:1 Paul is basically agreeing with our Lord when he says: Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemneth thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
I think that people should perhaps study their bibles more as to the context.
Our Lord, talking about personal relations goes on to say: For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete [or standard you use], it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:2.
It is not the fact of judging that the Lord is criticizing but by what standard we use for our judgments. That standard should be the WORD of God, the Holy Scriptures. This is the benchmark, the rule by which we should assess everything as to whether a person is right or wrong, in God’s eyes not our own for only God knows the hearts of man.
Jesus finished off by saying: And why beholdest thou the mote [or fault] that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam [the greater fault] that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5.
We all have our faults and errors and none of us are in a position to judge others by our own standards or attitudes. The only safe way is to see ‘What sayeth the Lord’ and do what the citizens of Berea did after Paul and Silas’ teaching of them: … they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11.
All we can do is in Christian love inform the wrong sayer or doer of God’s Words and leave them to God’s judgment if they will not heed the warning.
Paul is also talking about the difference between judging among the assemblies of believers as opposed to going beyond to non-believers’ courts of justice etc., for something that was actually to do with the Faith.
The Corinthians had allowed sexual immorality to take place within their church community. Paul was telling them not to just put up with this evil but to cast out the wrong doer and leave him to God’s final judgment.
Jesus Himself says regarding fellow believers: Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him about his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Matthew 18:15–17.
In other words, cast him out of the assembly until if or when he repents.
Jesus used the word ‘hypocrite’ quite often, usually towards the Jewish leaders, but we are all sinners at sometime or other and none of us is in a position to accuse others except by God’s Word, making sure our conscience is clear at the same time and that we are not hypocrites.
So, the argument is then, not that we should not make judgments at all or tell a fellow Christian his fault, but that all judging should be done according to God’s LAW WORD, not our own feelings or attitudes as they can mislead us sometimes and maybe somewhere along the line, we too have committed this fault whatever it may be. Have we repented and asked the Lord to forgive us our sins as we are supposed to forgive others?
The whole purpose is to open the inerrant person’s eyes and bring them to repentance and forgiveness by the Lord Jesus Christ, for as He said: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:32.
The time will come one day when God’s elect will indeed judge the non-believers and even the angels as St. Paul has said, but for now we are to deal with the problems within our churches having wise Elders to do the judging, but which sadly there are very few of today!
The bottom line is that no, there is no conflict between our Lord Jesus Christ and St. Paul.
Judgment of people outside the church will be done by the Lord Jesus when He returns, but that does not mean we should not proclaim the good news of the Gospel and warn the people of what is to come, giving them the opportunity while there is yet time, to repent and believe on the Only Begotten Son of God and be saved to Everlasting Life.
