Formal Judging Encouraged

So having given consideration to the passages that tell us not to judge one another, let us turn to passages that tell us to judge. The thing that surprised me as I began to investigate this side of the issue is that there are very few verses that tell us to judge anything using the words “krino” or “katakrino”.

I Corinthians 5 tells us about the man in the church in Corinth who was living an immoral life with impunity as the church did nothing about it. Paul says that though he is absent, he has already judged this person. Then beginning in verse 11 he says, “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 12For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.””

One thing I find interesting here is that Paul says that he doesn’t even judge those outside and yet we tend not only to judge one another but also those outside. But back to our main issue here. It seems to me that judging is advocated in this case as a formal responsibility given to the church. The difference then between this kind of judging and that which is forbidden in the passages we’ve already studied is that as individuals we are not to take up the judging responsibility, but as churches we have that corporate responsibility.
In I Corinthians 6, Paul tells believers that they should not go to court against one another. He then tells us that if there is actually a dispute that needs to be resolved, shouldn’t believers be able to handle the case? In other words, it should be possible for the church to find believers who have the wisdom to judge in such a case. This is another case where the church officially takes the role of judging. In this situation there is to be a formal hearing to help resolve a dispute.