Based on the study we’ve been having, here is my summary and conclusion. Don’t take my word for it. Go back and study the passages yourself. Maybe you’ll agree with me and maybe you won’t but at least you will have thought it through carefully.
1. Judging is more than issuing a verdict or condemning. It is sitting on the bench monitoring someone else’s life – scrutinizing and evaluating it.
2. Judging usually involves attributing motives. (In actuality we seldom really know motives.)
3.Judging does not take the growth process into consideration.
4. Judging often sets up personal standards as though they were God’s.
5. Judging even improperly evaluates what God’s standards are or what they mean.
6. Judging sets ourself up above the law. (See James 4)
7. Having strict personal standards is not judging.
8. Desiring holiness in my personal life is not judging.
9.Calling others to a life of holiness through teaching and preaching is not judging.
10. Having an opinion is not the same thing as judging.
11. Confronting a brother over sin or even disagreeing with them on an issue is not judging.
12. Judging usually involves a lack of forgiveness, a lack of mercy and a lack of pity.
13. Biblical judging usually focuses on discernment of the deed rather than judging the person.
Our effort to be obedient to Scripture in avoiding judging should not keep us from being involved in the lives of others. We are one body in Christ and we have a responsibility to one another to help, encourage and strengthen one another.
The personal mission which God has given to my wife and me is to glorify God in His Church by ministering to others for their progress and joy in the faith. We will focus on ministry which teaches others so that they may teach others also. This blog provides one forum for helping to accomplish that mission.
