To judge or not to judge........at your own peril. Are you Spiritual?

So many times in life we hear we should not judge another or anything and to tolerate is what is just. I suggest another perspective.

1 Corinthians 2:15 >>

The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment

We have rarely heard this statement uttered in common every day conversation. It has an almost arrogant tone to its words. We, as Christians living in a secular world are slow to offend and turn off others with words that appear self-righteous or perhaps condescending. However, if we truly walk in the Spirit and that is to say Spirit footprints outnumber Flesh footprints significantly and in such number that even others take note of our testimony. If this were the case, we would claim the above verse without hesitation and with a knowledge and understanding that God and his word will never lead us down a wrong path.

But he that is spiritual - The man who is enlightened by the Holy Spirit in contradistinction from him who is under the influence of the senses only.

Judgeth - Greek: "Discerns." (margin); the same word as in the previous verse. It means that the spiritual man has a discernment of these truths about which the sensual man was blind and ignorant.

All things - Not absolutely all things; or not that he is omniscient; but that he has a view of those things to which the apostle had reference - that is, to the things which are revealed to man by the Holy Spirit.

Yet he himself is judged - Greek, as in the margin, "is discerned;" that is, his feelings, principles, views, hopes, fears, joys, cannot be fully understood and appreciated by any natural or sensual man.  This is a matter of truth and universal observation. The reason is added in the following verse, that as the Christian is influenced by the Lord and as the natural man does not know him, so he cannot know him who is influenced by him; that is the Christian.

We know the other verse. It is popular among the secular and the passive Christian. By passive, I mean non-active in his or her own church activities. A person who professes to believe yet bears no fruit.

The verse reads like this-

Matt. 7:1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

This is the verse so many use to try to shame Christians for discerning poor behavior, ethics, morals, and values: the "judge not lest ye be judged".

This verse is not speaking to not judging at all -- it is speaking to not judging unfairly or any other cheap and selfish way. Read the rest of the story ...

Matt 7:2-5 "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged [if we judge with an evil heart or dark intent, His (Gods) judgment of us will reflect it; if we judge nobly with honesty and justice, His (Gods) judgment of us will reflect that, too, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you [if we use extremes or exaggerations or other fleshly means, our judgment will reflect it and judging with fairness and compassion will likewise be reflected in Gods judgment of us. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye [Meaning to point out minor sins, in Jesus' example here, and pay no attention to the plank (or large digression) in your own eye [our own sins, even and especially those we will not admit, are magnified by our selective blindness. How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' [Judge him of his "minor" sins] when all the time there is a plank in your own eye [In other words, sins that are greater or  sins in our own lives which we do nothing about or think we are above. Jesus then rebukes - You hypocrite* [pointing out the sins of others while by pretense thinking of ourselves as above sin], first take the plank out of your own eye [sincerely ask the Lord for forgiveness and learn and live the Truth and Light by His Word], and then you will see clearly [which means be in a righteous position] to remove the speck from your brother's eye [to judge and to help him out of his sin]." At Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan, Jesus was talking to the multitudes gathered there after hearing of His message and of His healings to beseech them to not become like the Pharisees and hypocrites who think they are above sin.

You see, people in Today’s time of societal tolerance of all things, no matter the relation it has to the Spirit or even the condition of a new and struggling Christian, have their own spin on the famous Romans verse.

They say………… (I use the word they to imply an adversarial relationship between the people who hunger for righteousness, truth, and a stronger faith and those who live on the moral “edge” where any criticism is seen as being intolerant and noninclusive in this land of “Diversity”. I said They say, “You have no right to judge me!” there is no one who can judge but God. It is not our place to put our own brand of morality on another person, place, or thing.”

I say it is our duty as responsible Christians to astutely Judge all things. I will even go so far as to say we should see certain stereotypes and use them as a tool for discernment. We should use prejudice at times as well.

A May 2009 Article in an AMA Journal stated this observation.

I think generalizing and prejudices are healthy.

I think it is essential to learning and growing… an integral part of human intellect… the ability to notice and extrapolate patterns in seemingly unpredictable and inconsistent chaos. Every scientific hypothesis is a presupposition, a prejudice, that gets proven or dis-proven in scientific experimentation… they are formed when we take many separate observations and induce a connection that may or may not exist; and we often utilize the irrational imagination to derive testable rationalizations and connections.

Without the ability to generalize, humanity would still be swinging from trees throwing fecal matter at one another… or, at the very least, we would not have invented fire yet, nor rocks or sticks. We would not have been able to observe one monkey using a stick and deduce that we could as well. We would not have been able to observe that one stick has a use and induce that others could as well.

Social stereotypes are no different than those of the physical sciences that have evolved technological understanding… psychologists and sociologists do it. The difference though is the fact that you and I don’t have Ph D’s in the subject matter. That fact alone is what turns us from being taken seriously as objective scientists to being taken as bigots.

This is where we should come to understand that all discernment and Judgments must be done while walking in the Spirit for them to be met with approval from God. If you question your motives then you most likely are wrong.

The following verses will be helpful in your understanding of this and of today’s lesson.

1Cor. 6:2-3 Do you not know that the saints [the saved; Christians] will judge the world? In addition, if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Prov. 3:21 My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight;
John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.  hate and disapproval is seen as grounds for dismissal from the offended group.
* Jesus' use of "hypocrite" in this verse is "hupokrites" {hoop-ok-ree-tace'} meaning an actor, stage player, a dissembler, pretender.