I saw a status on Facebook that has had me meditating about it ever since.
It said, “Don’t judge me just because I sin differently from you.”
There is something wrong about it and it’s taken me a few days to put it together.
There is nothing wrong with judging another person!
It is written it isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” 1 Cor 5:12-13
We must hold one another accountable in the Body of Christ and that cannot be done unless we judge one another. For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. 1 Peter 4:17
We must be able to help each other overcome sin and for some it’s someone else helping them realize that they are sinning.
Now a better status may have been “Don’t condemn me just because I sin differently from you.”
Judgment and condemnation are two different things.
You can tell someone their actions are sinful without condemning them about it.
A great example of this is a story from John 8.
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.
“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
First, is adultery a sin? The Bible says it is.
Was the woman sinning when she was caught in the very act of adultery? Yes!
How did we arrive at this conclusion? We judge her according to the word of God.
Did teachers of religious law and Pharisees judge the woman? Yes!
Did they condemn the woman? Yes! They were ready to stone her to death.
Did Jesus judge the woman? Yes! He told her to go and sin no more, which indicates that she had sinned – that’s judgment.
Did Jesus condemn the woman? No. He said, “Neither do I condemn you!”
It’s not judgment that is hard to swallow, it is condemnation.
I wrote about this subject 2 years ago so I will reiterate it again next time as we look at this subject a bit more.