I hear a lot of people today quote Jesus from Matthew 7:1; "Judge not that you be not judged." Most of these people are not of the Christian faith and their point is that Christians are way too judgmental. As someone who has been a Christian for many years I agree to a great extent. We are too judgmental and it is a huge problem.
But having admitted that, we must understand that Jesus is not prohibiting all judgments by His followers. He qualifies it by saying that before we make a judgment we must remove the 'log' in our own eye. In other words, we need to be sure of the righeousness of our motives and the correctness of our perspective before we make judgments about others.
You may ask, 'How do I know that it is okay with Jesus to judge others?' In Matthew 7:6, in the immediate context, Jesus tells his followers not to 'throw pearls before swine'. This requires us to make a judgment about people. People do not usually walk around with shirts that say, "I am a swine". We have to talk to them, observe them, and listen to them in order to make this judgment. Having carefully done that, Jesus commands His followers to make a judgment in this case, and I believe from His other teachings, in many other situations as well.
So who are the 'swine'? These are people who truly have no interest in or regard for spiritual truth. They just want to argue, put others down and trash anything that is morally pure or related to God. When we throw 'pearls' of spiritual truth out to them, they just tear them up and 'trample' them. Jesus commands us not to throw out spiritual truth before those who are definitely opposed to it.
This creates a problem for bloggers. They cannot control who reads their blogs, myself included. I am starting this blog after much time and prayer to throw out what I believe is spiritual truth from years of study and meditation on God's Word, the Bible. My goal is for people who are interested in spiritual truth to interact with it. I hope it will encourage them to think critically about what is truth and how it relates to their lives.
But, I know there will be people who will read this blog and disagree with me and what I am saying. That's okay as long the person is interacting with Holy Scripture and is ultimately pursuing truth. But some will come to this blog seeking to assault the truth or me. When this happens, I will not respond to personal attacks nor will I continue to engage in a dialogue with those I perceive are not really interested in the truth of Scripture. This is how I propose to follow Christ's command in Matthew 7:6.
What do you think? Is it possible for us to make righteous judgments about people? Is blogging inherently and unavoidably throwing pearls before swine? I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Great post, Pastor Kirk. My desire is to be more like a pearl-thrower and less like swine. I believe that the parable of the sower demonstrates that sharing the gospel with unbelievers should not be conditional on how we believe the unbeliever will respond. However, believers should not be reckless in sharing the gospel. In the same way that a person should not buy a drunk a drink, a believer should not "throw pearls before swine." God bless you!
ReplyDeleteWhat would you say the difference between a BLOG and preaching, or publishing a book is? My initial feel is that the same principles would apply to each, and if publishing or preaching is permissible, then Blogging would be as well.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I can remove preaching from that, since it is commanded, and publishing/blogging is not. Nonetheless, in all three formats, you have limited control over your audience.
In regards to judging, I was one of those quoters. My current perspective is that it is not me that is right, it is God's Word. We have a responsibility to present the Word and allow it to judge, therefore not personalizing the concept of "You are wrong, I am right." And greater than our responsibility to present truth is the responsibility to apply that truth to our lives.
I always loved Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra practiced the Law (assumably applying it to himself and removing the plank) before teaching it. And I wouldn't exactly consider everyone in Israel good soil or non-swine like.
I admire how you take everything before the Lord, even starting a blog!
ReplyDeleteIMO, blogs are another way the sheep are fed today. Feed the sheep!
A comment on the judge or not to judge brings to mind in ephesians we identify christians by the fruits of the spirit. In matthew chapter 24 Christ speaks of betrayal in the end times. We must be able to identify those who have the spirit and I believe Paul wrote ephesians for partly this reason, this sometimes can be misconstrued and judgemental if not used in the proper context.
ReplyDeleteRoy and I are reading a book together, "Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe" by Larry Osborne, a pastor in Vista, CA. His church is North Coast Church. We got this in Nebraska when we were there during June. (My nephew and his wife are attending this Bible teaching church which is such an answer to prayer and another whole story.) Anyway, he has a chapter in this book called Christians shouldn't judge.
ReplyDeleteLarry Osborne says: from Matt. 7, The idea that Jesus forbade his followers to judge is a myth. Refusing to call sin, sin is not what Jesus calls to do. Jesus said, Do not judge, followed by a clarification of what type of judgements to make, when to make them and how to make them. He says so many things, but we are to judge with grace. Gail Thomas