Who's To Judge?

Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5 NASB)

One area of confusion within church and living out faith in Jesus is the idea of judging other believers.  In my opinion from my observations, here's what I think is going on:

• Christians state to each other and to non-believers that we are not to judge each other at all.
• In general practice, believers compare themselves to others in matters of faith, practice, belief, intelligence, and acceptability before God.
• In general practice, believers only reveal their judgements to people they believe will agree with their 'judgment' or in anger with anyone.

This is a huge generalization, and my observations are limited to my own church experiences in the few churches with which I've been a part.  I have myself been guilty of these statements and behaviors, and I have witnessed people from old, young, ministers, professional clergy, the educated and uneducated alike behaving in this way.

Part of the problem is that there are contrary Scriptures which claim that we will know each other by our 'fruit', i.e. our Christ-like behavior.  In fact, in the very next chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul states that he has, with the believers there in Corinth, already passed judgement on one of their own.  Other passages state that believes are to be wary of 'false teachers' and so on.  How can we do that if we don't judge others?  If we do these things, aren't we violating the clear admonitions above?

One of the problems involved with this issue is the language barrier between English and Greek.  Unfortunately this is exacerbated by cultural differences between modern American culture and first century Roman/Greek/Jewish culture.  But there is also the problem that Paul actually does mix his terminology with these statements, where in both prohibition and promotion he will use 'legal' terms for 'judgement'.

The answer to reconciling these separate concepts is to examine the context; literary and historical/cultural.  So, here's my interpretation, and probably a gross oversimplification of Paul's intent here:

• In chapter 4, Paul has church members and their 'assessment' of him in view.
• In chapter 5, Paul has church members and their 'acceptance' of sin in view.

The problems start when we find the terminology is pretty much the same.  I labeled what they do to him as 'assessment' but he uses the term 'judgment' as in the legal term as well.  I used the term 'acceptance' but he again uses 'judgment' there.  So, since the difference isn't the terminology, it must be found in the objects.

The 'assessment' of Paul in chapter 4 has to do with his 'fitness' to teach, how 'wise' he is, how well he led, and so on.  It wasn't dealing with a sin or some unscriptural teaching on his part.  The 'acceptance' of the church member in chapter 5 has to do with a clear violation of Scriptural teaching.

I'm going to revisit this again with chapter 5 and 6 later, but I wanted to first put forth the problematic seeming contradiction first.  Partly because it causes confusion, and mostly because I believe 'we're doing it wrong' when it comes to 'judgmentalism'.  I was the target of a religious groups judgmental attitude, and it had nothing to do with sin.  I'm no longer a vocational minister, and would no longer consider such a position because of their treatment.  So I have an emotional stake in this, I freely admit that.  Perhaps I still have some resentment that I need to surrender to my Master, even after all these years (it's only been 15 after all).

But I also believe the church does need to address sin within the body.  This usually falls on the pastor to preach at or address.  But while that may be necessary, it also falls to the responsibility of the believers at large to confront and address sin found among them.  This is dangerous ground because the point to the exercise, as Jesus describes it in Matthew 18, is the restoration of the 'offender', not their 'destruction'.  Like I said, we're not doing it right.  And we don't do it well.  But I also believe we can both do it, and do it well.  We just need to think through what we're doing and why.  So, who's to judge? I believe we are...sometimes.