Judge or Not to Judge or When to Judge

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.  In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:3-5 NASB)

So, in the previous chapter (1 Corinthians 4:3-5) Paul doesn't even 'judge' himself and tells the church not to pass judgement before Jesus comes again.  Yet here he is having already passed judgement on this one.  Are we missing something here?  I suspect we are missing something huge.

In my opinion, humans pass judgement very indiscriminately typically based on personal (as in self-centered) foundations for judging.  We do it daily, mostly to make decisions, but also with regard to value assessments of other humans.  We also can be, and often are, intentionally malicious in such activities.  Since we can't truly know someone else very well, or thoroughly enough to assess value, we are typically poor judges.

But there are times when this ability to judge between two things comes in handy and is in fact a responsibility.  The problem comes down to knowing when and among what we are supposed to judge.  So here is my basic, overly simplistic, rudimentary, rule-of-thumb to figure it out:

1. Use Scripture to judge behavior (what 1 Corinthians 5 is about)
2. Don't judge 'character' or personal value/worth (what 1 Corinthians 4 is about)

 This is really easy to say, but not so easy to accomplish when the two things blur.  For instance, is the guy referred to in 1 Corinthians 5 of good character?  Well, probably not, and you wouldn't want him running the youth program at church.  But what is addressed is the behavior, not the value or character.

Here's why I believe this simple assessment matches Scripture.  I believe the purpose behind Scripture is redemptive.  When a person's character is judged, there's not much room for redemption.  But someone can come back from behavior flaws, and their character can be redeemed. 

The way I define it, 'to judge' means to render a final assessment/decision.  So, when a person's character is judged, it has been stated what this person is at their core.  No one can really do that very well, even though some may be able to guess better than others, no one truly knows enough.  Behavior is much more clear.

So, to sum up, I can judge behavior but probably not motive.  Therefore, I judge behavior, and leave the judgement of motive to my Master. 

The way this works is that when I witness behavior in myself or in another that clearly violates my Master's mandates in Scripture, I address it with that person (or myself - I confess it to my Master).  If that doesn't work (if I persist in the sin), then I bring someone else in on it (for myself, I confess it to another).  If that fails (and it better NOT fail me) I bring such a thing to the church.  If the sin persists beyond such a public revelation, then offending person is treated as outside the fellowship of the church.  So, no need to buy a gavel just yet.

As an aside, this is one of the main reasons I encourage followers of Jesus to study the Hebrew Law.  The other reasons are are found in the next chapter.  So, I have another blog for which I seem to have no time called "Scriptural Laws for Christians".  In it I examine the practical application of Hebrew legal texts to modern Christian life.  I haven't made a new entry since March, 2012, and there's only 7 entries total.  Sorry to advertise something so limited, but the concept it presents would be helpful here.