Don’t Judge Me?

I am sure you have heard the statement, “Don’t judge me.” Perhaps you have heard it this way, “It is not right to judge.” In the Book of John 7:24 you find these words spoken by Christ Himself, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” Christ is telling us here to not judge by what we see, but to judge righteously. Did you get that? He is telling us to judge. You see; men usually judge by what they see and too often they judge selfishly and carelessly, instead of judging the way Almighty God judges. Example number two that I would like to share with you is in I Corinthians chapter 5. A man in the church at Corinth is committing fornication with his father’s wife. Most likely it is his stepmother. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul says in verse 3 that he has already judged the matter. Did you notice; Paul is judging? If it is wrong to judge, then why is the Holy Spirit defending the man of God’s actions of judging? It is true, that we are to be very careful how we judge, because we will be judged in that very same manner, as it is written in Matthew 5:1-2; however, it is not wrong to judge righteous judgment. Quite frankly, there are times when people should judge. There are professing Christians, who are committing fornication and other evil deeds; and yet, we are to remain silent? Come on now; The Almighty wants us to be very careful how we judge matters, but He does want us to judge matters. If no one ever judges, then sin will rule the day among us. Some matters are not important enough to warrant our attention and we should not make a big deal of them; while at the same time, there are other things so blatantly evil, that we should call them out in a good way. We are not to do this in pride or self-righteously, but we should do it carefully and wisely. We should lift the Holy Bible standard high so that men will know right from wrong and so people cannot feel comfortable in their sins. May Almighty God bless you as you salt the world around you.