“O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee
shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.” (Jer
17:13)
One
of the stories told by the beloved pastor of Texas, the late Dr. George W.
Truett, was about a young lady who was brought before the church for discipline
because of a violation of the church covenant. It was suggested that she be
dropped from the rolls of the church.
As the debate developed, Rev. Dr. Truett said, “Let us call the church
treasurer and have him read the record of giving of every member of the church,
and then let us vote to drop every member who has violated God’s Law against
covetousness.” That bombshell cleared the air of accusers, as did the reminder
of Jesus: “He that is without sin among you,
let him cast the first stone at her.” (John
8:7)
God does not tell us, with certainty, what it was that Jesus wrote twice upon
the earth, but He does give us some evidence in the words of the prophet,
Jeremiah above. Whatever it was, it must have been sin, and the sin must have
been associated with the names of every accuser present. The principle of
judging does not preclude righteous judgment which the Lord commands of us, but
it does preclude judging out of a sinful heart. “Judge
not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” (John
7:24)
This seems to be a particularly
hard lesson to teach concerning the explicit words of Christ. It seems that
everyone prefers the ‘easy out. “Judge not
that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) This makes things so very
uncomplicated doesn’t it? No courage is required because no judgment is
necessary. That is the philosophy of the world, my friends. Read the rest of
what Christ says on the subject: “For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy
brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how
wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and,
behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam
out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out
of thy brother's eye.” (Matt 7:2-5)
The underlined words of Jesus inform us of the means of
judgment. The beam in our eye is the greater sin than that with which we have
attempted to judge another. So does that reject the righteous judgment
which Christ has commanded? Not at all – it reinforces it! Remove the beam
(egregious sin) from your own by living the righteous life expected of a
Christian, then you may judge with the righteous judgment of God’s Word all
sins. One danger which we must avoid in judging: To judge is not the same as to
condemn. Condemnation is for God alone. We are not only to edify one another in
the church body, but we are to admonish and exhort as well to righteousness. We
do not accomplish this by going behind another’s back with a gossiping tongue,
but face to face in love and sincerity.
