Judgement and Justice, Part 2

The Church - To Judge or not to Judge?

You Bible-bashing, hypocritical do-gooders! You think you’re better than me, with your child-abusing priests, your Crusades, your expensive churches! What gives you the right?

Is Israel as a pattern for the Church? Israel punished the wicked sword in hand, so should the Church? We must look to the New Testament. Again, let’s look at this externally and internally.

Externally. Are we to punish unbelievers? What did the Lord Jesus say? Our Luke 6 reading shows we’re not to judge, but to forgive. Love your enemies, do them good. This makes you like God, who is good to the ungrateful and wicked. Jesus refers to injustices done to us, not injustices done to others. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28). This is hard! The instinct to retaliate is so natural! We cry, “it’s not fair!” and it isn’t! It’s really not fair, but Jesus says do it. He put His money where His mouth was. Isaiah 53:7-9: “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. He was placed in a grave with those who are evil, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”

Does Jesus mean we’re never ever ever to judge? Jesus often judged the Pharisees. Their hearts and actions. As the sinless one, He had the right. As God, He knew their hearts. We can judge actions. We know the difference between right and wrong. God doesn’t want us to treat good and bad deeds as equal, but as far as our “enemies” go, we’re to show a better way, seeking to save rather than condemn.

Our knowledge of right and wrong comes not from common sense, or the trends of society, or what we feel, but the word of God, which “is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword… It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). We only condemn what God condemns.

Internally. When outsiders wrong us, Jesus says accept injustice, don’t take revenge. Let God do that. What about when fellow Christians wrong us? Matthew 18:15-17 is instructive. Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. But if he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses,’ as the scripture says. And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.” This is a stunning teaching. The motive isn’t revenge, demanding forgiveness or seeking recompense. It’s not to condemn, but lead to repentance. Whether the offender wants to repent is another matter! In 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses this issue using real life cases. He is livid about it!

1 Corinthians 6:1-6

“If any of you have a dispute with another Christian, how dare you go before heathen judges instead of letting God's people settle the matter? Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? Well, then, if you are to judge the world, aren't you capable of judging small matters? Do you not know that we shall judge the angels? How much more, then, the things of this life! If such matters come up, are you going to take them to be settled by people who have no standing in the church? Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians. Instead, one Christian goes to court against another and lets unbelievers judge the case!” As Jesus says to accept injustice from unbelievers, Paul goes on to suggest it’s better to let yourself be wronged by a fellow believer than go to court. I want to stress that we should certainly not allow this teaching to become an excuse to cover up abuse. Paul is referring to “small matters”.

Paul states the church will judge the world and the angels. Fascinating! Especially as, just before this, he wrote it’s none of his business to judge unbelievers! Is Paul contradicting himself in his anger? Here’s a possibility. Now, he had no interest in judging the world but saving it. But in the future, that will change. The church will execute judgement. I’ll come back to that.