JDL - Direction Forty - Judge not and you will not be judged

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37 (ESV))

Perhaps you have said or have heard someone say, “You’re not supposed to judge other people.” That statement of observation usually comes after someone has had a sin pointed out to them. And certainly, Jesus does tell us that we are not to judge. The difficulty is that we misunderstand the difference between recognizing sin and judging sin. We are not to and we cannot judge another person. We cannot say about someone or to someone, “You are going to hell.” That is not our privilege or responsibility. As a church, however, we can excommunicate someone, which in essence is telling someone they are locked out of heaven, but this comes after a long process of working with them so that they might see their sin and repent.

Our Lord gives us the ability as well as the criteria to distinguish and recognize sin. Even the Apostle Paul tells us, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7 (ESV)). So we see the importance of the Law. The Law shows us what is sin and what is not sin. The Law shows us our sins so that we might repent of our sins so that we might be given forgiveness and finally, so that we might have life, even eternal life and salvation. Because apart from forgiveness, there is only eternal death.

Thus, our Lord gives us the ability to recognize sin. As we recognize sin, we are to call each other to attention of our sin, not in a way of lording it over others, but out of love and care and concern from each other. We are to call each other to recognize sin so that we might repent of such sins and so that we might have forgiveness.

Our Lord is not tolerant of sin. He reminds us that the wage, that is the price that sin earns, is eternal spiritual death (Romans 6:23). And when we talk about eternal spiritual death, we do not mean to be dead forever. Eternal spiritual death is a spiritual death; it is a total absence of God’s love forever. Eternal spiritual death is forever agonizing over your desires, especially your desire for forgiveness, and never having them fulfilled. Sin, any sin, any seemingly big sin such things as murder and robbery at gun point or any seemingly small sin, such as little “white” lies are all equal in God’s eyes. All sin is equally damnable in God’s eyes. Thus, it is imperative that we recognize our sin, that our friend point out our sin or that we point out the sin of our friend so that the sin might be confessed and forgiven.

A Jesus-directed life is a life of constant confession and absolution and a life of constant care and concern for others.

Think About
Would it be considered judging another person to point out that drug abuse is wrong? Perhaps we need to rethink what we consider mean and what we consider love and care?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for telling us what sin is so that others may call us to repentance and so that we may call others to repentance. Forgive us when we sin. Help us to confess and thank You for Your gracious forgiveness for Jesus’ sake. Amen.