Judgemental or Discerning: Part 2

Are we to call out others for their sin?

Are we to hold unbelievers accountable for values they know nothing about?

Are we not called to judge?

These are the questions I left hanging and unaddressed yesterday...so today, in this blessed, sunny, gorgeous morning, I'd like to ponder a bit about them.

My initial, great insight is:  I'm confused...sigh...

I've always wondered about this issue of judging.  So, when people ask me, I pause (which, for me, is incredibly rare!  I never pause!  I always blurt out an enormous amount of babble when given the chance...this is one of the few topics I hesitate to offer my opinion too readily.) 

Anyway, the most commonly cited Scripture regarding judging might be Matthew 7: 1

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

When I read these words spoken by our Lord Jesus, I shudder.  Lord, have mercy on me!  I am so judgemental!  But, I don't want to be judged...especially not by Christ! I'm in big trouble...

Needless to say, I think of this verse and I get swallowed up by guilt, and darkness threatens to cover the sunshine in my soul.  Then, I remember that feelings of intense guilt are not necessarily always from God. I remember it's a semantics thing.  There are two words that have an important difference in meaning at place here:  guilt and conviction. The guilt that moves me away from the Lord and pushes me to hide behind the bushes like Adam and Eve is a tool of the enemy.  Conviction, on the other hand, is what exposes me to my sin, but it moves me to repentance, which, in turn, moves me closer to God, not away.

Like the Holman Bible Dictionary suggests, conviction of sin is the result of the Holy Spirit awakening humanity to a sense of the need to repent because of sin and unbelief.  But the end result of conviction is hope, not despair.  As seen in John 16: 7-11

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness,because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 

In this passage, Jesus is talking to His disciples about His imminent departure from the world, but how instead of grief, they should feel joy because of the advent of the Holy Spirit.  And notice how it is precisely the Holy Spirit, the One who will carry out the conviction.  That's the awakening to the reality of sin in the world.  The Holy Spirit will show the world that it has been wrong about its interpretation of sin!  Did you see that?  The Holy Spirit is the One who shows the world how wrong it has been because of the lack of belief in Jesus! WOW!

Then, the Holy Spirit will also show the world that it has been wrong in its judgement, because the one the world worships: the prince of this world, the devil...is actually already condemned, and there is the hope.  Yes, there is sin, but judgement has been passed and those found in Jesus are not condemned, but the ones following the prince of the world are.

Sobering, indeed...

Therefore, there is a difference between enemy-induced guilt and Holy Spirit-inspired conviction, and the key is that the first one leads to moving away from God and the second one leads to the Hope that is Jesus! 

On the same token, I believe there is a difference between the ideas of being judgemental and being discerning.  The way I understand it, it's a matter of perspective... I believe judgement belongs to God and discernment is for us.  

The concept of judgement is linked to God, and like Biblestudytools.com says, judgement denotes the process whereby a verdict is reached or the verdict itself.  This notion is bound up with the notions of justice and righteousness, which are of fundamental importance for biblical faith.  Discernment, on the other hand is the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong.  Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth.  In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically. (Christianity.com)

Judgement, therefore, belongs to God.  Discernment is what we, His children, are called to do.  Think about it, God doesn't need discernment.  He IS Truth!  And we can't judge, because we don't have the ability to condemn or absolve anybody.  That power belongs to God, and to Him alone.  Discernment, on the other hand, is not only required of the children of God, but we are supposed to pray for it and ask for it.  This is just a short sample Scriptures on the matter:

Give discernment to me, your servant; then I will understand your laws. Psalm 119:125 (NLT)

O Lord, listen to my cry; give me the discerning mind you promised. Psalm 119:169 (NLT)

…People without discernment are doomed. Hosea 4:14 (HCSB)

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2 (HCSB)

At any rate, going back to the questions at the beginning, I would say, yes, discernment involves a measure of judgement. After all, figuring out right from wrong involves judging, good judgement if you will. But the implication of judgement as perceived from the Word of God, the idea of reaching a verdict that defines and determines the destiny of a soul, does not fall under our job description as children of God. That judgement falls on God's shoulders...Praise Him for that!  That doesn't mean, however, that we excuse sin when we see it or when we do it.  We can't compromise our believes.  We can't say sin is OK.  So...what do we do?

I don't know...the word "balance" comes to mind.  I believe we are to seek a balanced attitude, where wisdom and discernment, with a large measure of compassion and love guide the way we approach situations of sin when others are involved and we don't know how to react without sounding judgemental.  I believe compassion will lead us to try to see the perspective from where the other is coming, not to agree with him/her on the normalization and rationalization of sin; but to understand the reason for their position.  The end goal here is not for them to convince us that sin is OK or for us to convince them that sin is not OK.  The end goal is to understand, out of love and compassion for their souls, why they do what they do.  Then, our testimony comes into place.  After all, "the accuser," the enemy, the prince of this world, is ultimately defeated:  

...by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony... Revelations 12: 11

 Out testimony is a powerful thing!  The enemy doesn't want us to use it because he knows it is a lethal weapon.  That's why he makes us shy away from giving it freely.  But if we get the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and just tell others about the truth that lives in us, who can refute it?  It is our personal story and nobody can argue with that.  The most they could say is:  "well, good for you, but that's not for me."  And that is OK.  At least we planted the seed.

We'll continue this conversation later.  For now, let's just pause, take some time and seek discernment so we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us on this topic.  We are the generation that has to deal with some of these issues in ways that no other one has had to...so I know the Holy Spirit is speaking to us.  It's just a matter of quieting our souls and our fears, so we can listen.  We are the ones called to live in such a time as this...so He will lead us.  There's no question about it!

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6: 8