Bayside Church

Answering the questions on judging

Judging…this is a delicate issue in the Church. Should we judge or shouldn’t we? What are the conditions and circumstances of judging people and what is the purpose and motivation of judging others? These are all important questions for us to answer as Christians and in order to be people that mature in our faith and stay on track we need to hold a balanced perspective on this issue.

The general view amongst a lot of Christians is that we should never judge people and if we do then we run the risk of being self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental and rude. This is all possible, but what does the Bible have to say?

Staying in the saddle..

Martin Luther once said “The world is like a drunken peasant.  If you lift him into the saddle on one side, he will fall off again on the other side.”  He went on to say: “Satan doesn’t care which side of the horse we fall off, as long as we don’t stay in the saddle.” How true this statement is. So often over the years the church in general has spent time a lot of time out of the saddle, holding to one extreme view or the other.

Fear not.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” These are the words of 1 John 4:18 that define the effect of the real love of heaven on our lives! Fear can be such a damaging emotion in our lives. We can all think of times in our lives when we have been fearful or met someone that is full of fear. It can absolutely cripple us if we allow it.

People have all sorts of fears. Fear of Spiders, death, enclosed spaces, public speaking, opinions, clowns, people, dogs, judgment, change and the list goes on and on.  What are you fearful of? If we are constantly fearful does it mean that we don’t fully understand perfect love? This passage tells us that this is the case. So the question that springs to mind is: What is perfect love?

Words + Actions = Love

“Let us not love with words or tongue but in action and truth”. These are the words of 1 John 3:18 and they are incredibly challenging words for Christians. Of course this passage is not downplaying the power of our words so what exactly does this verse mean?

The tongue, or more importantly, the words we use have the ability to build or destroy, encourage or discourage, love or hate. With that in mind I think it is fair to assert that God expects us to use our speech in ways that are constructive and loving. We have all experienced at various times in our lives the gravity of a kind or encouraging word at just the right time, and on the flipside the discouragement of a nasty word. This passage in 1 John is not discouraging the use of our words to express our love; it is however reminding us that words are simply not enough on their own, and to really love people our words must be accompanied with action.