Judgement, correction, and forgiveness: Another way to address these points

While at work last night I was talking to a couple and the subject of “judgment” came up. Now, I`m not talking about judgement from the biblical standpoint, but rather, the world`s general statement about judgement which is exemplified perfectly in the above meme.Veering off the main topic for just a second, let`s just remember that Satan knows and uses scripture too.

So, there we were talking about judgement and, of course, they came from the world`s viewpoint as they attempted to quote scripture, “It says that you shouldn`t judge!” To which I answered, “Yes, Jesus did not give me the authority to judge, He tells me to love my neighbor.” We were unfortunately interrupted, and the conversation went in a different direction. In my reading this morning, I found an answer to this most typical of human conversations.

If we analyze this conversation, we see a one-dimensional aspect of judgement and one that Satan uses to allow Christians to stay in their sin and nonbelievers to throw scripture at Christians. This is such a well-known Scripture and argument; however, it`s an enormous fallacy.

In the first place, Christians should not judge nonbelievers for several reasons, but that does not mean that they cannot give a nonbeliever counsel or correction. We do not have the authority to “judge” another person`s soul—that belongs to Jesus alone. But we should love our neighbor enough to counsel them in love (with a huge emphasis on love).

As I was in my Bible study this morning, I was reading Matthew 18, and I was struck by a deeper dimension of God`s word on this topic. Jesus talks about the master who forgives one of his slaves that owes him tons of money—a lifetime of wages—and how this same slave confronts another man that owes him money but refuses to give the guy a break, and the guy only owed him a minuscule amount of money. The slave was just forgiven by the master, yet, he was unwilling to forgive someone that owed him. Now that is a far deeper example of judgement.

While I was reading this story, it hit me that we often use the wrong arguments when the world says to us, “It says not to judge!” The real argument, or the real counsel at that point, one that is oozing with the love of Jesus, is to tell the story about the master and the slave that he forgave that owed him so much.

If we tell this story, we are not only confronting the matter of judgement, but we are also, and more importantly, discussing the far greater principle of forgiveness.

If I have another opportunity to have this conversation it might go something like this:

Them: “Well you know that even the Bible says not to judge…” 

Me: “Yes, it does, but more than that, it tells me to forgive because I have been forgiven for so much myself.”

I might even tell the people I witness to the story about the master and the evil slave that he forgave that was unwilling to forgive others. This goes to a much deeper level of “don`t judge.” Rather than getting caught up in the semantics of judgement, we can go deeper to the subject of forgiveness which discards judgment altogether and shows the love in God`s kingdom.