Comments on: When Christians Should and Should Not Judge

By: ed

ed — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:29:03 +0000

Thanks Marie for your comment. I think I’m tracking with you except for your first sentence, so I’ll wait for your to clarify in case that changes anything before replying.

Evan, that’s the hard part in scripture. There is a lot of evaluating and judging going on, however the tone and motivation are loving and restorative. That is where we screw things up.

By: Marie

Marie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:24:18 +0000

Tired of being judged, it’s time to grow up! “We all make mistakes at one point in our lives,” However, it’s important to recognise that these mistakes are ones to teach us, empower us, and are not to be used against us as warheads of mass destruction!

I find that people who judge others, are usually the ones you need to avoid, afterall, we have enouph baggage in our lives, without; someone heaping brimstone upon our heads!

It hurts, to be ridiculed and judged, and is universally taboo!

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:09:25 +0000

It is good to think about times when judgment is necessary. The prophets also did plenty of judging, but it seems that every time they would judge Israel they would end with God’s restoration. So, I think that fits with category 3.

By: Andy Rowell

Andy Rowell — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:49:35 +0000

Just saw today at well Bill Mounce’s comments about ugly “judging” on blogs:

Does Eph 4:29 apply to blogs?
http://www.koinoniablog.net/2009/02/eph-429-and-blogs.html

By: ed

ed — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:26:19 +0000

Thanks! Both comments touch on important points I’ve been working on developing, so it’s nice to see them expressed so succinctly. I appreciate your thoughts on this!

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:43:04 +0000

Thank you for acknowledging that this is a complex issue–it’s not as simple as we should never judge or always be free to judge.
Also, it seems that often, judgment for discernment purposes is done in the context of community.

By: Andy Rowell

Andy Rowell — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:06:25 +0000

I think you are on the right track.

A couple quotes from Augustine I read last week where he comments on Jesus’ words about not judging in the Sermon on the Mount.

“Let us judge, therefore, with respect to those [sins] which are manifest [i.e. obvious, blatant]; but respecting those which are concealed, let us leave the judgment to God.”

Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount Book II, ch. 18, 60. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/16012.htm

“Rarely, therefore, and in a case of great necessity, are rebukes to be administered; yet in such a way that even in these very rebukes we may make it our earnest endeavour, not that we, but that God, should be served.”

Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount Book II, ch. 19, 66. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/16012.htm