Judgment Between Men

(It’s Sarah here.  I just want to apologize for this post being several weeks late.  Mark had it written and ready for me to post a while back, but I just haven’t had the time to get around to it these past few weeks.  Again, my apologies!)

We understand that true justice, and judgment, comes from God.  We are not given authority to judge between saved and unsaved; to give ultimate judgment of a man’s soul.  However, Man is still able to make judgments on people – commanded to, in fact.  In this he is not commanded to judge between eternal condemnation or redemption, but for smaller matters.

Who gave you the right?

Who has the authority to judge someone else?  This is a very important question.  In the court of law, there is the plantiff and the defendant.  Each of them believes themself to be correct and the other person to be at fault, but neither has the authority to actually make a ruling.  Nor do their lawyers, when it comes down to it.  It is the judge alone who has the authority to make a ruling on the court case.  But even then, the judge only has that authority because it has been given to him by the government and by the law.  It is the power of the government and the law that pronounces judgment, wielded by the judge.

We need to look at Christian judgment in the exact same way.  The question is not “Who should I judge” or “When should I judge,” but rather “Do I even have the authority to judge in this matter?”  Christians do not automatically have the authority to judge because we’re such great and holy people.  We can be just as broken and sinful and limited as the world.  Only God has the authority to judge.

Agápe

Love can mean many things to many people.  We tell each other love stories in movies and books, in which two protagonists fall in love with each other by the end.  ‘Love’ is used to describe feelings as shallow as “I love this song!” to a commitment as deep as a parent’s unwavering love for their child.  We even acknowledge it as a strong, yet platonic bond – two buddies clasping arms and saying “I love you, man.”

Why is this important?  The Bible has a lot to say about love, especially when describing the heart and mind of believers.  Biblical interpretation can be a tricky thing – and additional care should always be taken when examining critical passages.

Faith

I hope you will forgive me for taking a step backward for a few weeks.  In order to fully address what makes a person a disciple, it is necessary to first examine what makes one saved in the first place.  This is a question that, on the surface, looks fairly straightforward.  However, given the wide range of responses to this question, it’s critical we set a foundation to work upon.