Do not judge so that you will not be judged

Originally posted by jaywill
Take it and pray about it. God will bless you because of your humility.

I think you are entirely correct.

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
I think you are entirely correct.

Nemesio

Splendid. We agree on something.

Originally posted by knightmeister
The point is that God knows exactly why a person does what they do and whether they have an excuse or not. Because he knows you intimately he knows exactly what you are capable of and not capable of. He can therefore judge you fairly based on that knowledge . I cannot judge you because I simply don't know you well enough.

I question whether there is an absolutely correct judgment even when all circumstances are known. But then I also question punishment based solely on some arbitrary book of rules rather than for a specific purpose.

But are we talking about judgment as in deciding a punishment for a sin or judgment as in deciding whether or not a sin has been committed? Which was Jesus referring to?

Originally posted by twhitehead
I question whether there is an absolutely correct judgment even when all circumstances are known. But then I also question punishment based solely on some arbitrary book of rules rather than for a specific purpose.

But are we talking about judgment as in deciding a punishment for a sin or judgment as in deciding whether or not a sin has been committed? Which was Jesus referring to?

Judgement as in punishment.

Originally posted by jaywill
Nemesio,

On one hand as a Christian it is not easy to rebuke someone. Like a doctor who operates has to be clean, so to exhort of rebuke someone you should be clean in your thought, clean in your motive, clean in your intention. You do not want germs to enter into the patient.

On the other hand, if you are the one being rebuked, don't decide w ...[text shortened]... y is not perfect.

Take it and pray about it. God will bless you because of your humility.

What if they are exhorting your pride and arrogance?

The debate of the propriety of judgment ought to be suspended until it is clear what actions are being judged and by what code.
Perhaps these three codes could be discussed.

1) Moral code
2) Legal code
3) Religious/Cultic code

The code must be commonly agreed upon before one can judge another by its standards.

Therefore, from a Biblical/Christian perspective, a believer could never judge an unbeliever for not acting like a believer. They are not bound by the same Religious/Cultic or often Moral code. However, a believer may judge the acts of a fellow believer and enter into discipline and "burden-bearing" with the guilty party. If all of the Christian life is of grace, then the two may join together to fight and mortify whichever sin the offending party may be guilty of realizing that before God and apart from Christ, they both stand condemned.