Who Do We Judge?

Who are we to judge?  Those inside the church or those outside?  Are we to judge anyone?

Yes.

Paul says, "I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?" (1 Cor. 5:10-12)

Hence we are to hold our fellow believers accountable and judge their actions, but we are never to judge those outside the church. 

It is loving to confront our brother or sister in Christ's sin.   It is tough love.  And it is needed more in the church today.   

Why does Paul say this? He says, "Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?" (1 Cor. 5:6)

Meaning one instance of sin could corrupt the whole church.

The context is that in the church in Corinth there was a man sleeping with his father's wife, so his step-mom, and the church did nothing about it. Paul is telling them to take action; expel him, excommunicate him. They should not be tolerating such sin to take place. The longer they allowed it, the more others would have thought that immoral behavior was ok and acceptable.

I can imagine the early church got confused about the concept of grace. They may have thought that everything was ok because they were now under grace. "Well God will love me no matter what right so it doesn't matter how I live." But no, Jesus said, "IF you love me you will keep my commandments." And James said, "Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do."

Just because we are under grace does not mean we can live however we want. Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." We are not saved but what we do, but if we are saved, we will do and not do certain things, through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us.

We cannot judge those outside the church because they do not know better in a sense. They are slaves to sin. They almost cannot help themselves. Think of them as having a disease and sin is merely the symptoms of the disease. You cannot cure the sins until you cure the disease, and that is by having their heart turn from stone to flesh and having their mind regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

But if someone says they are a believer than they need to act like it. And if they are not, we are not supposed to even eat with such people.

Why does Paul say we are not to eat with them? 

Eating in the Judea-Christian culture was a way to identify with and become a part of one another, because now each of you had the same food inside of you. It was/is a bonding experience. This is why it bothered the Pharisees so much that Jesus ate with "tax collectors and sinner." Back then, you only ate with people like yourself.

"...Anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people." 

So what fits into these categories?

Sexual molestation of children obviously does. Sexual immorality covers a lot of things. Viewing pornography would fit into that category. Pre-marital sex. Affairs.

There are Christians who occasionally mess up. I do not think that is what Paul is referring to here.   He is saying if this is their lifestyle, if it is a habit for them, then you are not to associate with them.   If they are always sexually immoral etc. then you need to expel them....until they repent and turn from their habitual sin.

What qualifies as someone who is greedy?   A lot of people could fit into that category, but mainly if someone loves money more than God.   That is also living in sin, to worship money over God.

An example of an idolater would be someone who worships their car and is in love with their car more than they are in love with God. 

We can also idolize people.   If a "Christian" habitually idolizes things or people over God, we are not to associate with them.

A slanderer would be someone who is always gossiping about other people and knocking their character.  We are not to associate with a "Christian" who does that. 

A drunkard would be someone who continuously gets drunk, even though they know it is wrong and that the Bible clearly says that we are not to. "Do not get drunk with wine." That is pretty black and white.  Christians may slip up and get drunk at times, but again, if this is a habitual action for the person, then we are not to associate with them. 

A swindler is someone who steals or cheats people out of money. This is not very common today.

The problem that people in the church often make is doing the opposite; we judge the world and NOT those in the church. It's like we want to protect our own but point the finger at all the poor lost souls out there, the ones that Jesus felt the most compassion for.

Who did Jesus have a bone to pick with when he came? THE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE. Those IN the church. So who should we be judging? The gay community and people who have an abortion? No! We are to have compassion on them and show them God's love, not his condemnation. Who are we to judge? 

Those who say they are Christian but are not acting like it. Those are the ONLY people that we in the church should be judging.

May God make us better about this as a community.

Have compassion on the lost. They are like sheep without a shepherd remember? But hold your brothers and sisters accountable to the word.  We are to "walk in a manner worthy of our calling" as Paul says.  Amen? Amen.

May God bless you! :)