Twisting The Words of Christ to Make Space for Sin & Heresy

Hello, and thank you for listening to the Testing the Spirits Podcast. In this episode, I'm going to be looking at the subject of judging, more specifically what

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 -1, the verse that every apostate and unbeliever has memorized,

Judge not, Jesus said, that you be not judged. This is what people love to do.

They love to play the judge not card, you know, don't judge me. And really, this is one of the most misunderstood statements in all of the

Bible. People love to take this out of context. So when somebody says judge not, what are they communicating?

They're saying don't ever pass judgment on personal behavior. But nobody really believes that.

They just use this as a way to shield themselves or their friends from scrutiny because they're doing something wrong, and they don't want anyone calling them out on it, so they just play this game.

Well, Jesus said, judge not. Well, you have to read the verses afterwards, and if you do, you'll find out that Jesus was actually judging when he made that statement, and then he went on to call people dogs and swine.

So, we're going to look at this issue and explain it in context. But the reason

I'm doing this podcast is because someone sent me a video of a new church that started in our area, and it's not a real church, obviously.

But the leader of this group, he made the statement that, hey, you should come join us because we're not like those other churches.

We don't judge anyone. So come to our meetings. We don't judge.

And here's what he meant. He meant, we don't judge things like homosexuality, drug use, gambling, getting drunk on Friday night.

We don't judge that type of thing. But do they judge? Oh, you better believe they judge.

See, anyone who says, judge not, steal their wallet and see if they still believe that.

Oh, we don't judge any behavior. Steal their car and see what they say about that.

They would say it's wrong because obviously they judge behavior. They just don't judge the things that our culture in Hollywood glorifies and promotes.

So those things, those sins that are culturally acceptable, drug use, fornication, homosexuality, gambling, riotous living, don't judge.

Don't judge any of that. But if you ask them, should you judge white supremacy? Oh, well, absolutely.

You have to judge that. So everyone believes in judging. You have to judge between right and wrong.

You can't live in this world without passing judgment about truth and error, right and wrong, the things you should do and the things you shouldn't do.

So don't buy into their argument. So this group, the guy says, oh, we don't judge anybody.

Again, if somebody stole their wallet, and obviously I don't recommend you do that, but if somebody stole something valuable from them or if somebody tried to harm their family, they would judge that behavior as wrong, which they should.

So point is, they don't really believe this. And I happen to know that people in that group have made judgmental statements against conservatives and against Bible -believing

Christians, and they read things in the Bible, passages of scripture they don't like, and they pass judgment on what the

Bible says. And really, that's passing judgment against the God of heaven. But no, no, we don't make any judgments.

Yeah, right. So the irony is, what they are doing is totally hypocritical, judging others for judging when they themselves are judging.

Well, let's look at this text, Matthew 7, verse 1. Jesus did say, judge not that you be not judged, but you have to say or ask, what's the context?

What is Jesus trying to say? So let's keep reading. Verse 2, he says, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye.

You hypocrite, Jesus said. Now that's a judgment, right? Jesus says, hypocrite, verse 5, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

So you see that the judgment Jesus is speaking of is a hypocritical form of judgment.

This is what you should avoid judging someone when you do the same thing, or when you're doing something even worse.

And again, in verse 5, Jesus refers to some people as dogs and swine, because when you share the word of God with them, they respond with hostility.

So just avoid them. Don't bother. Their behavior is so bad, Jesus says, don't cast your pearls before swine.

So you can see that Jesus is not teaching you should never judge, because Jesus in this same passage is passing judgment.

Also in John 7, verse 24, Jesus said that Christians are to make righteous judgments.

And then the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2 15, he said, the spiritual man judges all things.

So the bottom line is the Bible tells us both to not judge and to judge, and it depends on the situation.

You need to have discernment. There's a good form of judgment and a bad form. But evaluating unbiblical teaching or to admonish someone who is an open sin,

I mean, that is valid because both Jesus and his disciples did this. Now you also need to remember mercy and balance this out with a care and concern for others.

But this blanket idea of judge not, don't ever judge, number one, it's not what Jesus meant.

Number two, nobody really believes that anyways. You can't live that out consistently.

Nobody does. You can't live in this world without making judgments. And it's because we love others that we have to be against certain things, things that bring harm.

If someone commits a violent crime against someone else, they are arrested and they are brought before a judge and nobody complains about that.

Why? Why? Because we recognize that's necessary to uphold justice. It's righteous to punish evildoers.

And if that judge said, oh, well, Jesus said I'm not allowed to pass judgment against behavior and they let that violent criminal free, we would all recognize that that would be reckless.

There'd be nothing virtuous about it. Matter of fact, that would be evil.

And actually, that's sort of happening in our culture today where violent criminals are let free because of this mindset where people make excuses for bad behavior.

But again, this idea, don't ever judge personal behavior, nobody really believes that.

What they mean is, you know, that's code for don't judge these certain behaviors that the culture glorifies or that I'm involved in.

So basically, nine times out of 10, when somebody says, don't judge, they're taking it out of context.

One more quick example. What's the name of this podcast? Testing the Spirits. This is a direct statement from 1

John 4 verse 1, which says that Christians are to test the spirits. Why is that?

Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So a false prophet or a false teacher is not so much a person who denies the

Word of God, but a false teacher is somebody who twists and distorts God's Word.

So this exhortation for us to test the spirits, the Greek word translated test, is dokimazo, and it means to discern, to examine, or to scrutinize.

And it's not that we scrutinize things like we go around and just intentionally look for things that are wrong, because living in this world, let's face it, we don't have to go out and look for stuff.

It's just everywhere. But we are to be discerning. In evaluating what's right and wrong, what's helpful and what's harmful, we need to test.

We need to judge. We need to evaluate. As Paul said in 1

Thessalonians 5 .21, test all things and hold fast to that which is good. My friends, that requires judgment.

You need to say this is right and this is wrong. That's true and that's false. This is good, that's better, and this is best.

We have to do this. So in conclusion, next time you hear someone quoting Matthew 7 verse 1 out of context, you know, just in order to shield themselves from scrutiny, maybe you could share with them the rest of what

Jesus said in verses 2 through 5, or send them a link to this video.

Either way, keep testing the spirits. Read God's Word. Consider the context.

Be discerning. And until next time, may the Lord be with you, and have a great day.

You know, drugs, gambling, and sexual sin, that is socially acceptable behavior because Hollywood celebrities and musicians are doing it out in the open and they're idols, right?

They're celebrities, everyone loves them. So those sins are socially acceptable. So if you say something about that, hey, judge not.

Don't make any judgment about their behavior. I've never heard somebody respond that way when you say, hey, racism is wrong.

Racism is evil, which I believe racism is wrong. But if a pastor said or a

Christian said racism is wrong, would anybody come back, hey, don't judge? Hey, this guy's in the

Klan, hey, don't judge his behavior. Would anybody say that? No.

It's hypocrisy. What they're doing is they're trying to make space, as people say. They're trying to make space by pulling the judge not card for the behavior that they want to make acceptable, either because they're doing it or someone they care about is doing it.

But they would never say it about sins that are socially unacceptable. So are they being led by the word of God?

No, they're being led by the culture. Okay, so now that I got that off my chest,