Thou Shalt Judge

By Elizabeth Prata

SYNOPSIS

I discuss the common phrases “Judge not!” and “Only God knows the heart” used by those defending false teachings. I argue that such phrases taken out of context often are attempts by individuals to shield themselves from confronting uncomfortable truths about their beliefs. I discuss the importance of discernment and correct judgment, skills which protect the Church from false doctrines and promote spiritual integrity.

“Judge not!” is a frequent refrain whenever I publish a discernment essay. I hear it so often. And I mean often. It’s a phrase that is barely ahead of this other chestnut, “Only God knows the heart”. I wrote about THAT phrase in 2016.

Why responding to a discernment essay by saying “only God knows the heart” is totally wrong

‘Judge not’ is a favorite of those who still want to follow a false teacher or continuing to absorb some false doctrine, and don’t want to do the work of actually investigating why they are false. Or, they want to continue following the false teacher because the false teacher strokes their undealt-with sin. This is because of their lusts. See the verse which tells it:

For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, (2 Timothy 4:3).

Let’s focus on two particular parts of the verse. First ‘the time will come.’ This means societally widespread during a season of time in the future… Gill’s Exposition explains, “The time referred to was future, when the apostle wrote, but quickly came on; and the characters of it have appeared more or less in all ages since“. The world never grows for the better, as long as sin permeates it, sin always devolves what it touches. The Church will always struggle too, as long as spies, false teachers, and unconverted sinners infiltrate it.

The second thing to note in this verse, and I read it for many years before it hit me, ‘they will accumulate for themselves‘. The false teachers aren’t gathering hapless victims, it’s the professing Christians are doing the gathering!

So when these characters see a video, book, sermon, essay, some kind of Christian material letting them know in sure, scriptural terms that their pet teacher, or pet doctrine is false, they reject the truth (for a lie).

For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:25).

So what else are they going to say when confronted with uncomfortable truth? They need to find some Bible verse so they can keep their veneer of Christianity intact, and they shout that we should not judge. Strangely, they never quote the rest of the passage, which specifically instructs the Christian to judge, but not hypocritically.

Of COURSE we judge. We’re advised to judge with right judgment (John 7:24).

“Matthew 7:1 is one of the most familiar passages of Scripture, but it is also one of the most misunderstood and misapplied verses in the Bible. The Bible does not prohibit judgment; it warns against hypocritical judgment. Throughout the Bible, righteous judgment—or discernment—is encouraged and even commanded. Many Christians argue that judgment is divisive among believers. But discernment doesn’t divide—false teaching does. Discernment, righteous judgment, and church discipline are ultimately acts of love, seeking repentance and restoration and protecting the unity of the body of Christ”. (Source- Fortis Institute, Thou Shalt Judge study guide).

If it helps, we can swap the term, ‘judge’ for a less misunderstood term such as test (1 John 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:21), examine, (Acts 17:11), discern, (Hebrews 5:14). Sometimes people mistakenly think we are using the word ‘judge’ as unto perdition. Only God knows who is in or destined for heaven or hell. Judge in the case of discernment means just that, judging their teaching, not their salvation, something Paul said is noble to do. (Acts 17:11).

Judging false teachers who are bringing false doctrine is important. Why do we look at the ingredients listing on food packages? It’s because we want to know what’s IN the food before consuming it. With Bible teaching, you want to know it’s healthy before consuming it. So, examine the ingredients, that is, examine the scriptures to see if the things being taught are in the Bible, (Acts 17:11) correctly divided and not taken out of context.

We actually make judgments all the time. We judge (decide, assess, evaluate) whether certain friends are healthy for our children to hang around with. We judge television and movies to determine if they are appropriate for our family to consume. We judge a restaurant’s food, cleanliness, and hospitality to decide if they are worth spending our money again. We judge whether we want to hire someone in our workplace. We judge in a million ways. But suddenly when it comes to saying “this teacher is false and not worth spending our money or time with,” judging becomes a censurable action?

No, sisters, go ahead and make proper evaluations of a professing Christian teacher. This is a skill the Holy Spirit wants us to develop, and it is one that glorifies Jesus by placing Him as the priority of our lives.

Further Reading

Yes we are judgmental but not in the way everybody thinks, by Kevin DeYoung

John Newtons’ Advice to a fellow pastor who was about to publicly correct another pastor: “On Controversy“. Essay at Ligonier

What is Discernment? Sinclair Ferguson, essay at Ligonier