8.15.26 – Give me Bible Based Judgment

 The summer has just about come to an end. The fall is right around the corner. We're entering into the sixth month of the biblical calendar, of God's calendar, which means we're a month away from Yom Teruah, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as Sukkot. In this week's Torah portion, Shoftim, we have the topic of judges and officers that should be at each gate. And that's important because in our lives, we need to have judges and officers. Judges are the ones who lay down the laws—the shoftim. And shotrim are the officers, the ones who enforce. The challenge in life is that we know what is right and what is wrong, but enforcing it and enforcing it without prejudice, without bribes, without secondary agendas—that's not quite as easy.

Judging is probably the most overstated doctrine anywhere in the Bible, at least in the lives of believers. And the crazy thing about it is that though everybody talks about it, and everybody talks about "don't judge me," and everybody talks about church discipline, it seems that hardly anybody understands the reality behind how scripture judges. I mean, there's even a book in the Bible called Judges. And every time there was a judge in Israel that was righteous, they had year after year after year of shalom. So why are we living in such a time frame as we are in the 21st century, where people say, "Don't judge me, quit judging me," rather than "Please judge me, please judge me"? I think the reason is because we are confused between judging and condemnation.

See, all day long, we make hundreds and thousands of discerning judgments. Do I cross the street now? Do I wait? Do I like this? Do I not like this? Do I want to have this? Do I not want to have this? Is this good for me? Is this not good for me? We're constantly making judgments using discernment. But in Scripture, judging is one of the most highly effective, most prominent themes throughout the Word of God, because everything that God does is based on judgment. Isaiah chapter 11 tells us, speaking of Yeshua, our Messiah, that He judges, but not based on appearance, and He judges not based on what He hears. He judges righteous judgment, as John chapter 5 and John chapter 7 tell us, that we should judge, but judge righteous judgment.

The question is, how do you do that? How do I go about doing that? There's a very simple principle that needs to be applied. If we applied this, the church would be a different environment, the Hebraic community would be a different environment, the world would be a different environment, if we literally just followed the biblical example. Many of us are familiar with the Gospel of Matthew, and in Matthew chapter 7, Yeshua gives us one of the clearest-cut pictures of how to judge. In fact, the warning, in chapter 7, verse 1, He says, "Judge not, that you be not judged." And this is where most people stop. "Okay, I'm not going to judge you, so you don't judge me. If you want to do it that way, that's fine. You be you, I'll be me."

Verse 2: "For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again." So, if I'm very, very strict in judging, well then I'm going to have strict judgment against me. Whatever standard I hold that person to, I need to hold myself to that standard too, and I'll be judged accordingly. Usually, people are very good at pointing out flaws in other people, but they're not very good when it comes to holding the standard themselves. This is what is known as hypocrisy.

Verse 3 begins to give us the definition on how to judge properly, because in Matthew 7, Yeshua says, "Okay, you're focusing all your attention on your brother or your sister. Why do you behold the little speck, the little splinter, the little dust particle in your brother's eye? But you haven't stopped to consider the beam that is in your own eye. You have a big log in your eye. You're trying to pull out a little speck in your neighbor's eye." What does He tell you to do? He says, "First, you have to pull out the beam out of your own eye, and then you can take the speck, the little splinter, out of your brother's eye."

Now here's the part of judging that we miss. The part of judging that we miss is not seeing a flaw in our brother—not seeing that his vision, his ability to be able to walk clearly, is affected. That's not the problem. The problem is that we have a log in our own eye, and once we take the log out of our own eye, now we can see clearly to pull the speck out of our brother's eye. You see, the key to judging and judging properly is: take care of myself first—make sure that this is not an issue in my life—and then, number two, I now need to help my brother overcome. I need to lift them up and take them out of the situation that they're in so that they can see clearly.

In the book of Galatians, chapter 6, we see another prime example of doing this. Paul, writing to the church at Galatia, says, speaking of judging: "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he really is deceiving himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden."

This is a classic example on how to judge. I'm walking with the Lord. You're walking with the Lord. I struggle. I stumble. I've been overtaken by a fault. You see this in my life. You're more spiritual than I am. You're walking stronger than I am. Now you have a responsibility to help me. If you see me overtaken in a fault, then you need to help me with that fault. First of all, take care of your own issue. Make sure that it's not your issue. Make sure that you're not struggling. Make sure that you're there to help me. Take the log out of your own eye. Then you can help with the speck, the little splinter in my eye, and you can help me do what I'm supposed to do. So when you consider yourself, lest you fall into temptation, going, "Okay, wait a minute, is this my issue? Because I sure am struggling with this concept. I'm seeing this in so-and-so." You're seeing this in my life. Are you struggling with that same thing? Do you have a big log in your own eye and you're trying to pull the splinter out of my eye? Do you see that I've been overtaken by a fault? Now your responsibility is to bear my burden. Bear one another's burdens. And what happens? You fulfill the law of Christ.

Now, if you think yourself to be something when you're really nothing, you're deceiving yourself. But what you want to do is you want to make sure that you can prove your own work, and then you'll have rejoicing in yourself alone and not in another. See, your purpose in helping me bear my burden, in judging me, in taking care of the log in your own eye, is to actually do microsurgery and pull the splinter out of my eye, where I've been overtaken by a fault. You being my brother, you restore me in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you fall into temptation, and the whole purpose in restoring me and picking me back up is so that I can bear my own burden. Every man shall bear his own burden.

When you stop to think about properly judging, we should all be saying, "Please judge me, please judge me." The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5, at the very end of the chapter, he says, you should be judging everybody who's within the body of Christ. But we say, "Oh no, don't judge, don't judge." And the Scripture makes it quite clear, whether it's in the Torah, the prophets, the gospels, Paul's writings—we're supposed to be judging one another, not condemning, not looking down on a person, but first of all, making sure that my life is in order. That's number one. Number two, if I see something in you, I have to consider my own self. If I see something in you, then I need to take the log out of my own eye. Now I can pull the splinter out of yours, and I can restore you the way that you're supposed to be restored. This is proper judging. This is not condemnation. This is what God wants us to do. And this would make all the difference in the body of Christ.

Have a Shalom-filled day and judge, judge, judge properly. 

Alan