Are you afraid to judge?

I have a Christian friend I don't have to rent who lives in another city in Texas. In secular terms, he's an ok man. As a Christian, his walk could bring tears faster than peeling an onion. He uses foul language, blasphemes the name of the Father who has given him life and breath, engages in pre-marital sex, and illegally downloads movies and music from the Internet. All are disturbing character traits, however, the most annoying is his belief he is prophesying; according to Old Testament rules ( Deut 18:20-22 ) he's got a problem since no one can corroborate a single prophecy having come to pass.

Matthew 7:1-2 tells us not to judge, but that's not exactly true. If we look at 1 Corinthians 5 , Paul makes it clear we have to judge immorality within the Church so as to avoid the whole body becoming polluted. If we review Matthew 18:15-17 , the Lord gives us specific rules for confronting a brother or sister in the faith when sin is present in their lives. Paul also admonishes us not to judge weaker brothers in the faith who choose to engage in dietary restrictions in Romans 14:2-5 .

I believe we have to keep in mind Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 6: “ Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ” How does a Christian resolve the “to judge or not to judge” question?

In this day and age, we have a problem pronouncing judgment on anyone or over anything. We know the Bible tells us sexual immorality is a sin, but we hide behind, “…but we're in love, and if lovin' you is wrong, I don't wanna be right!” We run away from homosexual proclivities to a point it's now considered hate speech to quote what the Bible says in regards to this taboo subject. Our society has been rocked to its economic core with one big corporate scandal after another, and we know number eight on the Ten Commandments tells us, “You shall not steal”. “You shall have no other gods before me”, but if the Israelites came out of Egypt and gathered what was precious to them (gold) to make an calf idol, the only difference between then and now is our idols are made out of plastic and are called MasterCard and Visa.

Christians have been beaten down to believe there's no such thing as absolute right and absolute wrong; it is a product of a modern society. To those brothers and sisters in the Christian faith who scoff and say “there is no such thing as absolutes in religion”, I pose a challenge: can you give me Biblical attributes of God the Father? Of course you can, but why? Maybe because He's constant, unchanging, and unwavering? The nature of God never changes; He uses His Word to communicate such truths about who and what He is and isn't, otherwise, we would be free to randomly fashion a god with our own moral standards. We would be bringing God down to our level, instead of us trying to reach Him on His level. If we accept God is perfect in all ways, isn't it our responsibility as His creation to live up to His standards as Jesus commands us in Matthew 5:48 ?

It's hard to believe the results of a beliefnet.com survey ; forty-five percent of all professing Born Again Christians when asked weren't sure if they were Heaven bound. This is shocking because it shows nearly half of all Born Again Christians haven't a grasp on the foundational scripture they take their name from. John 3:5 clearly states, “ Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ” This could also point to a deeper problem: a false Christian experience.

False conversions brings up a heated debate no one likes to take on; Christians will argue you cannot judge the heart as that's the Lord's job, and we cannot judge another's salvation. Oh yes we can and we're commanded to! Paul was explicit in 1 Corinthians 5, telling the church it had to cast out the immoral person: “ deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ” Paul leaves no ambiguity on this – he does not say, “maybe”, he doesn't say, “if you feel led to”, he issues a stark, cold order so the rest of the body will not become “infected” with the disease.