One of the most misquoted, misunderstood and misapplied statements written in the Holy Scriptures is found in the seventh chapter of Matthew’s gospel.  Here we find Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount.  Beginning in chapter 5 He lays out God’s will and commands for those who would spend eternity with Him.  The Words in question involve man judging man.  Two words found in 7:1 have been used to allow all manner of evil to continue among those who call themselves God’s people.  The error concerns the supposed “truth” that only God can judge a person’s actions, that one church member does not have the Biblical right to judge another church person.  Let us do what we are commanded to do.  Let us turn to the Author of the Sermon on the Mount in order to learn THE Truth about the first two words in chapter 7.

THE HEADLINE: “Judge not” (Mat. 7:1).  THE RESPONSE:  “End of conversation.”  “Kaput.”  “Enough said.”  “Take that to the bank.”  THE FINE PRINT: “Not so fast.”  I have been accused of being judgmental.  Not so.  God has already judged actions, words and thoughts and has stated His verdict in print for all the world to see.  I simply proclaim the verdict.  That is my assignment.  I judge no one.  I did not write the Book.  I did not make the Law.  I did not assess the rewards and punishments relative to the Law.  I do not reach a verdict.  I assess neither blessing nor curse.  God has already done all of that and put it in writing.  GOD IS JUDGMENTAL.  However, as the Scriptures tell us, He commands man to access His verdict and apply it to his fellow man.  IN GOD’S CHURCH, PEOPLE MUST JUDGE PEOPLE BY COMPARING THE ACTIONS OF PEOPLE TO HIS LAW (the Holy Bible). The problem is that the vast majority of church people reject God’s Law, refuse to be judged by it and resent being reminded of it.

But this is nothing new.  Being reminded of God’s Law (the Bible) and the repercussions for disobeying it is what got Stephen, Jesus, 11 of the 12 apostles and millions of Inquisition victims killed.  Who killed them?  Religious people who symbolically held God’s Law Book in one hand and a martyr’s head in the other.  Which is exactly what Jesus said would happen to many of those who proclaimed His Law (the Bible): “A time will come when those who kill you will believe that they are doing God a service” (Jn. 16:2).  Those martyrs were tortured and killed BECAUSE THEY PROCLAIMED GOD’S LAW AND HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD IT.  THOSE WHO KILLED THEM CLAIMED TO BE FOLLOWING THE ORDERS OF THE AUTHOR OF THE LAW.

Religious man judges the Lord’s Law, finds it wanting and rejects it, claiming that He destroyed it.  In so doing Law rejecters pass judgment on four entities.  In Luke 10:16 Jesus said that when one rejects His WORD (Law) he proves that he “despises” CHRIST’S FATHER, CHRIST HIMSELF along with the ONE who proclaimed Their Word.  Church people will not be judged by what they despise, nor by its Author, nor by His Son, nor by the one who proclaims it.  For that reason Matthew 7:1 gushes from their lips when anyone has the temerity to voice it.  As is usually the case when God’s Word (Truth–Jn. 17:17) is rejected, all attention is focused on the headline.  The fine print is totally ignored.  However, GOD IS IN THE FINE PRINT.  Let us consult some of the fine print relative to the subject of this message.

In searching out and studying the Law one will notice that not only did Jesus Himself speak to the subject of judging, His apostles also had something to say.  In Matthew 7:1-5 we find a wealth of information concerning one person judging another.  Note that in the sermon Jesus was speaking to people who wanted to “hear His sayings,” and after hearing them they “followed Him” (7:28, 8:1).  In His message He told those who would become His people that they must judge others. But there was a condition.  They must not be guilty of the sins they were judging or of any other sins.  Note that in verse 5 He told them that they had to get ALL sin out of their lives, THEN THEY COULD JUDGE OTHERS.  This is the fine print that is routinely ignored.

Why is this part ignored?  Because church people have been taught that sin is not a matter of choice, that Adam miraculously transferred his sin gene into the spiritual dna of every human ever conceived.  Sin, they are repeatedly told by Satan’s false prophets, is “normal” and is the common thread that runs through the whole of professing Christendom.  The rationale goes something like this: All Christians are sinners, therefore there is no one worthy to judge, which is why God commanded that those in the church “judge not.”  Convenient and self-serving, but wrong.  If sin is inborn in human beings, like eye color, it cannot be changed or eliminated.  That being so, then a Christian is in a permanent sin condition and therefore cannot judge others in the church.  The theory holds that man must sin, but if he will believe in Jesus, He will cover his sins with His blood as soon as he repents.  The sinner retains the sin, but Christ’s shed blood covers it.  As one preacher said, “God can’t see (sin) through the blood.”  Grace, we are told, renders God blind when it comes to church sinners who have been saved by His grace.  As the Apostle Jude says, they believe that God’s grace has given them a license to sin (vs 4).

The Apostle Paul received his gospel directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12).  Let us see what Jesus told him about the judging issue.  In Romans 2:1-3 he warns those in the church at Rome not to judge others IF they are guilty of doing what they are condemning others for doing.  As he said, guilty finger pointers will not escape the judgment of God.  I was always told by those I thought knew God’s Word, “When you point a finger at someone else, you have four fingers pointing back at you.”  That statement has allowed sin to thrive within professing Christendom.  When it comes to judging, people are quick to quote man-formulated slogans, but refuse to believe what God said.

In order to judge what is right and wrong one must know what is right and wrong.  In Romans 3:1,2 Paul identifies the instrument God tells His true saints to use when making those determinations.  He identifies the judging instrument by asking if the Jews had an advantage when it came to knowing what was right and wrong relative to God’s will.  Paul said that they did have an advantage, and that it was “GREAT IN EVERY WAY.”  The Jews’ advantage was “great” because they already had the ORACLES OF GOD”–His Holy Scriptures–His instrument of judgment.  Unlike converted Gentiles, the Jews did not have to learn the Law in order to determine right and wrong.  They already knew the Law and the writings of the prophets who taught the Law.  Recall that the New Testament Church was founded on the teachings of “the prophets and the apostles” (Eph. 2:20).  The Jews had God’s Oracles–the entire Old Testament.  Their problem was that they did not obey it.  In chapters 7 and 8 of the Book of Acts we can see the reaction of the Jews when they were reminded of the contents of the Oracles/Law.  They killed the messenger.  Converted Jews, like converted Gentiles, had to obey the Law.  The results of obedience or disobedience were the same for both groups.  See Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.  Recall that the Old Testament was written and preserved to be used to teach God’s ways to the New Testament Church which was identified as they “on whom the ends of the world have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).  That, dear reader, is this generation.

The classic example of church people judging church people is found in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5.  Here Paul is chastising the church for allowing an adulterer to remain in their assembly (vss 1,2).  In verse three Paul makes it clear that HE HAD ALREADY JUDGED THE MAN, FOUND HIM GUILTY AND RENDERED (GOD’S) JUDGMENT. HE WAS TO BE PUT OUT OF THE CHURCH. PAUL HAD ALREADY TURNED HIM OVER TO SATAN WHO WOULD DESTROY HIS FLESH (vss 4,5).  Paul knew God’s Law concerning adultery.  He knew the punishment God commanded.  Having put sin out of his life, he had the authority to judge the man, declare him guilty and pronounce punishment ACCORDING TO CHRIST’S GOSPEL WHICH PAUL HAD RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM HIM.  In verses 12 and 13 Paul notes that God judges those outside His church.  Those inside the church must judge one other, the righteous among them doing the judging.  In order to do so the judges must be holy, as was Paul.  The people in the Corinthian church were to do what God commanded in Deuteronomy 17:7–THEY WERE TO PUT THE SINNER OUT OF THE CHURCH.  If God’s Word was believed and applied today there would be no Catholics or Protestants because they are all self-professed sinners.   Being sinners, they could not be in “the church.”  Concerning the adulterer, Paul did not tell them that, because Jesus was his righteousness, he could continue to sin and get away with it as long as he believed in Him and repented following each act of adultery.  This Satanic “truth” is put forth by the Counterfeit Church as a foundational principle.

Let us examine a statement made by the Apostle Peter who would have known the truth about God’s requirement for salvation.  In his first letter to the church he wrote that judgment must be carried out continuously in the church, and that only those found to be innocent of sin, whom he called “the righteous,” could be saved (1 Pet. 4:18).  These were they who continually judged themselves by God’s Standard, and would therefore not need to be judged by Him (1 Cor. 11:31).  His Standard is the Word by which all of mankind will be judged (Jn. 12:48), and by which His true saints judge themselves in this life.

In Revelation 20:12 look into the future where we find history’s masses standing before God.  “The Books” (of the Bible) are opened.  Then “another book” (the Book of Life) is opened and every man is judged according to what is written in “the Books.”  In verse 15 we are told that those whose names are not written in the Book of Life are cast into the Lake of Fire.  The question is, whose name will be written in the Book of Life at the time of God’s judgment?  The Lord tells us in Revelation 22:19 that anyone who rejected any part of the Book of Revelation would have his name REMOVED FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE.  In Revelation 3:5 Jesus said that He would NOT REMOVE FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE the names of those who OVERCOME Satan’s call to sin.  He says in verse 21 that only those who “OVERCOME AS I OVERCAME” will join Him on His throne.  This answers the Book of Life question.

In Revelation 13:8 it is written that those whose names are not written in the Book of Life had been rejected because they worshiped a false god.  Everyone worships a god, though some do not realize it.  The one we serve is our master (god).  An atheist serves himself, making himself his god.  The Institutional Church serves Satan, making him her god.  The message of Revelation is that in order to enter God’s paradise one must overcome Satan’s demand to be worshiped and served, which can be done only through the power of the Holy Spirit, which God gives to those who are truly converted.  This allows them to reject Satan, obey God and thereby walk in holiness until the end, at which time salvation will be bestowed on them (Mat. 10:22).  The church refutes these Biblical statements.  Therefore the names of her parishioners are not written in the Book of Life.

When a person is born his name is written in the Book of Life because he belongs to God Who created him.   Sinning separates him from God (Isa. 59:2), causing his name to be removed from the Book.  True conversion results in his name being returned to the Book of Life.  In Ezekiel 18:24,27 we are told that upon conversion God forgets the sins of the true convert.  He then returns the convert’s name to the Book of Life.  To the contrary, He will forget the righteousness of those whose names were written in the Book if they return to sin.  Those whose names remain in the Book of Life until the end will be saved.  Jesus warns that the book will be extremely thin (Mat. 7:13,14).  At judgment God opens the “Books” of the Bible, then opens the Book of Life, then compares the person’s life to what is written in the Holy Scriptures.  In Revelation 20:13 it is written that each person who has ever lived will be judged according to his/her WORKS–obedience or disobedience to what is written in “the Books.”  Those whose names are not found in the Book of Life will have despised God, Christ, Their Word and the one who spoke or wrote it.  Such will be cast into the Lake of Fire.  So says the Lord in the Holy Bible.  EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO THAT BIBLE.

God judges those outside the church.  His people judge those inside the church.  The process of judging is on-going.  If we will judge ourselves by “the Books” we will not be judged by the Lord upon His return.  Only those whose lives reflect what is written in the Books of the Holy Bible will be saved.  Let us so judge ourselves and thereby be able to judge others as we are called upon by God to do so.  Intra-church judging is commanded by God.  Here God is talking to those in HIS CHURCH, not the Institutional Church.  If you are still in the false church (Catholicism/Protestantism) you are serving a false god, a false Christ and are promoting a false religion.  For this reason God commands you to come out of that unclean thing after explaining why.  Only when you obey Him and separated yourself from Satan’s people will He be your God and you will be His child (2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).  L.J.