Last year I was teaching a class on Medieval History and, while doing some reading, I ran across the news of someone who had become ill with the Black Plague. You will recall that, back in the 1300’s, an outbreak of bubonic plague, called the Black Plague or the Black Death, resulted in the death of one-third to one-half of the population of Europe. Well, we think of the Black Plague as something in the past, yet it isn’t. It is still with us and if the conditions of the 1300’s were to reoccur, so would the decimating power of this disease. It’s like that with many diseases. There are diseases that we here in America used to find quite common, like polio and tuberculosis. Modern medicine has just about eradicated them from our society, but not completely. They are always there. And if we do not continue to diligently inoculate people against these deadly diseases and do the other things that have to be done, they will be back.
This matter of disease in our society reminds me of sin in the Church. Through God’s wonderful saving power in Jesus, the society of the Church has been radically delivered and healed from all kinds of moral disease – of sin. Through regeneration, the old man is destroyed and the new, spiritually healthy life of Jesus has been given to us. The more we learn, the more we trust and obey, the more we use the means of grace, the more that spiritual life thrives in the Church. However, if we do not watch and pray, if we begin to neglect the means of grace, if we become unbelieving or disobedient, those old sins can start creeping back and become more and more prevalent again.
One of those sins which we have to keep a constant watch over is a sin that the apostle Paul was trying to deal with in the Epistle reading today: the sin of an unloving judgmentalism. Judgmentalism is one of those sins that very easily comes back to afflict us. I think it may be due to how closely related it is to pride. Speaking of diseases that are in our society and comparing them to sins, pride is more like the common cold. Everybody has to fight it, all the time. It’s always with us. But if we allow pride to take a hold in our hearts, it brings along with it a whole legion of other sins, one of which is this tendency to think unloving, critical things about people.
Why did Paul write about this? After Paul founded the church in Corinth and then went on to found other churches, these new Christians began to receive teaching from other people beside Paul, like Peter and Apollos, and some began thinking they preferred these over Paul. They then began to look down their noses at those who didn’t agree with them and form a judgemental attitude toward them. A party spirit began to creep up in the church. People began to form cliques and then sections of the church, based on who people thought was the better teacher. We all know what this is like; it’s a very common sin. What was so critical for the church in Corinth, however, is that they were a new church and still desperately needed Paul’s ongoing ministry. If, because of pride and a party spirit, some in the church began to cut themselves off from Paul’s teaching, they were going to suffer spiritual shipwreck. So, Paul, in his loving concern for all these people, has to try to help them to see how this party spirit, and the judgmentalism that goes along with it, was something they needed to turn from.
You will remember what Paul said about the critical judgments that some of the Corinthians had toward him. He basically said “I don’t care what they say.” He wrote, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,” and he went on to add, “or of man's judgment.” In other words, he didn’t think the opinion of any man on earth, whether in Corinth or anywhere else, was anything that was really worth being concerned about, as it regarded himself.
Now, it is common for people to say such a thing in our society – “I don’t care what you think- not because they have Paul’s ideas about the subject, but for the sake of pride. We are told to have enough pride in ourselves that, when people speak ill of us, we don’t care. By exalting ourselves over everyone else, we lift ourselves above their constant judgmentalism toward us.
This is not what Paul does. Instead, Paul remembers his theology and exercises humility. He does not care for man’s judgement because it is simply that: man’s judgement, which is nothing compared to God’s judgment. And, since he himself is a man, he includes his very own judgement as nothing compared to God’s judgement as well. He not only says that it is a small thing to him to be judged of a man, he then says, “yea, I judge not mine own self.” Paul himself is a man, therefore, he knows that any judging he may do of himself is going to have flaws in it.
Paul is in a wholly different sphere from the person who protects himself from hurtful judgementalism by pumping up his pride. Instead of thinking that he is so great that no one can judge him, he reminds us that God is so great that everyone else’s judging is of no comparative importance. Paul is not exalting himself; he is exalting God, keeping himself humbled before him along with the rest of mankind.
This is how Paul tries to help the Corinthians to turn from judgementalism. He reminds them of the greatness of God and gives them his own example of humility.
But he also does something else to help them. He reminds them of the doctrine of the judgment of God. He writes: Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
“Judge nothing before the time”; by this, Paul does not mean to remove from the shepherds of the Church their authority to make judgements and to exercise judgement regarding the life of the Church. Paul himself, in the same epistle, makes a judgement regarding the immoral behaviour of one of the members of the Corinthian church and he even rebukes that church for not having done the same kind of thing; for having tolerated the man’s behaviour. “Judge nothing before the time” is not a command for the rulers in the Church to be tolerant of everything that anyone may do. It is a command to keep us from being so ready to make judgments about one another in our every day lives. It is a reminder that, in our private judgements, we are likely to be wrong.
We are not to judge people before the time, that is before the time when God will judge them. Why? Because his judgement is based upon his ability to see the things hidden, to hear the thoughts of the heart, both of which we cannot see or hear. Man looks on the outward appearance of things and for that reason his judgment may be askew. God, however, looks upon the inward man – and he is the only one who can. Thus, he perfectly and completely knows everything that is involved in any thing that any one says or does and he, and he alone, is therefore able to know with certainty whether the word or deed should really be condemned or not.
That being the case, when we take it upon ourselves to pass judgement on one another, we are blaspheming. We are claiming to have the same kind of knowledge as God – the divine ability that gives God the right to pass judgement on people. But then, that is technically what we are doing. More immediately, we are just being stupid. We are giving in to our pride and foolishness. We simply are not thinking about what we are doing.
Judge nothing before the time: there is going to be a judgement. It will take place on the day of resurrection and it will be of all mankind, including Christians. I recently heard of the unfortunate prayer of an acquaintance of mine in another church, where he obviously misspoke. At a luncheon in the church hall, he thanked God in his prayer that we Christians will not come into judgment. Now that’s not true. It is true that we will not come into the same judgment as God will bring upon the world outside of Christ. That is plain, for Paul says in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – and that’s probably what my friend meant to say, but sadly that is not what he actually said, and so he got into hot water!
However, the Church is included in those who are judged on the Day of Judgement. Paul obviously assumes so, or he would not be talking about withholding judgement of our fellow believers until the day when God will judge everybody. He also plainly says in 2 Cor. 5: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
The Judgement of our Works
You will note that Paul says the judgement will be of our deeds. The judgement on the judgement day in the Bible is always spoken of as a judgement of our works. This seems to run counter to our understanding that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Some, trying to fit salvation by grace and a judgement of works together wind up robbing that judgement of its real conditional nature. My response is to say that, though our saving relationship with God is indeed established by God’s grace alone, apart from our works, it nevertheless has a place for our works. Faith without works is dead, says James. A living faith will have godly works which give evidence now as to the genuine character of our faith, and will give evidence of the same at the judgement. The judgement will show to the universe just what kind of person we have really been. If we have not deceived ourselves and really have been renewed by Christ and have walked with him in faith, then our works will be vindicated as having been done in Christ. God will receive all the glory for all He has done for us in Christ, which has included the ability to do good works. I may have assurance today, based upon the promises in the Bible, that I have a right standing with God now because, since I am in Christ by faith, my works will be approved on that day, but I do not presume on him and neglect my duty as a child of god to do good works. We must not let what light God has given to us regarding his eternal plans for our salvation, how that salvation is by grace alone, by Christ alone, by faith alone, lead us to where history and the way we behave in this life don’t really matter. If we do, we may presume upon God’s grace to us in Christ and neglect our duty to do good works. If we do so presume, we will find on that day, that we may have fooled everyone else about our faith, and we may have fooled ourselves, but we have not fooled God.
Poor Paul, he didn’t want to write these things to the Corinthians. No one with his kind of heart wants to have to fight for their reputation. It can be misunderstood. Paul just wanted these people to continue to receive his teaching for their sake. If some of them were not, it was not Paul’s fault. The Corinthians had failed to watch and pray over their pride and had fallen into sectarianism and the judgmentalism that comes with it. Paul has tried to lead them away from this judgmentalism by reminding them how little they are, and he along with them, before God. He has also reminded them that all judgment is in the hands of God, so that they should be very reticent to pass judgement on Paul. Before the letter is over, he will have told them that what they really need to be spending their time on is loving one another, in chapter 13.
Going back to our analogy of sins in the church to diseases in society, we could liken a concentration on being sure we are loving one another to the exercise of preventative medicine. A healthy body fights disease. If we love our neighbour, especially if that neighbour is our brother or sister in Christ, there is one thing we won’t do: we won’t be judging them. We will gladly give them the benefit of the doubt. And we will humble ourselves, for their sakes, and remember that we are not the Judge, our opinions are so easily mistaken. And beside that, when it all comes down to it, what does anyone do that is wrong which we ourselves do not do, in some fashion some time or another? We are so often just the pot calling the kettle black. Brothers and sisters, let us watch and pray, let us apply ourselves to the grace of God, and keep our love healthy. As we love one another, we keep back all the evil diseases that sin brings upon us, and we help each other to keep the whole Body of Christ, healthy and holy and glad.
Amen.
This matter of disease in our society reminds me of sin in the Church. Through God’s wonderful saving power in Jesus, the society of the Church has been radically delivered and healed from all kinds of moral disease – of sin. Through regeneration, the old man is destroyed and the new, spiritually healthy life of Jesus has been given to us. The more we learn, the more we trust and obey, the more we use the means of grace, the more that spiritual life thrives in the Church. However, if we do not watch and pray, if we begin to neglect the means of grace, if we become unbelieving or disobedient, those old sins can start creeping back and become more and more prevalent again.
One of those sins which we have to keep a constant watch over is a sin that the apostle Paul was trying to deal with in the Epistle reading today: the sin of an unloving judgmentalism. Judgmentalism is one of those sins that very easily comes back to afflict us. I think it may be due to how closely related it is to pride. Speaking of diseases that are in our society and comparing them to sins, pride is more like the common cold. Everybody has to fight it, all the time. It’s always with us. But if we allow pride to take a hold in our hearts, it brings along with it a whole legion of other sins, one of which is this tendency to think unloving, critical things about people.
Why did Paul write about this? After Paul founded the church in Corinth and then went on to found other churches, these new Christians began to receive teaching from other people beside Paul, like Peter and Apollos, and some began thinking they preferred these over Paul. They then began to look down their noses at those who didn’t agree with them and form a judgemental attitude toward them. A party spirit began to creep up in the church. People began to form cliques and then sections of the church, based on who people thought was the better teacher. We all know what this is like; it’s a very common sin. What was so critical for the church in Corinth, however, is that they were a new church and still desperately needed Paul’s ongoing ministry. If, because of pride and a party spirit, some in the church began to cut themselves off from Paul’s teaching, they were going to suffer spiritual shipwreck. So, Paul, in his loving concern for all these people, has to try to help them to see how this party spirit, and the judgmentalism that goes along with it, was something they needed to turn from.
You will remember what Paul said about the critical judgments that some of the Corinthians had toward him. He basically said “I don’t care what they say.” He wrote, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,” and he went on to add, “or of man's judgment.” In other words, he didn’t think the opinion of any man on earth, whether in Corinth or anywhere else, was anything that was really worth being concerned about, as it regarded himself.
Now, it is common for people to say such a thing in our society – “I don’t care what you think- not because they have Paul’s ideas about the subject, but for the sake of pride. We are told to have enough pride in ourselves that, when people speak ill of us, we don’t care. By exalting ourselves over everyone else, we lift ourselves above their constant judgmentalism toward us.
This is not what Paul does. Instead, Paul remembers his theology and exercises humility. He does not care for man’s judgement because it is simply that: man’s judgement, which is nothing compared to God’s judgment. And, since he himself is a man, he includes his very own judgement as nothing compared to God’s judgement as well. He not only says that it is a small thing to him to be judged of a man, he then says, “yea, I judge not mine own self.” Paul himself is a man, therefore, he knows that any judging he may do of himself is going to have flaws in it.
Paul is in a wholly different sphere from the person who protects himself from hurtful judgementalism by pumping up his pride. Instead of thinking that he is so great that no one can judge him, he reminds us that God is so great that everyone else’s judging is of no comparative importance. Paul is not exalting himself; he is exalting God, keeping himself humbled before him along with the rest of mankind.
This is how Paul tries to help the Corinthians to turn from judgementalism. He reminds them of the greatness of God and gives them his own example of humility.
But he also does something else to help them. He reminds them of the doctrine of the judgment of God. He writes: Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
“Judge nothing before the time”; by this, Paul does not mean to remove from the shepherds of the Church their authority to make judgements and to exercise judgement regarding the life of the Church. Paul himself, in the same epistle, makes a judgement regarding the immoral behaviour of one of the members of the Corinthian church and he even rebukes that church for not having done the same kind of thing; for having tolerated the man’s behaviour. “Judge nothing before the time” is not a command for the rulers in the Church to be tolerant of everything that anyone may do. It is a command to keep us from being so ready to make judgments about one another in our every day lives. It is a reminder that, in our private judgements, we are likely to be wrong.
We are not to judge people before the time, that is before the time when God will judge them. Why? Because his judgement is based upon his ability to see the things hidden, to hear the thoughts of the heart, both of which we cannot see or hear. Man looks on the outward appearance of things and for that reason his judgment may be askew. God, however, looks upon the inward man – and he is the only one who can. Thus, he perfectly and completely knows everything that is involved in any thing that any one says or does and he, and he alone, is therefore able to know with certainty whether the word or deed should really be condemned or not.
That being the case, when we take it upon ourselves to pass judgement on one another, we are blaspheming. We are claiming to have the same kind of knowledge as God – the divine ability that gives God the right to pass judgement on people. But then, that is technically what we are doing. More immediately, we are just being stupid. We are giving in to our pride and foolishness. We simply are not thinking about what we are doing.
Judge nothing before the time: there is going to be a judgement. It will take place on the day of resurrection and it will be of all mankind, including Christians. I recently heard of the unfortunate prayer of an acquaintance of mine in another church, where he obviously misspoke. At a luncheon in the church hall, he thanked God in his prayer that we Christians will not come into judgment. Now that’s not true. It is true that we will not come into the same judgment as God will bring upon the world outside of Christ. That is plain, for Paul says in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – and that’s probably what my friend meant to say, but sadly that is not what he actually said, and so he got into hot water!
However, the Church is included in those who are judged on the Day of Judgement. Paul obviously assumes so, or he would not be talking about withholding judgement of our fellow believers until the day when God will judge everybody. He also plainly says in 2 Cor. 5: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
The Judgement of our Works
You will note that Paul says the judgement will be of our deeds. The judgement on the judgement day in the Bible is always spoken of as a judgement of our works. This seems to run counter to our understanding that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Some, trying to fit salvation by grace and a judgement of works together wind up robbing that judgement of its real conditional nature. My response is to say that, though our saving relationship with God is indeed established by God’s grace alone, apart from our works, it nevertheless has a place for our works. Faith without works is dead, says James. A living faith will have godly works which give evidence now as to the genuine character of our faith, and will give evidence of the same at the judgement. The judgement will show to the universe just what kind of person we have really been. If we have not deceived ourselves and really have been renewed by Christ and have walked with him in faith, then our works will be vindicated as having been done in Christ. God will receive all the glory for all He has done for us in Christ, which has included the ability to do good works. I may have assurance today, based upon the promises in the Bible, that I have a right standing with God now because, since I am in Christ by faith, my works will be approved on that day, but I do not presume on him and neglect my duty as a child of god to do good works. We must not let what light God has given to us regarding his eternal plans for our salvation, how that salvation is by grace alone, by Christ alone, by faith alone, lead us to where history and the way we behave in this life don’t really matter. If we do, we may presume upon God’s grace to us in Christ and neglect our duty to do good works. If we do so presume, we will find on that day, that we may have fooled everyone else about our faith, and we may have fooled ourselves, but we have not fooled God.
Poor Paul, he didn’t want to write these things to the Corinthians. No one with his kind of heart wants to have to fight for their reputation. It can be misunderstood. Paul just wanted these people to continue to receive his teaching for their sake. If some of them were not, it was not Paul’s fault. The Corinthians had failed to watch and pray over their pride and had fallen into sectarianism and the judgmentalism that comes with it. Paul has tried to lead them away from this judgmentalism by reminding them how little they are, and he along with them, before God. He has also reminded them that all judgment is in the hands of God, so that they should be very reticent to pass judgement on Paul. Before the letter is over, he will have told them that what they really need to be spending their time on is loving one another, in chapter 13.
Going back to our analogy of sins in the church to diseases in society, we could liken a concentration on being sure we are loving one another to the exercise of preventative medicine. A healthy body fights disease. If we love our neighbour, especially if that neighbour is our brother or sister in Christ, there is one thing we won’t do: we won’t be judging them. We will gladly give them the benefit of the doubt. And we will humble ourselves, for their sakes, and remember that we are not the Judge, our opinions are so easily mistaken. And beside that, when it all comes down to it, what does anyone do that is wrong which we ourselves do not do, in some fashion some time or another? We are so often just the pot calling the kettle black. Brothers and sisters, let us watch and pray, let us apply ourselves to the grace of God, and keep our love healthy. As we love one another, we keep back all the evil diseases that sin brings upon us, and we help each other to keep the whole Body of Christ, healthy and holy and glad.
Amen.
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