These last couple of weeks we, as a couple, have been talking a lot about judgment. Whether someone else was judging us, or we were judging them, the topic was surfacing far too often for comfort! Needless to say, we want to eliminate the latter of these two for sure, so we found a sermon on this topic to listen to! Afterwards, we thought we would write out and share some of our thoughts...
DISCERNMENT says... “It is probably not a good idea to wear that outfit in public”
JUDGEMENT goes further... “That girl is dressed like a slut; I bet she is having sexual relations with that boy she is walking with”
So, when is it appropriate to discern?
First off, in order to Biblically discern we must have a real relationship with the person. The context for discernment is in a small, close nit group. UNLIKE IN BIBLICAL TIMES, today we as Christians simply DON’T have this kind of relationship with most other people! HEREIN LAYS THE PROBLEM: since we lack the close nit relationship, we WRONLY CONCLUDE that discernment applies to everyone! If we were to make discernment on a stranger, and go to them with our opinion, they would likely just take offense, and think we have NO place informing them of our opinion. They might think “who made you God?” (and on that note, God might think “why do you cast your pearls before swine?”)
If we DO have that close nit relationship and we discern something, we should be sure to ACT ON IT (for their benefit and out of love). What is the purpose of just holding our opinion in our mind, and NOT helping them? When we hold it in our mind, and dwell on it and don’t let it go, we are purposefully trying to distinguish ourselves, and feed off of it to make ourselves seem better...at this point our opinion TURNS INTO A JUDGEMENT! If at any time, we find our thoughts/opinions separating ourselves from another person, we are committing what is probably the 2nd most mentioned sin in the New Testament: Judging! This is not to say that separating thing from thing or right from wrong is wrong.
Lastly, we need to be very careful not to hold another person to a standard we don’t hold ourselves, OR equally bad, to a standard that is not clearly written in the Bible. Do not try to morally police others! If you believe a standard is Biblical but cannot point that out in scripture, either from lack of knowledge, or simply because it is not actually written, then there is NO JUSTICE in discerning that issue!
To close out: We need this kind of close nit relationship with others in order to disciple and receive discipleship! The church as a whole is top on the list, having a reputation for being judgmental. We, as the church, are at our worst, when we should be at our best!
“It is ALWAYS appropriate to LOVE, it is NEVER appropriate to judge, and it is SOMETIMES appropriate to express discernment.” –Greg Boyd
Judgment
1. "You are..."
2. Destructive
3. Bad outcome
4. Creates hate
5. Separates people
6. What we can’t know (heart)
7. Not compatible with love
Discernment
1. "This feels like..."
2. Construction
3. Good outcome
4. Creates compassion
5. Separate things
6. What we can know (impact)
7. Compatible with love
Here is a compiled list of Bible verses for you to look into this for yourself:
(Matthew 7:1) (Romans 2:1) (James 4:12) (Romans 14:4) (Romans 14:10) (Romans 14:13) (1Corinthians 4:3) (John 8:15) (John 12:47-48) (Matthew 7:6) (Luke 12:57) (John 5:30) (John 7:24) (1Corinthians 5:12) (1 Corinthians 6:3) (Ephesians 4:15) (Hebrews 5:14)
