Sakai,
A reoccuring theme in your posts deserves a response:
Originally posted by Sakai
You are judging her, might gander into that bible of yours to see what Christ said about that.
&Originally posted by Sakai
I'm not speculating about crap. I never said "why" she's doing anything. I said 1) she gets to express her grief in anyway she chooses without being judged by the pastor
I take it you are referring to the statements made by Christ in Matthew 7:1-5, Mark 4:24, & Luke 6:37-42 to the effect of:
"Judge not lest you be judged" and implying that I have violated Christ's commandment in regards to Cindy Sheehan.
In understanding the meaning of these verses they are best understood in their full context, given in Matthew 7:1-5
"Judge not, that you be not judged. "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."Christ does indeed condemn the self-righteous, hypocritical, and vindictive spirit of the Pharisees - men who refused to acknowledge their own manifold sins and lack of love, and instead went about pointing out the sins of others - and Christ does indeed call his followers to manifest the Love of God by the absence of a vindicative, vengeful, self-righteous spirit, and instead to be forgiving and humble. He also calls us to high standard of personal holiness, its not just that his followers shouldn't be seeking specks, they shouldn't have logs in their own eyes either.
But his condemnation of the Pharisees hypocritical and hyper-critical judgmentalism is not a call to an utter lack of discernment, it is not a call to
never judge another person, for without the ability to judge and discern correctly how will you be able to know good from evil, truth from falsehood, light from darkness? How could we obey Christ's command in John 7:24 " "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment?" How could we indeed be able to judge the fruits of a man's ministry and determine whether he was a false prophet as Christ commanded?
What we are called to, is to judge by the right standard and in the right spirit. Not to seek out specks and gleefully condemn them according to our own manufactured standards, but to be able to exercise what Jesus called "righteous judgment" - that is a judgment of the actual situation according to God's standard and without prejudice aforethought.
As J.C. Ryle put it:
"Our Lord does not mean that it is wrong, under any circumstances, to pass an unfavorable judgment on the conduct and opinions of others. We ought to have decided opinions. We are to "prove all things." We are to "try the spirits." Nor yet does He mean that it is wrong to reprove the sins and faults of others, until we are perfect and faultless ourselves. Such an interpretation would contradict other parts of Scripture. It would make it impossible to condemn error and false doctrine. It would debar any one from attempting the office of a minister or a judge. The earth would be "given into the hands of the wicked." (Job 9:24.)
...
What our Lord means to condemn is a censorious and fault-finding spirit. A readiness to blame others for trifling offences, or matters of indifference--a habit of passing rash and hasty judgments--a disposition to magnify the errors and infirmities of our neighbors, and make the worst of them--this is what our Lord forbids. It was common among the Pharisees. It has always been common from their day down to the present time. We must all watch against it. We should "believe all things," and "hope all things "about others, and be very slow to find fault. This is Christian charity. (1 Cor. 13:7.)"Now if you believe I have judged Sheehan by a standard other than that spelled out in the bible, or that I disliked her personally and have acted maliciously and/or hypocritically, then I am eager to hear my sins in this regard that I might repent of them.
- SEAGOON
