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If you ever want to create a hostile environment in your Bible study class, just bring up this quote from Jesus and ask others for their opinion on what it means.  As a teacher I’ve had numerous people throw this scripture in my face, especially if I said something that they didn’t agree with. 

As a teacher I know that I’m fair game for such comments, but let’s take a look to see how the Christian is to behave when it comes to following this command from Jesus.

If we take Jesus literally, then what would happen to rapists, pedophiles, and murderers?  We’d have Jeffrey Dahrmer as our pastor and Charles Manson teaching Bible study.  But let’s overlook the extreme for a minute.

We have other seemingly contradictory statements made by both Jesus and Paul against taking it literally that we have to resolve first. 

In the same sermon where Jesus tells us not to judge, he says:

Matthew 7:6 (KJV)
⁶ Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

I think that it requires a certain amount of judgement to consider which people are dogs and swine doesn’t it?

And in the opening sentences of his letter to the Galatians Paul says:

Galatians 1:6-9 (KJV)
⁶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
⁷ Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Notice that Paul even says this twice just to be sure that we get it.

But how does one decide if someone is accursed without judging them?

And once again we have Jesus himself commanding us:

Matthew 18:15-17 (NET1)
¹⁵ “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault when the two of you are alone.  If he listens to you, you have regained your brother.  
¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you, so that at the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be established.
¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.  If he refuses to listen to the church, treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector.

Jesus isn’t suggesting here that we simply ignore a person’s sins and let them carry on without interference.  He’s telling us to take action against the individual that might even wind up in excommunication or shunning. 

But, on the other hand, doesn’t Jesus tell us to love our neighbor as well as our enemy?

And we have Paul also speaking about love:

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NET1)
⁷ It (meaning love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

So, if we love others then we must believe everything that they say and endure whatever they do.  Right?

How then do we put these verses together to resolve these seemingly contradictory scriptures?  Is Paul exaggerating simply for effect?

These are not easy to resolve if we look at them as individual statements without any context.  So, to summarize, we can’t judge, yet we must be able to determine who are like dogs and swine.  And we can’t judge yet we must be able to declare someone as accursed and remove them from the congregation, if necessary.  

Let’s begin by looking carefully at what Jesus taught in Matthew in the context of the rest of his sermon.  But let’s look carefully at some of these other verses:

 Matthew 7:1-6 (KJV)
¹  Judge not, that ye be not judged.
²  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
³  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
⁴  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
⁵  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
⁶  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Right after Jesus tells us not to judge he clarifies what he means by that.  Several points are clear.  Jesus had a different way of handling sin then the Pharisees and the lawyers.  Instead of focusing on looking for the sin in the other person, determining their guilt, and then administering punishment as prescribed by the law, Jesus taught that we must first look for sin in ourselves.  This is an application of what we learned in the previous video on The Search for Truth.  Truth begins by looking into ourselves to be sure that we are walking in truth before we try to help others; otherwise, we are the blind simply leading the blind. 

If we find ourselves without guilt, we must then approach the sinner with the intention of helping them rid themselves of the sin rather than in the spirit of judgment.  There is no condemnation and punishment in Jesus’ approach. 

In other verses Jesus tells us that if the person rejects our offer, we are to simply withdraw from that person and have nothing more to do with them.  But if they should repent, we must forgive them and welcome them back into the church.  There is no punishment for their sin that must first be administered such as a fine or public scourging prior to restitution.

So, Jesus is not telling us that we shouldn’t recognize sin when we see it and then do nothing about it.  He is saying that we should first be sure that we know what the sin is and not be hypocritical by committing a worse sin ourselves.  But if we love our brother, we should offer them help so that they might confess and overcome their sin and be restored in faith. 

In Galatians Paul is completely correct and in agreement with Jesus in how he advises us to handle sinners or those who pervert the gospel.  We should keep away from them and have nothing to do with them if they ignore our correction and help. 

And on the question of love believing all things and enduring all things, we cannot simply take this scripture alone in isolation of other scriptures or life would become total chaos.  We learned that truth must come first if we walk with God.  And the same thing is true here.  We certainly must be motivated by love in order to help others, but love must be filtered by truth.  Truth filters out lies and deception.  In this way, we are not asked to believe all things including lies, but we must listen carefully to find out if it is truth or error. 

Paul says this in the verse right before this one:

⁶ It (meaning love) is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.

So, when the JWs or Mormons come to the door, we are not commanded to believe everything that they tell us without question out of love.  We are commanded to determine if what they are telling us is true or false and only believe that which is true.    

So, Christian judgment comes from the spirit of truth, not from the spirit of judgment nor hypocrisy or even from revenge as it did with the Pharisees.  And our love for others is not blind love, but a love that sees things in the light, which is the light of truth. 

1 John 4:1 (KJV)
¹ Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

The Greek word try means to test its truthfulness and whether it comes from God.  Once again truth takes precedence over everything else.

1 John 4:6 (KJV)
⁶ We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us.  Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Here John is dividing knowledge into that which is truth and that which is error.  Because we are walking in truth, we are familiar with truth and know what truth sounds like and looks like so that we can judge truth over error.  This is how we can also judge those who are walking in truth or error.  True divination of truth and error comes from knowing and walking with God.

So according to scripture, truth must always take precedence in our judgment—even in our love.  In a way we are not judging the person but judging the truth.  Are they walking in the truth as they claim?  Are they teaching the truth as they claim?  We can’t avoid some form of judgment if we are seeking to follow after the truth.