“Judge not…”  (Christ’s Sermon From The Mount)

 

Another action that demonstrates one’s spiritual immaturity is the judgementall spirit and enjoyment in judgeing another. The subject of judging can be a confusing but it need not be. To clear up this subject we will put it this way. The Christ-ian is to judge all things but not to be judgmental.

In other words the Christ-ian is to judge all things such as right/wrong, good/bad, true/false. However he is not to do so with a judgemental spirit. He is to judge all things on the merit of that which is being judged. If something is bad it is bad based on the Word of God and not upon the person performing the act.

As to the often misinterprted, “judge not lest thou be judged…” This passge being one of the most often misinterperted and misapplied passages need not be.  The truth simply means, the one judging will be judged according to the standard of judging hhe has set. In other word, If you state that a person should have his/her hand chopped of if he steals, then you have subjected yourself to the same manner of judgement if you steal.

If you take pleasure in the judgement of another your heart is in the wrong place you are spiritually immature. If you find yourself on the wrong side of the truths as laid out up above, you are spritually childish.

If we are to judge all things according to 2 Corinthians 2, how are we to go about that?
First, we are to judge our selves before we judge another. Before we set out to judge another individual, let ss judge ourself and and determine where we went wrong and confess this to God before we ever judge another. Once we have examined ourself and made confession, let us determine to me merciful when judging another before we detremine anothet to be guilty. Once all of that has been accomplished, let us bring up our brother’s sin before him in love while a;ways remember our weaknesses.

Let us remember that the whole purpose of going to the brethen with his sin is to help him get things right before him and God. If all is rectified between God and the brother praise God for His mercy to the brother and yourself and God. You have won your brother back to God and love has covered a multitude of sin!!!
If your brother takes offense and refuses to come to God, then he must be approached again but this time you must bring another along. If the brother agains to repent then he must bee brought to God and the entire Church body. If this also fails, he must be sent from the body of Christ until he repents. This is never easy but these stepd must be followed in order to keep order in the Church.

But again, no enjoyment must be had in this process.

And again, if you find pleasure during any part of this process, you are spiritually immature and this immaturity should be dealt with before you take part in any part of what we have just written.

Another trait that determines spiritual immaturity is pleasure in legalism.  I have spoken to many different “stripes of professing believers and I must confess that one of the most trying to my patience is the legalistic believers.  The legalist will always find away to turn a conversation to legals no matter how spiritual the discussion may be.  One can be discusssing prayer and the legalist will change it into women in pants or listening to the type of music being played while one is praying. The legalist will change a discussion into something that will point to himself and he will have a self satisfying smile as he does so. The legalistic believing is on of the last persons I find myself seeking to dialogue with.

My point being, the legalist is one of the most sriritually immature believer there is, for he is the type that will always turn the discussion to himself and he will do so while judging another…ugh.

Godspeed.