Oh my.  I guess you would call me judgmental. I do judge.  I am sure we all do to one extent or another.  Not outwardly perhaps, but I can very well spot something I don’t like in another person.  Hey, I’m a Christian. That’s wrong!  The Torah of God which Jesus quotes says……”Love your neighbor as yourself”. We call it the Golden Rule.  It’s not an option.  We are so commanded.  This type of judging is petty and sinful.

Here’s another one. “Judge not, that you be not judged.”  People who don’t even read the Bible know that one.  Without reading the Bible. they have only heard  that verse  and use it frequently against  Christians or those whom they consider are judging their actions.  By the way, that verse comes from Matthew 7:1.   Here’s lies a problem for them.

When you tell someone he has no right to judge someone else, they have judged you for judging!  My, what a conundrum!  Each one of us has a world view on which we base our lives…..suppositions on which we operate  and upon which we make our decisions.  Christians should be basing their decisions, their life style, their world view on what we understand in the Bible.

Ask the man on the street if lying is wrong.  Of course, he would say “yes”.  “My parents taught me or it just is wrong.” Parents should be honored but at the same time they are not the final authority on matters of morality.  They are mere humans whose opinions are subject to change.

It is a worthy exercise to ask ourselves where we get the moral values that govern our lives.  Is it each person for himself or do we acknowledge a higher power with authority to declare such?  Perhaps we feel that’s its ok to do something if it isn’t hurting anyone else. For example…  watching pornography by oneself is rationalized by saying that it isn’t actually hurting anyone. That means that we are making our own moral decisions  based on what we want to believe rather than submitting to God.

All my thoughts on this don’t mean anything.  But I defer to my “higher authority”…the only One who has priority to set the rules.  Perhaps, I would be more lenient with moral behavior.  But I didn’t make the rules.  God did.  Now, if you don’t believe that God cares about what you do…then perhaps you had better change your mind.  I’m not your judge.  I am only judging your behavior in the light of what God tells us.  Don’t blame me.  But I do believe that we all must answer for our behavior sooner or later.

 So can I as a Christian, judge your behavior? Yes!!… I also believe that as a Christian I am morally obligated to judge immoral behavior. There are many examples in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament of God using people speaking out against immoral behavior.  I am not being” holier than thou.”  I am guilty of sin as much as anyone.  But I do know that whatever I do or say must be pleasing or displeasing to God.  I must do my best to follow what He has declared in His Word.  He has set the perimeters of my behavior.   He is the absolute authority on judgment.

So when we allow others to intimidate us with the words on judging…or they say, “who are you to judge me?” then you can rightly say to them…”I didn’t set the rules.”