When we walk with the LORD it is important to fear him and not man. What fearing man looks like, is not standing up for the Word of the Lord for fear that people will label you, not like you, that you will lose their friendship. So rather than standing firm and speaking his truth in love, you bend to the world and allow the opinions of others to pull you away from His truth. You will seek to recognition of others, their approval, you will people please. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” Matthew 6:24 says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” So you have to decide, will you serve God or will you serve man? “...choose this day whom you will serve…(Joshua 24:15).”
One of the things you will see the most when Christians speak out against sin is, “judge not.” People will literally come out of the wordworks to place an attack on what they call judgment. But what does God say? Does God want Christians to judge, and if so, to what capacity and how? Let’s take a look…
John 7:24 says, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
So then we need to ask ourselves, what is righteous judgment? What does according to appearance mean? Who is Jesus talking to when he says this? And what are we to do with this?
Let's start with righteousness, the definition according to Merriam Webster is " morally good, following moral or religious laws."
Using the same Source, they Define appearance as, " external show," " outward aspect."
Galatians 6:1 says, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."
The Great Commission is to spread the word of God. We are also told that we cannot please God and please man. What that means is that there are some things in the gospel that people will be offended by and we will have to make a decision, do we choose to not offend people with the gospel truth or do we choose to walk in the truth of God?
So God does want us to walk with each other and correct each other but it has to be done the correct way as it says in Galatians with gentleness. We are to love each other and help each other with our walk. We also need to check our heart and our motive on correcting somebody. Are we correcting them for egotistical matters come up or are we correcting them to be God's hands and feet?
Matthew 7:1-5 says, " judge“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."
What Matthew 7 is referring to here is a gossip kind of judging. For example this would be something like, a person who sits at home drinking and getting drunk quite frequently, but then talking to a friend and saying I can't believe so and so always goes to the bars and drinks. This is the type of person that needs to take a look at their own life, go through sanctification, and then speak with that other person and help them along as well. But as you can see from above, we are to judge righteously which means having biblical discernment and helping others to turn from sin and be saved from the fire.
Furthermore, if we don’t tell people the truth and warn them of their sin to pull them from the fire we are responsible for their spiritual death. Ezekiel 3:18-19 says, “If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.”
You see, it is up to us to warn, to speak the truth, to let people know what God calls sin. However, it is not up to us to change them. God gives us free will and they, now knowing have a choice to make. Will they serve God, or will they serve man? The Holy Spirit will do the work, our job is to warn and pray.
I hope this blesses you!
