I had quite an interesting—and frankly quite shocking—revelation the other day. I’ve always thought that as Christians, we are supposed to love one another and not judge or condemn. That it was God’s place to judge and that whenever we were judgmental, we were violating God’s intention for our relationships with each other.
Then I read 1 Corinthians 5:12, which reads in part, “it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.” (NLT). Ouch….
There are many people whom I have criticized for their judgment of others (including of me). I held myself up in my own mind as more righteous because I wasn’t judgmental and didn’t condemn. I was the “better” Christian because I loved instead of judging.
Of course, I was doing exactly what I said I wasn’t doing—I was judging them for being judgmental. And now I find out they were doing exactly what they were supposed to do!
It took me a while to reconcile all of this in my mind. I’m not entirely sure I have it all figured out yet, but as best I can work it out, here’s how I understand what God wants from us.
Our first and most important command is to love one another. Everything we do should be in love, and out of a desire to love. To non-Christians, especially, our only goal is to love them unconditionally and completely. To care for them and embrace them and surround them with our love—which is a representation of God’s love for them. Our love makes God’s love real to people who may not recognize it without us.
We are also to love other Christians—they are our brothers and sisters, after all. They are family, and loving family is not optional. But—and this is where 1 Corinthians 5 comes in—there are going to be times when believers stray from God’s will and they sin. Of course, everyone sins, so this in itself isn’t license to judge them. When they sin openly and flagrantly and without repentence, however, it is our job to judge them—to hold up their actions to the light of scripture and decide whether it lines up. Granted, no one else can see inside my heart to know if I’m truly being repentent or not, but that’s where they would need to rely on God’s Spirit and their instincts to decide to judge me and confront me. If my behavior and attitude don’t match my words, then they must confront me, point out my errors, and if I am obstinate, then I’m no longer a brother in Christ. “God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, ‘You must remove the evil person from among you.’” (1 Corinthians 5:13, NLT).
But here’s the thing. This doesn’t mean we eject a sinner from the church, wash our hands of them, and reject them. Quite the opposite: “remove them from among you” I think means to treat them as unbelievers—which means we go back to loving them unconditionally and connecting them back to God again. Ultimately, though we are to judge the believers who are sinning, it is God’s job to do the conviction and impose the penalty, not ours. Even in our judgment, I think we have to continue to love each other.
It’s easy to be judgmental. It’s a little harder to love unconditionally. But to be judgmental of a fellow Christian who is sinning while still loving him unconditionally? That’s next to impossible. But I think it’s ultimately what God wants.
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