Judging

#1 · May 20, 2007, 6:07 am

Quote from Forum Archives on May 20, 2007, 6:07 am
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
Judging

To the chief Musician upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of David.

I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever.

O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

But the LORD shall endure forever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. (Psalm 9:1-10)

Lately, I have been thinking upon the subject of judging. We all make judgments throughout the day. For instance, we say -- to ourselves, if to no one else -- "This is right." and "That is wrong." Or, perhaps we say, "They shouldn't do that!" or, "He did the right thing by his employer." On and on we could go just illustrating the fact that we all are busily deciding or discerning right and wrong.

If we are not careful though, we could become guilty of judging wrongly or of having a wrong, judgmental spirit (or attitude). We are so very limited in our knowledge of the facts. It is only God Who can judge perfectly 100% of the time. Therefore, we should be very cautious how we judge. For Jesus said,

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:1, 2)

Many would too quickly interpret these words to mean that we are never to do any judging (of any kind) at all. This is not the case, for Jesus later says in the same chapter,

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:15, 16a)

But, there is a jurisdiction of judgment that belongs to God alone. He is the ultimate judge of all the earth and He will do what is right. He alone can judge the unseen motives, the hidden things in the depths of the heart of man. He alone is flawless in His judgment. And, it is God's judgment alone that we all must finally acknowledge as true, complete, just, and without appeal.

There are many ways in which these biblical truths can be applied, but I have one in mind that we may not often ponder. It is the judging of one's self and how we handle others' judgment of us. We can certainly be too easy on ourselves. All who do so God will judge; but, we can also be too hard on ourselves. When this happens, again I say, God will be the one to judge us.

In regard to our fellow man's judgment of us, again we can take an "I don't care what they think" attitude, or on the opposite extreme, we can become "Men pleasers", where our lives become enslaved to others. God is the judge and we should let Him rule our lives and our attitudes.

When Paul was defending himself and the cause of Christ in a letter to the Corinthians, he made an interesting statement:

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord." (I Corinthians 4:3, 4)

Paul said he didn't even judge himself. The context bears out the fact that he was saying that no one's judgment of him -- not even his own -- mattered when weighed in the scales next to God's judgment of him.

Others' judgment and even our own judgment of ourselves can at times be very hurtful to us. Let us then appeal to God's judgment of ourselves in our everyday life and let Him overrule all others.

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." (I Corinthians 4:5)

Yours in Christ,
Martin Overfield

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Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>

Judging

To the chief Musician upon Muth-labben, A Psalm of David.

I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvelous works.

I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name forever and ever.

O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

But the LORD shall endure forever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. (Psalm 9:1-10)

Lately, I have been thinking upon the subject of judging. We all make judgments throughout the day. For instance, we say -- to ourselves, if to no one else -- "This is right." and "That is wrong." Or, perhaps we say, "They shouldn't do that!" or, "He did the right thing by his employer." On and on we could go just illustrating the fact that we all are busily deciding or discerning right and wrong.

If we are not careful though, we could become guilty of judging wrongly or of having a wrong, judgmental spirit (or attitude). We are so very limited in our knowledge of the facts. It is only God Who can judge perfectly 100% of the time. Therefore, we should be very cautious how we judge. For Jesus said,

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:1, 2)

Many would too quickly interpret these words to mean that we are never to do any judging (of any kind) at all. This is not the case, for Jesus later says in the same chapter,

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:15, 16a)

But, there is a jurisdiction of judgment that belongs to God alone. He is the ultimate judge of all the earth and He will do what is right. He alone can judge the unseen motives, the hidden things in the depths of the heart of man. He alone is flawless in His judgment. And, it is God's judgment alone that we all must finally acknowledge as true, complete, just, and without appeal.

There are many ways in which these biblical truths can be applied, but I have one in mind that we may not often ponder. It is the judging of one's self and how we handle others' judgment of us. We can certainly be too easy on ourselves. All who do so God will judge; but, we can also be too hard on ourselves. When this happens, again I say, God will be the one to judge us.

In regard to our fellow man's judgment of us, again we can take an "I don't care what they think" attitude, or on the opposite extreme, we can become "Men pleasers", where our lives become enslaved to others. God is the judge and we should let Him rule our lives and our attitudes.

When Paul was defending himself and the cause of Christ in a letter to the Corinthians, he made an interesting statement:

"But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord." (I Corinthians 4:3, 4)

Paul said he didn't even judge himself. The context bears out the fact that he was saying that no one's judgment of him -- not even his own -- mattered when weighed in the scales next to God's judgment of him.

Others' judgment and even our own judgment of ourselves can at times be very hurtful to us. Let us then appeal to God's judgment of ourselves in our everyday life and let Him overrule all others.

"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." (I Corinthians 4:5)

Yours in Christ,
Martin Overfield

Please pass this Bible Note along to any who might be interested or helped by it. To SUBSCRIBE to FREE Bible Notes, send an empty email to this address: bible_notes-subscribe@welovegod.org and respond to the confirmation email that will automatically be sent to you.

To read Bible Notes on the Internet and/or search the archives click on the following link:
http://welovegod.org/groups/bible_notes/

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:" (Hebrews 12:14) --To unsubscribe, send ANY message to bible_notes-unsubscribe@welovegod.org