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You Be the Judge

Beat Deception With Discernment

I read an article by Bob DeWaay recently and most of this rumination is based on his work.  

How often do we hear “Don’t be judgy” by people who appear to have read only one Biblical passage, “Do not judge lest you be judged”? It’s in Matthew and it’s valid.  Then there’s  “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” It’s 1 Corinthians 2:15 and it’s valid.

The common thread between these seemingly divergent commands is the value and protection of the sheep.  You don’t want to break their hearts and you fight to make sure they aren’t torn apart by wolves.

In the first setting, Jesus has been warning about personal motives and sin and so the warning to not judge is in the setting of favorably comparing ourselves to others and passing judgment on their hearts.  That’s strictly God’s role and we dare not cross that line, or we shouldn’t.  “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts, and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” – 1 Corinthians 4:5.

In our ignorance and presumption, we can damage the beloved flock and we do so based on nothing more than inflated self-esteem.

Do you know what else damages the flock?  Wolves.

So this is where we let ‘er rip   

When we are assessing who is a wolf and who is not, we have the word of God as the standard. “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them“. Acts 20:28-30

Now if your pastor is a good shepherd and not just a hireling, he will have the profound knowledge and fortitude to protect the flock.  It’s his responsibility to make sure the sheep are safe from wolves thus there must be some way to identify who is a wolf and who is not because some will spring up from among our own selves.  

We know that wolves ‘speak perverse things’ which are twisted or distorted scriptures.  They do this to draw disciples after them, they are looking for followers of themselves and their peculiar doctrines (i.e. ‘fresh, new revelations’).  “Their interest is money, not the safety of the sheep.  Jesus is the true shepherd, and the under-shepherds (pastors) are to feed the sheep the pure words of God and guard them from perverted words.  Those who refuse to do so are hirelings.” – Bob Dewaay

When false teaching is allowed into a church, people’s salvation is at risk.  The current tsunami of delusion and lack of discernment, popularly known as ‘tolerance, unity and love’ is causing many pastors to ignore “Holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict”.  Titus 1:9

The duties of pastors and elders are very clear in Acts 20.  They are to teach true doctrine, correct false doctrine, and protect the flock from the wolves.  Sadly, those who do so today are often accused of being divisive or sinning because they have “judged” when Jesus told us not to judge.  This is a fundamental error.  We are not to judge motives or relative degrees of righteousness, but we must judge public teaching.

This will bring you into conflict with people, some of them pastors, who have only a shallow understanding of the Word.  You will be told to “zip it” and to never publicly contradict what is being broadcast from a far-reaching pulpit.  The truth is public teaching is an open matter.  Often pastors will quote Matthew 18, and tell you to go to your brother in private.  That’s another fundamental error and also a sign your pastor doesn’t know scripture sufficiently.  You go to your brother in private when you know he is in sin and is hiding it.  It’s a way to help bring him into the light and back to the path.  Public teaching is a different matter entirely.  It’s already in the public domain, no sense in trying to close that barn door when the horse is running free.

“What often happens today is that public teachers proclaim false doctrines.  When confronted about this, they point to an orthodox statement of faith.  But what they teach publicly is damaging to those who hear them.  Whatever they may claim to believe, their public false teaching needs to be publicly confronted.” – Bob DeWayy

If we refuse to judge and correct false teaching, we’re throwing the sheep to the wolves.  What would Jesus do?