The Alex McFarland Show-56-To Judge, or not to Judge, that is the Question

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. What does the Bible say about judgment?

Hi, Alex McFarland here. In this program we're going to talk about 13 Bible facts regarding judgment. How often have we heard the phrase nowadays that churches are too judgmental. Pastors, Christians, they're hypocrites, they're judgmental. And don't forget, probably the most famously quoted verse of our times, Matthew 7.1, do not judge or you too will be judged. You know, there was a day when probably the most famous Bible verse recited would have been John 3.16.

And, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. But nowadays, over and over, if you mention immorality, if you mention premarital sex, certainly if you mention homosexuality or transgenderism, people say, well, do not judge. Remember the Bible says don't judge.

Actually, the Bible says that Christians are to judge. And I'm going to explain about this. But as I record this program, there are a number of stories in the news that, well, a seventh grade boy in Massachusetts was sent home several days ago because he wore a t-shirt to school.

Seventh grade boy, very articulate, very intelligent young man. But he had on a shirt that said, there are only two genders. Well, he was reprimanded, the principal sent him home, and the little boy gave a very brave and articulate defense. And he said, why am I not allowed to express my opinion?

I believe that there are two genders. Well, he's correct. Science, history, logic, human biology, reality, that is, is on the side of this young man. But the seventh grade boy very, very wisely, he said, look, when I go down the hall and all around me are LGBTQ trans posters and rainbow flags. He said, I don't try to censor their expression.

Why is my expression being censored? And the principal said, quote, that he attacked a protected class of people, end of quote. Well, generally, in countries throughout history, when there is a class that the government feels needs to be protected, generally it's because the establishment is against them. The classroom, education, media, entertainment, all the voices of culture are against them. That's why the powers that be might roll up their sleeves to, quote, protect a class that is persecuted or censored or silenced. Well, let me say the LGBTQ trans voices, they have the endorsement of the government, the support of the classroom, the educational establishments, even medical science is rolling over to play dead and go along with the trans ideology.

Certainly journalism, media, entertainment, everything from Maybelline Cosmetics to Bud Light and Heiser Busch is pro-trans all of a sudden. If there's a persecuted, marginalized, silenced class that one would think would deserve the protection of the powers that be, it would be Christians and conservatives, because it's like every major cultural muscle and voice is against conservatism. So I want to talk about judgment and reality. I do want to reference, I was on a show yesterday with Dinesh D'Souza, one of the great cultural voices of our time, and Dinesh and I were talking on this program and he said, look, as a student of history, an author of many, many books, he was a policy analyst in the Reagan White House, a holder of two different degrees from Ivy League schools. But Dinesh said there's never been a time like this in Western history. He said, look, there are always sin and sinners and there have been people that are anti-God, but the trans movement is anti-reality.

And he said, you know, I'm concerned for America and even for the West, and he said for the stability of the world in general, because for the first time in known history, we have education, government, politics, celebrities, financiers, everybody that holds any slice of the pie of cultural power is on board with ideologies that are anti-reality. Now into this milieu is God's remnant of people we call the church. Now I want to give you 13 areas in which the Bible says we're to judge. Now the Greek word for judge is krino, k-r-i-n-o, rendered in English. And krino means, quote, to form an opinion or conclusion about.

It also means to separate or to sift. Now it's interesting, when the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek two centuries before the birth of Christ, that's called the Septuagint, the Hebrew word shafat, which means to rule and to judge, to assess, to resolve, the Greek word used in place of that Hebrew word is krino, which means, well, in legal terms, it speaks to the forming of official and personal judgments. Now, regarding the Matthew 7 where the Lord said, do not judge or you too will be judged, it goes on and it talks about really the criteria for judging others.

First, look at the plank in your own eye before you try to assess the speck in somebody else's eye. But what it's talking about in that larger context is that we don't make judgments, moral, spiritual, otherwise. We don't make judgments based on our own assessment. Now, in other words, let's consider someone's relationship with God or salvation. We don't say, I'm better than they are, I should go to heaven, they shouldn't. But based on the revealed word of God, not subjective opinion, but on revealed objective fact, we absolutely can know truth, we can exercise discernment. In fact, in Luke 7 43, Jesus praises Peter for making a sound judgment. Jesus asked the question and said, you know, who's going to be the most grateful? And Simon Peter in Luke 7 43 says, the one who was forgiven the most. And Jesus said, you have rightly judged. So this same word for judgment, Peter used, and Jesus says, you have judged rightly. Now, what this means is that we assess not only based on God's revelation, but based on common sense, logic. And in fact, in John 7 24, Jesus tells us to judge correctly. It literally means judge righteously. Okay, John 7 24 says, stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly. So here's a verse, John 7 24, where the Lord tells us to judge.

How? By our bias or opinion? No, righteously. By God's revealed word. Well, we have a break and we're going to come back and I'm going to give you 11 more biblical instances in which God tells his people to judge. So let's judge biblically.

And when we come back, we'll tell you how that works. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Over the last several decades, it's been my joy to travel the world talking with children, teens, adults, people of all ages about the questions they have related to God, the Bible, Christianity and how to know Jesus personally.

Hi, Alex McFarland. I want to make you aware of my book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. You know, we interviewed hundreds of children and parents and families to find out the questions that children and people of all ages are longing to find answers for. In the book, we've got practical biblical real life answers that they have about how to be a Christian in this modern world. My book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask.

You can find it wherever you buy books or at resources.afa.net. He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to The Alex McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here, so honored that you're listening. I do want to thank everybody who recently came to our conference, Truth for a New Generation in Tennessee.

It was great. We had attendees from about 12 states. And this was the 49th event like this that we've put on. Now, I've had the privilege of speaking in hundreds and hundreds of churches around the country. But in terms of a citywide event where our ministry brings in speakers and people travel, this is about the 49th event like this. And it's been our joy over the last 20 years to work with everybody from James Dobson, Chuck Colson, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, J. Warner Wallace, Ravi Zacharias. I mean, you name it, every biblical worldview speaker you've ever heard and probably a few you haven't, we have used.

And what a joy. And by the way, please keep us in prayer. We've got a number of cities that have reached out and said, please, Alex, we're begging you bring a worldview training conference to our city. And folks, we want to do that. But to do that, we need your help. I often say that in our camps, we are trying to woke-proof America's kids. And in our conferences, evangelize the lost and equip the saved.

And let me encourage you, you can give securely online at AlexMcFarland.com. And we would ask you to please pray. Our nation so desperately needs the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going forth in events, publishing and broadcasting, telling people truth.

And so if you feel led to help us, that would be most appreciated. But back to the subject of judging. Do you know 1 Corinthians 2, 15 and 16 says that we are to evaluate all things.

What? With the mind of Christ. Now, it talks about the person with the Spirit, that's Christians. We are to judge all things, but not by human judgments. Verse 16 says we have the mind of Christ. So we are told to judge. 1 Corinthians 5, 12 and 13 says that we are to judge those in the church. It says that we are to expel wicked people from among us. And it says in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 5, are you not to judge those inside?

And the answer is yes, we are. So look, false teachers, immoral people, those that would divide the church, subvert the gospel, those that would be promoting things that obstruct the gospel, those of us in the church, I think prayerfully, judiciously, lovingly, but we are to judge those in the church. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 5 says that we are to judge disputes between Christian brothers and sisters. Paul writes this, he says, I say this to shame you, is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? So in other words, when there is a dispute between believers, there should emerge Christians with scriptural literacy, knowledge of the Bible, control of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, sensibility, diplomacy, to judge things.

So absolutely. You know, it's funny, I had to sue a man a few years ago, a Christian ostensibly, but I took my car into this man's shop for some repair, and he'd kept it seven years. You think about that.

Seven years. I went, took it apart, he lost half the parts. It was a car that I was restoring, and I pled with this guy for the last couple of years, and I said, look, this is not right. And the thing was, I did something that I rarely do. He asked me to pay him up front, which I did.

I never do that. But I did, because this guy was a Christian friend, Sunday school teacher. So finally, I mean, he wouldn't return my calls.

He had kept my car for seven years. And I went by the shop one day, and one of the workers, nobody was around, most people were gone to lunch, one of the workers said, he said, Mr. McFarland, you need to know something. This man, he said, he laughs at you behind your back. He says, Alex is a preacher, he ain't gonna do nothing.

I said, really? And this worker, he said, please don't tell anybody I could lose my job. But he said, they're not gonna ever fix your car, they've sold many of the parts.

It was pretty rare car folks. He said, they laugh at you. And he says, Alex ain't going to do nothing, he's a preacher. So I went to this man's pastor, and I called the pastor of his business partner.

And I said, look, we have a dispute, 1 Corinthians 6, 5. And I said, my pastor has agreed to sit at the table, and we will abide by whatever decision you make. So this guy's pastor and his business partner's pastor, both of them said to me, said, Alex, ain't no way we're getting involved in this.

This is not our problem. I said, but look, I have a dispute, and the church is supposed to be willing to help brothers settle a dispute. They wouldn't do it, and they were young, hipster, 28-year-old pastors that were... Let me say, the heavy lifting of actual, real spiritual work is just not something a lot of some of these woke pastors are equipped for. But anyway, so I pled for several months, ended up suing the guy, and I won. He said to me, well the Bible says you're not supposed to sue a brother.

And I said, well look, I've spent seven years trying by every possible avenue, and I feel like I've exhausted every recourse, plus your pastors won't help. But at any rate, we are in the church, and we're supposed to be godly and show grace, but we are able and we are supposed to judge and help resolve problems. 1 Corinthians 14, 29 says that we are to judge what is preached in the church. Now, it says in 1 Corinthians 14, 29 that when prophets speak, others should, quote, weigh carefully what is said, end of quote.

Isn't that something? Now hopefully we've got the biblical knowledge and the discernment to judge and evaluate. And then in 2 Corinthians 11, 4, we are to judge someone's Christology, pneumatology, and soteriology. Now what is that?

You say, Alex, what are we talking about? Well it says if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Holy Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, to react, not put up with it. Okay, now Christology, what do you believe about Jesus? Pneumatology, what do you believe about the Holy Spirit?

Soteriology, from the Greek word soteros, to save. What about the gospel? So we are not to put up with false teachings about Jesus, false teachings about the Holy Spirit, or a false gospel. We are to evaluate, discern, and the litmus test for truth versus error is the Word of God. Well when we come back we're going to continue to talk about the places that the Bible instructs us to judge.

Not so that we can go around like, you know, on a moral high horse, just seeing the whole world and everybody with a jaundiced eye. But we are supposed to know truth, live truth, proclaim truth, and if need be even defend truth. So stay tuned, we'll come back and talk more about biblical judgment on this edition of the Alex McFarland program. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland a religion and culture expert.

Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. By collaborating with like-minded organizations like the Family Research Council, the Family Policy Alliance, and My Faith Votes, we mobilize by providing practical tools you can use to impact your local community. As Christians we are called to make disciples of nations. Together we can change the course of our country for good. Join Truth and Liberty to connect with believers and organizations who not only want to see a change in our nation, but a community that is actually doing something about it. Join us online for our broadcast and subscribe for relevant updates on our website, truthandliberty.net.

He's been called trusted, truthful and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarland show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here.

We're talking about Bible verses that tell Christians to judge. And we'll continue in just a moment. I do want to remind everybody that I'm going to be at the Cove July 7 through 9, 2023, the Billy Graham Training Center in western North Carolina. I'll be doing 2 Peter.

And I'll give a recap of last summer when I was at the Cove. I had the privilege of teaching 1 Peter. Now we'll do the book of 2 Peter. And the theme is thriving till he comes. Jesus is coming back.

It may be soon. And I want to encourage you to join us. We're going to drill down deeply into the Word of God. We'll have Q&A. I look forward to meeting you there. My wife Angie will be there. And people from all over the western hemisphere will pray together. We'll enjoy, really, five-star hospitality and, of course, the beauty of God's creation all around those Appalachian Mountains. And when you see the mists abate as the sun rises in the morning, you will feel close to the Lord. The website is thecove.org.

If you just Google my name in the spacebar, Alex McFarland, you'll find how to register. And I would love to see you there July 7-9 as we go through the book of 2 Peter. Well, wrapping up our talk about judging, let me give you another scripture. In 1 John 2, 18-20, we are told how to identify professed believers who are actually false believers. And it talks about knowing that those who don't stay with it. It says, they went out from us, verse 19, but they did not really belong to us.

For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know the truth. In other words, professed but false believers.

If they were really true believers, they would stay with Christ and truth, but you can know they were false. This is discernment. This is evaluation, adjudication. But let me drill down into Ephesians 5-11. This is the ninth scripture that speaks to judging and discernment. We are told to expose sinful actions.

Now that is only possible if we are able to recognize what sinful actions are. It says, quote, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. And just as krino is the Greek word for judgment with many, many variations about forming an opinion, sifting, discerning. In Ephesians 5-11, another interesting word, elegcho, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, the word translated expose means show to be guilty. If somebody says, well judge not that you be not judged, just remind them that we are, while Matthew 7-1 is saying we're not to judge based on our own opinion, but 13 passages, and there are three dozen more I could give, 13 passages tell us that we are to judge if the measuring stick, the standard by which we evaluate, is the Word of God. And here in Ephesians 5-11, we are told to expose, in other words, quote, show to be guilty sinful actions. Now Matthew 7, 15 and 16, we're told to watch out for and recognize false teachers. It says, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Now this is like a word used in Colossians 2-8 that we'll get to in just a moment, but it means to beware of.

And what's interesting, the Greek word here, which I'll elaborate in a moment, it also means to prosecute. In other words, acknowledge, call out, avoid false teachers like ravening wolves. So we are told to judge morally, theologically, experientially. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 2 says that one day Christians will judge the world, and now, listen, are competent to judge temporal things. So according to 1 Corinthians 6 verse 2, brothers and sisters, get used to judging, because one day Christians will judge the world. It says, do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world?

And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? That's like why the pastors ideally should have helped me, or at least been willing to sit down and hear my grievance about the gentleman who kept my car seven years. Because we are, since we have the mind of Christ, and we have the Word of God, we are able to judge things and to use our godly influence to act redemptively in the lives of people.

Not just to beat down, but to help restore. Now, Christians are to judge and discern the false worldviews present around them and take care not to be deceived by them. Let me give you a scripture here. Colossians 2 verse 8 says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Now the word there, which is also found in Matthew 7, is lepo, b-l-e-p-o, a Greek word when rendered in English, and it does mean watch out, beware, take care.

It's almost like shouting out, you know, danger, danger. And it means prosecute. In other words, spy out the land, listen to the words, evaluate in light of scripture, and don't be deceived or ensnared by false philosophies, false teaching, false worldviews. And so if someone says, well, you can't judge, who's to say? You're a Christian, you believe in Jesus, what about the Muslims, they believe in Allah? Listen, we have the objectively, factually true Word of God. We have Jesus, the Son of God, who rose from the dead. We have the Bible, a book shown to be inspired by compelling lines of evidence. And we have the moral law written on the hearts of all people. All people know right from wrong. Folks, listen, we have common sense in human biology. We're living, as Dinesh D'Souza said, in a time of anti-reality. I mean, even as I record this, the colleges of America are putting in the men's restroom female sanitary products.

Because, and I can't believe that this was in the news, because of male menstruation. There is no such thing. And yet, in some quarters, you could lose your job or be subject to litigation if you said differently. But do you know what the word BLEPO, B-L-E-P-O, means, according to many, well really all of the Greek lexicons, quote, to see something physical with spiritual results. In other words, perceive the spiritual results. All around us are people that are lost, people that are dying, people that are unsaved, people that need desperately to know Jesus Christ.

And so we are to speak truth. And that's going to require making decisions as led by the Holy Spirit, as informed by the Word of God. Because finally, John 12 48, Jesus said this, listen to this, there is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words. The very words I've spoken will condemn them at the last day. So what is John 12 48 saying? God and His Word will ultimately judge all people in light of their response to Jesus Christ. God absolutely will judge the world in righteousness. And until that day, the church left in this world to be His representatives. We are to judge, speak truth, and help people extricate themselves from the snares of falsehood and deception that imperils their very soul.

So folks, by God's Word, let's go forth, let's judge and discern and have the courage to speak truth. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Or by calling 1-877-YES-GOD and the number 1.

That's 1-877-YES-GOD1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show. So visit the website, AlexMcFarland.com, and look for the section that says, Ask Alex online.