Joshua Hawk

There has been a lot of backlash in the wake of Lauren Daigle’s recent appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show and for an answer provided in an interview when asked about homosexuality. Now I am not here to talk about whether I agree with her or not. I think it’s obvious that Lauren is trying to avoid stepping on any career ending landmines planted by cancel culture zealots. But what has appalled me the most is there is a divide amongst Christians in regards to all of this; specifically comments made on YouTube and on social media. Half of the comments condemn Lauren for her actions and the other half say, “judge not.” There’s no question that dissension reflects poorly on the Christian faith, especially those done on a public forum; but I am sick and tired of Christians using the judge-not card. It has become a twisted mantra that people safely cower behind to block out comments they consider negative or offensive.

A few years ago, I saw a meme that was humorous yet sadly true. It was a screenshot of the Bible app on Matthew 7. The caption said, “How people read the Bible today.” In this screenshot of Matthew 7, the entire passage was scribbled out except for two words  – “Judge Not.” Sadly, I have ran into many Christians like this who cherry pick the verses they like from the Bible and ignore the rest of scripture. The scripture verses that are cherry picked the most are usually Matthew 7:1, John 8:7, and a handful of verses about love. Because the rest of scripture is often ignored, people have no idea that correction and discipline are a necessary part of the maturing process.

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:1-4 NIV

Paul charges us to preach, correct, rebuke and encourage. The two words I want to focus on is “correct” and “rebuke.” The Greek word Paul uses for “correct” is the word elegchō which is defined as “to convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove.” Secondly, the Greek word Paul uses for “rebuke” is the word epitimaō which is defined as “to charge.” 

We live in an overly-sensitive world where outrage and offense is the default reaction to anything that opposes sin. To tell a fault or to correct someone is often taken offensively and retorted with “judge not.” This kind of reaction is proof a lot of Christians no longer know the difference between correction and judgment. Again, Paul charges us to correct those at fault but why would Paul tell us to do this when Jesus specifically taught “do not judge?” Scripture doesn’t contradict itself because it is the inspired word of God so clearly there is a misinterpretation somewhere. To figure out where the misinterpretation lies, let’s go back to Matthew 7.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:1-2 NIV

The Greek word that Matthew uses for “judge” is the word krinō. Right off the bat we can see this a completely different word from the two words Paul uses in 2 Timothy 4. Krinō is defined as “to punish, avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, go to court, sue, call in question.” Krinō is a harsher word that deals with punishment often done through legal recourse. Jesus never said, “do not correct” or “do not discipline.” What Jesus said was, “do not punish.” Let’s keep reading.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5 NIV

Here we see Jesus shifts the focus of His message to address hypocrisy; specifically the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus addresses their hypocrisy in another instance found in John 8:1-11. A woman was caught committing adultery against her husband and is about to be executed for her sin. Jesus stops the execution by convicting the stone throwers of their own sins. The Pharisees were quick to punish sinners by putting them to death with stones but they too were sinners in their own self righteousness! The fault wasn’t the act of correction or discipline; the fault was hypocrisy!

Jesus was loving and patient with sinners but He was very hard on those who were religious and knew better. Paul’s approach was the same. The reason is because they understood the principle that judging sinners is God’s business but judging brothers and sisters of the faith is our responsibly. In response to a man engaging in incest, Paul told the Corinthian church,

“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 NIV

Back to Matthew 7, Jesus taught it was ok to judge brothers and sisters but He also added a caveat to rule; it must be done without hypocrisy. Jesus never said “do not remove the speck from your brother’s eye” but rather “first remove the plank from your own eye then you can see clearly to remove the speck in your brother’s eye.” It is NOT wrong to correct and discipline brothers and sisters who are in error but Jesus cautions us that we need to be innocent of any wrong doing before doing so.

A comment I hear a lot, especially by other believers in the church, is “we’re all sinners. It’s not our place to judge.” This comment bothers me for so many reasons. For one, this statement is flat out wrong. Scripture says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 NIV. Scripture never says, ‘for everyone is a sinner and remain in their sin after salvation.’ Born again Christians saved by grace are no longer “sinners” but are justified by Christ’s shed blood. (Romans 5). And two, Christians are called to preach the truth of the gospel and to rescue souls; not to let the lost remain comfortably in their sin!

“We cannot afford to let down our Christian standards just to hold the interest of people who want to go to hell and still belong to a church.” – A.W. Tozer

Correction and discipline is a form of love. “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” Revelation 3:19 NIV. The most loving thing we can do towards brothers and sisters is to discipline and nurture each other so we grow into healthy trees that produce GOOD fruit! Discipline is inherently a tough pill to swallow and it hurts to be pruned but it is for our advantage. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 NIV

Jesus corrected the Scribes and Pharisees on many occasions. In Matthew 23, Jesus called the Scribes and Pharisees blind, hypocrites, white washed tombs full of dead bones, and brood of vipers. Those are some pretty harsh words but correction and discipline is not the same thing as “judging.” Some Christians like to dispute this by saying Jesus was the son of God and had no sin thus only He has the authority to judge. To those individuals I point out the following: In Acts 7:51-53, Stephen, a man full of faith and power, rebuked the entire Sanhedrin for killing Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul rebuked a man who was sleeping with his step mother and charges the Corinthian church to throw out this individual! In Galatians 2:11-21 Paul rebuked Peter for refusing to eat with Gentiles in the company of Judaizers. In James 4:1-10 James rebuked fellow Christians for being double-minded adulterers.

Correction and discipline is necessary to ensure growth. It is important we understand that tolerance is not love. When sin goes unchecked or undisciplined for too long, it festers and ultimately leads to death. My friends, it is important we correct one another righteously with love and without hypocrisy. Please do not be one of those incorrigible “judge not” Christians to avoid offending people or to avoid having your toes stepped on. When faced with correction and discipline, we can either get upset out of pride or we can humble ourselves and repent. Which person will you choose to be?