"Only God Can Judge Me"

I spent ten and a half hours in the chair of Jered Peters getting my most recent tattoo.  He did a great job, and I highly recommend him if you are thinking about getting one.  Near the end of that time, we started talking about judgment. He said that he does a ton of "Only God Can Judge Me" tattoos.  I personally believe that tattoos should be personal and of unique meaning to the owner.  It does not seem worth the pain or the money otherwise.  I don't know if I can call the OGCJM tat the most common script out there, but it is certainly not unique by any stretch of the imagination.  The interesting thing about that tattoo is the improper, negative view of judgment it portrays.

I hear Christians all the time saying, "I can't judge" or "You can't judge me" to other believers.  Excuse me, but not only can you judge the actions and words of other believers, YOU ARE TOLD BY GOD TO DO SO! "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?  Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?  Do you not know that we are to judge angels?  How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!" (1 Corinthians 6:1-3).  

You might be a little confused at this point.  Doesn't the Scripture say, "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1)?  Yes, it does, but quoting that to support the idea of not judging the actions of other believers is a classic example of taking a verse out of context.  Here is the verse in context:  "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.  Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matthew 7:1-5).  If Jesus was telling us not to judge, why is he then telling us to judge in verse five?  "Take the speck out of your brother's eye."  The truth is that Jesus is not telling us not to judge.  He is telling us how to judge correctly.  Remove sin from yourself before judging it in others.  In other words, do not be a hypocrite and judge against someone who is sinning while you are wrapped in sin yourself.

If it is not "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1), the words of Jesus taken out of context are often, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone" (John 8:7).  The mistaken interpretation of this verse is that no one can judge because everyone has sinned.  That is a nice, comforting thought to those who like to sin a lot because it allows them to hurl a stone right back at anyone they feel is revealing the fact that they did wrong.  I am sorry, but this is no shield for your wrong-doing.  Jesus is not saying that you have to be sinless to judge.  If taken to its conclusion, that reasoning states that Jesus was in opposition to the Law of Moses and was publicly condemning it.  He would therefore be committing Himself to abolishing the Law and replacing it with lawlessness.  Jesus was no anarchist.  In fact, He supported the Law because He was God and gave the Law on Sinai.  He came to fulfill the Law, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17).  Would Jesus stop a lawful execution under the Law of Moses.  Absolutely not.  The Law is just.  "Without sin" in this context is correctly understood as "without [this] sin."  Think about it.  How did those who brought the woman know where and when to catch this woman in adultery?  Adultery is not one of those sins that people commit out in the open, especially in a society that punishes it by bashing your skull with rocks until you die.  If these Pharisees and scribes knew where and when to find this women, they were probably visitors themselves.  They were adulterers and guilty of the same crime.  Someone who is guilty of the crime is not a legitimate witness against the same crime.  They just sent a guy over there to bed her and walked on over and arrested her.  Notice how he wasn't there?  Did they not have enough people in their mob to get him, too?  The penalty for him is death also, but why would they throw their buddy up there to die?  Jesus, like in all the other situations they tried to trap Him in, sees right through to their hearts.  He upholds the Law and says, "Go ahead and execute her...  if you can do it lawfully."  They couldn't.  They were guilty, too, and they should have been stoned along with her.  After that, Jesus forgives her, as only He could do, and then tells her to stop sinning.

These days, church discipline is one of those things that is often ignored.  Yet in those verses we see judgment at the level of the individual believer.  "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" (Matthew 18:15-17).  It tells the individual believer that if another believer sins against you, you do not have to get approval of the church.  You do not have to confirm with other believers that what they did is sin.  You, as the believer, have the Holy Spirit.  You can judge whether it is sin or not.  Go in love and get the matter resolved.  Also, notice that the other believers and the church are not told to reevaluate whether or not the offense was sin.  The judgment is solely that of the individual sinned against.  How can church discipline exist if no one can judge?  It can't, and unfortunately, with our churches embracing no judgment, it isn't being enacted when it should be.  The result is sin infesting our churches, and why should we expect God to bless us when we allow sin to run wild consuming people in His church!

Believers, there is no justice without judgment.  Do not be deceived by Satan into thinking you cannot judge the actions and words of others saved by grace.  You can and should.  However, in doing so, do not fall in the other trap of Satan and start condemning them.  Even as you judge, you judge in love for the good of the sinner.  Your goal is reconciliation, not condemnation.  It is only when the one who is confronted refuses to repent are they cast out for the good of the body.

As it concerns unbelievers...  we cannot judge them.  "For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you'" (1 Corinthians 5:12-13).  If they have not committed to following Jesus, they cannot be expected to live as one of His people.  Don't judge their actions.  Love them as Jesus loves you.  By His grace they may yet be saved.

Notice though, even as the Scripture says not to judge unbelievers, it tells us to judge believers!  Do not let Satan deceive you!  You must judge for the sake of other believers and the good of the church.  God will not bless a church in which sin is allowed to run wild.  Why should He?  A church that does that is negligent, and it does not deserve God's blessing.

Put God first and purge sin from the church!

Tattoos & Other Things

I was watching a recent episode of the show, Sons of Guns.  It looked interesting, so I thought I would check it out.  During the show, I heard that one of the guys, Vince, had recently left the show for whatever reason.  The boss and the people who worked in the shop seemed to have some different feelings about him and about his leaving.  Being interested in people, this peaked my curiosity.  I looked up the guy's profile online http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/sons-of-guns/bios/vincent-buckles-bio.html and started to read.  When I did, I came across this post:

Joe Conway · Retired!!! at Retired

and he is lieing about being a christian to no way a christian would act like that and by the way if hes religous why does he got tatts it says in bible thats a sin

Now, I have no idea how Vince acted, so I certainly cannot comment on that area.  He could have been a big baby about something, or he could have been acting in accordance with how God wanted him to.  I don't know.  I would like to comment on two ideas coming out in this post, though.

The first comment is on tattoos because it is the easiest.  This is the response I wrote to Joe.


Joe Conway, the Scripture that you refer to is in the Old Testament (OT). It is says, "You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:28). However, you have to be careful about using OT passages as prooftexts for how Christians should conduct themselves or for what we can/cannot do in the present age. The New Testament (NT) says, "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:13-14). This means that Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Law on the cross when He died giving us freedom from the only outcome of that law, death, because we cannot fulfill it ourselves, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). Now, there is still a standard for how Christians are to behave today. They come in passages such as when Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37b-39). This was taken from the OT as a standard, but it is given again in the NT. That is a good way of knowing whether something is still applicable to the present age of grace.

I wanted to let you know, not to tell you that you're wrong, but to help you be better informed. I am glad to see when someone brings the Bible into any discussion. By the way, I have a tattoo, and I am planning to get another.
Pastor Levi Buchanan

The writing is in Hebrew translated, "King of Kings."

For a lot of people in the church, tattoos are still taboo.  This has nothing to do with tattoos being morally or ethically wrong.  One can see this if you look at the fact that many people outside the church believe tattoos are ugly or wrong, too.  They aren't in and of themselves.  If they portray or say something wrong, that is a different story.  It is just like books... or art may be a better example, since tattoos are basically art on skin.  Books and art are neither good or bad.  However, both have the ability to become good or bad based on the message they give.  A book becomes life-giving if printed upon its pages are Scripture.  The same book becomes an abomination if the title page reads, "The Turner Diaries."  The reason some people have a problem with them, if it goes beyond not wanting one themselves, is culture and tradition.  A couple generations ago, our culture associated tattoos with a lower class of people.  Tattoos were not necessarily safe either.  They were much more prone to infection and disease fifty years ago.  Today they are safe, clean, and often used to proclaim the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior.  So, those of you who love tattoos and don't understand why the older generation can't jump on board, cut them some slack.  Those of you who look at any tattoo with disdain, how can anything that proclaims Christ as King be wicked?


The second is on the idea of judging someone as a Christian.  Now, whether Joe's judgment is correct or not, there is both good and bad in his statement.  First, the good.  A believer can be shown to be a true believer by their fruit.  


Matthew writes in his gospel, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.  You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?  So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.  A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.   Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Thus you will recognize them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:15-20).


You will know false prophets by their fruit.  This means that you will also know those who do come in the name of God by their fruit.  You can see any Christian by their fruit.  What is this fruit?  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22).  It is not to say that every Christian would have these characteristics in abundance.  However, if a believer is walking with God and not backsliding, these characteristics will be increasing as the believer is becoming more and more like Jesus, who not only has these characteristics in perfection but gives this fruit out of His overflowing cup.


Now, the bad.  The way Joe's statement comes across is arrogant and seems to come out of condemning heart. If you are in The Forge, you may remember how we talked about the difference between judging and condemning.  As Christians, we make judgment calls all the time, and we should.  We make judgment calls on what is right and what is wrong.  We make judgment calls on whether someone is saved or not in order to respond to them in the right way (presenting the Gospel or encouraging spiritual growth).  However, condemnation is something that belongs only as a reaction to sin and rebellion.  Even in condemnation, though, Christians are to rebuke with love and out of a desire to build each other up, not to tear down, "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.  Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.  For


'Whoever desires to love life
    and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
    and his lips from speaking deceit;
 let him turn away from evil and do good;
    let him seek peace and pursue it.
 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil'" 
(1 Peter 3:8-12).  


The church, God's people, have often cowered away from being truthful with each other about sin.  Often it becomes even worse, and God's people decide that instead of going to confront the brother or sister to rebuke sin and build up, they will go to someone else and tell them all about it.  There is a fine line between asking for advice in a hard situation and gossiping.  Make sure that you are a builder of the church rather than a gossiping coward.  Confront in love.  
Proverbs says, 


"Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
    profuse are the kisses of an enemy" (Proverbs 27:6).

And James says, "Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).

Too often I find that people within the church are all to willing to spread their grievances out to everyone in the church except for the people they have the grievance with, whether that be another member, part of the pastoral staff, or anybody else.  This is an example of how Satan will use people to cause disunity within the church.  If you are doing this, you need to stop letting Satan use you as a tool.  Instead let God use you as a tool by encouraging, loving, giving up yourself, and rebuking in love when needed to the furthering of His Kingdom.  Don't be a coward.  "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" (1John 4:18).