A netfriend wrote: When is it OK to judge someone in the Christian community and when is it not? From the perspective of a leader!

Nathan responded:

Depends a bit on what you mean by judging, because we don’t always use that word in the same way. Sometimes we mean discerning or assessing, and sometimes we mean passing sentence.

Jesus said that by their fruits you shall know them, and I guess that means we are always to be keeping an eye on the fruits that are being produced by the Christian community and its members. If the trees of our teaching, attitudes or behaviour are producing fruits of prayerfulness, love, hospitality and reconciliation, then what else is there to judge? But if they are producing alienation, fear, hostility and callousness, then it is okay to make a judgement about the poor fruits and about the means of their production.

Judging a person is a different matter though. A person my be responsible for bad fruits, but they may be currently producing less bad fruit than they were last year. The proper judgement may therefore be that the person is being healed by the Spirit and is growing in Christ. Another person may be producing good fruits, but less of it than they were a year ago, and the proper judgement may be that they have out of synch with Christ and are beginning a slide to ruin. We seldom have enough information to make an adequate judgement of a person.

But we can, and must, seek to be discerning about the fruits that are being produced in our communities, and with as much grace as possible, hold people responsible for the fruits they are bearing.

Does that get within cooee of what you were trying to get at?

Peace and hope,

Nathan

______________________________________ Nathan Nettleton Pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church Melbourne, Australia