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Debate Teacher Reacts: Is God Trinity or NOT? James White vs. Joe Ventilacion
Debate Teacher Reacts: Is God Trinity or NOT? James White vs. Joe Ventilacion
@MoroccanSeeker you will benefit listening to Wise Disciple, or become a patron.
J.
I admit I haven’t read this very long thread. The original question is how to balance discernment with the Lord’s command not to judge each other. It’s my belief that we can judge a sin without judging the person who did the sin. If I call someone a liar, I have judge them to be a liar. However I can point out that they lied about something without assigning the name - liar. Now they have the chance to confess and be forgiven. I haven’t attacked them personally.
When it comes to someone who’s outside the faith, we don’t judge at all. 1 Cor 5;12. What business is it of mine? They have no relationship with God and don’t follow Him. God is their judge.
The clearest case of discernment that I know of in the Bible is when Paul cast out an evil spirit from a woman in Acts. He didn’t judge her. Actually what she was saying was true. But it was a problem so he cast out the spirit and wound up in jail.
We’re also told not to judge anything before the time. 1 Cor 4:5. God looks at the heart and we look at the outside action. So we are not good judges of people’s hearts which is the important thing. We jump to conclusions, but the Lord knows our motive.
You balance discernment and “judge not” by understanding that Jesus was correcting how people judge, not canceling judgment altogether.
When Jesus said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” ~Matthew 7:1, He was confronting hypocrisy, not discernment. He immediately explained, “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” ~Matthew 7:5. Notice the goal is still helping your brother. The problem is not seeing the speck. The problem is trying to perform eye surgery while spiritually blind yourself.
Imagine a doctor refusing to wash his hands before surgery. The issue is not the surgery. The issue is contamination. Jesus is saying clean your own heart first so your correction becomes healing instead of harm.
Now here is where many people miss the kingdom principle. The same Jesus who said “judge not” also said, “Beware of false prophets… ye shall know them by their fruits” ~Matthew 7:15–16. You cannot inspect fruit without making a judgment. That is why He later says plainly, “Judge righteous judgment” ~John 7:24. God does not forbid discernment. He forbids pride dressed up as righteousness.
Scripture draws a clear line. We evaluate actions and teaching, but God judges hearts. “Judge nothing before the time… the Lord… will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” ~1 Corinthians 4:5. We see behavior. God sees motives. When we assume motives, we sit in a chair that belongs only to Him.
Inside the family of faith, discernment is an act of love. Paul asks, “Do not ye judge them that are within?” ~1 Corinthians 5:12. Love does not ignore danger. If a bridge is out, love puts up a warning sign. We do not judge to condemn people, but we must judge teaching and conduct because love protects truth. That is why Scripture commands us to speak “the truth in love” ~Ephesians 4:15.
Here is the balance. Let God’s Word be the measuring stick, not your emotions. Examine yourself before correcting others. Speak truth with humility because the same grace that corrects them rescued you.
Discernment says, “God’s Word calls this wrong.”
Hypocrisy says, “I would never do what you did.”
One restores people to alignment with God. The other elevates self. When judgment flows from surrender to God’s Word, it stops being condemnation and becomes restoration.
This reminds me of something a Pastor told me once at lunch. So simple. Yes, at the same time, so easy to overlook. He quoted Romans 8:7-8
“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
He said, “Does that mean that we do not try to reach them with the truth? No. Of course not. At the same time, though, why should we be surprised when they attack or refuse to hear? Why is it a surprise to us that those who do not like God, sin?
Peter