Thanks for returning to this series on “Judge Judge Judge” and my feeble attempt to understand a believers responsibility and right to make judgments.
Another purpose of this series hopefully is to understand the believers restriction on judgement.
What can a Christian judge? How is he to judge? What is prohibited in the Christian life to judge. So many questions and concerns.
Our second greek word related to judging is…
ἀνακρίνω – anakrinō – “examine, judge, ask question, search, discern”
This word is found 16 times in 14 verses within the New Testament. A full listing of all verses may be found below for your self study. I will consider the verses that are not clear, that create questions in my mind, with the remaining verses left for the reader to ponder.
Double Standard Judging
1 Corinthians 2:14 -16
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Okay – I’ve been waiting for this passage for the entire study. So often I thought I understood it only to find I was wrong. So lets consider what this passage is speaking about.
Some background – Paul is writing to a bad church. A real bad church. A bunch of immature, selfish, jealous, childish, fleshly, strife ridden believers.
These folk were not spiritual. Were they believers? Maybe, but that may not be the point. Paul is comparing the natural man, with the spiritual man. The natural man in the church in Corinth, that is.
Paul states that the natural man is the man that refuses to accept the things of God – they think it is just stupid!. (Ever met a “believer” like that?)
On top of that, he, the natural man that is, is not able to understand the things of the Spirit of God because understanding the things of the Spirit of God requires agreement with the Spirit. Disagreeing with the Spirit of God does not allow for a continuation of proper judgments. Remember , as we discovered in our last post, discernment is a gift of the Spirit based on knowledge of the Word of God and prayer.
Okay – so if this background and understanding is correct, Paul is stating that spiritual persons make correct judgments due to the believer having the mind of Christ (v 16).
It is not an IQ issue, a school training accomplishment, or a personality quality. It has nothing to do with glory for the believer. The believer is to rely on the mind of Christ for his proper decision making skills
The spiritual man bases his judgments / decisions on the mind of Christ, which provides real time guidance of the principles of the Word of God in daily life. (The mind of Christ in my thinking has much to do with an attitude of humility and meekness.)
It is a daily war to remember that our ability to make correct judgement on issues of the day or people we meet is a gift supplied by our Father in heaven and buttressed with a knowledge of the Word.
I can hear you already – Carl we can’t judge people ! But I think you will find that we can (and need to) judge people. Let’s wait until we get to those passages before you make a rash judgement on me!
Thanks for joining me in this study. Hope to visit with you in our next post as we continue to look at the Greek term ἀνακρίνω
Be Blessed.
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Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
Considering the Bible 
This looks like a great series. I think I’m going to have to go back and catch myself up to date on this one :).
God Bless,
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This is a worthy line of reasoning to discern right judgment. Thousands of years have been dedicated to this quest.
Your timeliness is amazing. The Sunday Gospel message contains this exhortation of Jesus regarding love God and neighbor:
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.
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