Saturday, August 18, 2012

Contradictory Statements of Jesus?


Mat 7:1 KJV - Judge not, that ye be not judged.
JWET You must not separate-judge in that point that you might not be separated-judged.
Jhn 7:24 KJV - Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
JWET You must not separate-judge concerning dignity/position, on the other hand of the keeping of the laws, a separation-judgment you must separate-judge.

Is Jesus contradicting himself? If He is, does this bring everything he has to say into disrepute? How is this to be synchronized?

Most of the discussions concerning “judge not” are centered around the idea that someone else does not have the “right” to judge me. If you do judge me then you are evil. Or you will be judged and you don't want that do you? This actually is a “self-defense” strategy to divert negative judgment away from the culprit and redirect it towards the “prosecution.”  So what is Jesus saying?

Matthew records Jesus as saying, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” or “You must not judge in that point, so that you might not be judged in that point.” The chapter divisions lead some to believe that Jesus is beginning a new subject on judging, when in fact he is wrapping up and summarizing the preceding two chapters' points.

Chapters 5&6 are how to make proper judgments!  Matthew 5:3, “Those blessed poor with the Spirit, that theirs is the kingdom of heaven.JWET” Jesus is instructing his listeners to make a proper separation between those who are happy and inheritors of kingdom of heaven and those who make that claim but are not blessed.  5:4 “Those blessed mourners, in that they will be called alongside.JWET”  Jesus continues in this same fashion drawing a sharp contrast between the erroneously accepted judgements of the day and those that should be made.  5:13 Jesus now says that you, the persecuted ones, are salt. It is not those living in relaxed affluence that are to be regarded as influencers of this world, instead the poor mourning persecuted prophets are the salt.

5:21&22 begin a series of contrasting statements, “You have heard that...” and “But I say to you...” We have learned what some have taught as truth but Jesus corrects that untruth with a proper judgement. Make Jesus' type of  judgment and you won't go wrong.

5:48 Be a grown up, just like God.

Chapter 6 Jesus is saying don't take your lead from hypocrites who give alms publicly, pray loudly, amass earthly fortunes, try to serve the world and God at the same time, and seek after their own kingdoms before God's.   Then Jesus gets to the conclusion: You must not judge in that point, that you might not be judged JWET.  If you judge like a hypocrite you will be judged like the hypocrite.  If you judge like Jesus, you will be making proper judgments.

So we see that John 7:24 You must not judge concerning dignity/position, on the other hand of the keeping of the laws, this judgment you must judge JWET is not a contradiction but the restatement of Matthew 7:1. Jesus doesn't contradict himself but he does contradict those who say, “You can't judge me.”

I can certainly make a judgment of how well you and I are keeping God's requirements.  In doing so I rightly separate between good and bad, false teacher and true teacher, false teaching and true teaching, a false holiness and true holiness, and the list goes on.  

Don't be confused, there are false judgments and true judgments.  Grown up and be like God!

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