“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

That verse implies that we are still to make some kind of judgment because our very lives may depend upon it. The reason for the juxtaposition of these verses is obvious in that our judgment should be pure, rather than tainted or warped by hypocrisy. Making correct judgments is vitally important to the health of the church as shown in Matt 7:15-20. Without the ability to judge, how else would we be able recognize and depose false prophets/teachers?

Jeff Sanders calls “Judge not” the “most abused verse in the Bible”. And the ironic thing is that it is abused mostly by spiritual abusive people and organizations, for whom judging and criticizing their non-conforming members and the world outside is their daily bread.

Recently, Ben posted on Facebook that Jesus instructed his disciples not to judge, so therefore we should never judge, period.

I think this discussion belongs here, on UBFriends. Actually we had these talks already a felt thousand times, so I’m wondering why such simplistic statements are still being made and why this still needs to be discussed. But it seems that it’s still very necessary.

There are two big issues with a too simple understanding of “you shall not judge”:

1) What exactly is judging? What is the difference between judging someone, criticizing someone, warning someone, rebuking someone etc.? Too often legitimate criticism and rebuke is labelled “judging” and dismissed as unbiblical. On the other hand, many times a behavior that is really judgmental and against the spirit of Jesus is often not recognized as such. The word “to judge” must be carefully examined, particularly as it can have different meanings ranging from a general assessment of something up to a final judgment and condemnation of somebody. We must understand which meaning applies in which context.

2) If you claim that we shall not judge because of Mt 7:1, then what do you make out of verses like 3 Mo 19:17, Mt 18:17, Mt 23:33, Jn 7:24, Rom 16:17, 1 Cor 5:12, 1 Cor 6:5, 1 Tim 5:19 etc. which all assume that judging is not only allowed, but sometimes mandatory? How do you reconcile this? Do you think “I don’t care about these verses, because Chris has mentioned them so often that I cannot hear them any more” is a sufficient argument? Do you think Mt 7:1 does somehow “overtrump” these other verses? Then why do we keep all these parts of the Bible?

A simplistic understanding of “you shall not judge” is absolutely not helpful when we are dealing with an authoritarian system and its leaders, because in such an environment it is often used as an excuse to not criticize the system and individual leaders, we know that this is a problem since decades that hindered UBF to grow and leaders to become accountable.

I know, Ben, that your first response will be that you are not using this as an excuse, that you do in fact dare to criticize loudly, which is true. But unfortunately, you are a rare exception in UBF. So why do you keep repeating this verse, as if the verse is everything that needs to be said, and as if this was something that could help people in UBF? In some other context it may be enough, indeed. But not in our context. We are grown up, UBF has grown up. UBF people deserve better than this. I’d love to see you come up and explain all these things in 2015, without me having to join the discussion. You are the one who knows UBF inside out and is still in UBF and has hope for UBF, so you should be the one who educates people about the proper application of Bible verses in the particular context of UBF.

Here is a book recommendation – maybe you can find some more literature that helps starting an educated discussion adequate to people in our age (I noticed in Brian’s video blog that I’m not the only greybeard here). I really, really would like to see you and others discuss these questions in 2015 in all sincerity and openness and with a connection to the concrete and real issues UBF is facing, without me interfering.