The Sacred Obligation of Judging: Part II (in a series)

by A.W. Tozer

From his book “Reclaiming Christianity”

A Lack of Diagnostic Preaching (continued)

“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that they are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 1: 14 – 15).

That does not sound much like inspiration and encouragement and moving on to better things. Sounds to me more like a little diagnosis. It sounds to me like somebody getting into it to find out what is wrong.

If I do not dare to diagnose, and you will not listen to it, then all the prophets were wrong. And Christ was the greatest transgressor of them all. For there was nobody that could look through and through and make you feel like two cents devalued. Nobody could do it as well as our Lord Jesus Christ could.

And if that is the way it is and all inquiry must be ended and all rebuke silenced, then the apostles were also great sinners and great bigots, and heretics. For if you do not believe it, read what Paul wrote to the Corinthians; read what he wrote to the Colossians; read what he wrote to the Galatians; read what Peter wrote to the general Christians scattered abroad; read what Jude wrote about the people that crept into the Church. Read what John wrote in his first epistle and all his epistles. Read what James said. Had not these men heard the text “judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7: 1)?

Sure, they heard that text, but they knew what it meant.

Had Paul not heard the text “[love] thinketh no evil” (1 Corinthians 13: 5) when he said, “You lovers of Jewish circumcision are always trying to make Christians with a pair of scissors, I wish you’d get clear-cut off, get rid of yourself, get out of the church”? He was the man who wrote this text that said “[love] thinketh no evil,” and that love was the greatest thing in the world. And then he told the Galatians false teachers, “Get out and cut yourself off.”

it is time for diagnosis. It is tie to inquire, to search, to get at the blood, to take blood pressure and find out what is wrong.

Should I tell you that the mystics were all wrong and the Reformers were all wrong, and Martin Luther should have been in jail, and Charles Finney should have spent a term or two in jail, and all of the men who have moved the world for God should have been in jail?

if that is true, then it is also impossible to obey the Scriptures. Then I dare not exercise moral judgment; I dare not stand up and look at a thing and decide in the light of God’s Word whether it is right or wrong. It means the Lord has given me a commandment that I cannot obey. “Beware of false prophets,” He says, “which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7: 15). And the modern theologians say, “Don’t you judge anybody, but accept everybody at his own face value and be loving as the Savior was.”

All right then, when the wolf comes along dressed in sheep’s clothing, what do I do? Do I say, “Good morning sheepie”? Do I dare not allow myself to believe that he is a wolf, even though I see his slobbering fangs?

Nobody can get quite as effusively affable as these blind men who are afraid to preach the truth. “Be loving, dear brother,” they say, and they paw you and call you “dear brother” with their soft white hands. If I am not to be able to identify a wolf when I see him, then how am I going to keep the wolf out of the fold like I am supposed to do? How can I beware of that which I do not dare identify, tell me?

Jesus said, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7: 20). Now, suppose I go out to an old rundown garden looking for a sheep-nosed apple, the kind we used to raise out in Pennsylvania, but all I can find is a crabapple and a thorn apple and a sour, dried-up, degenerative apple full of worms.

Somebody asks, “What are you doing, Reverend?”

“I’m out here judging fruit. I’m out here looking for fruit.”

“Well, but you’re not supposed to. Why, the Bible says ‘judge not’ and you’re not supposed to judge fruit, you are not supposed to do it. Doesn’t Paul say, ‘Love thinketh no evil,’ and ‘Judge not that ye should not be judged,’ and ‘love everybody’? That poor crabapple is doing the best it can, and that thorn berry is trying to look like an apple – it’s a sheep-nosed apple on the way up, if you would only believe it. Why, the Lord loves the dear thing, why should you be so hard on it?”

Therefore, I have to go sneaking away. I do not even dare know the difference between a great big gorgeous, juicy sheep-nosed apple and a crab apple. Because if I do, I am judging. You cannot obey the Scripture; you cannot obey the truth the Lord has given us. If you cannot exercise moral judgement, if you cannot criticize and discriminate, then you cannot obey what you have been told to do. The apostle John said, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4: 1). Why does he give us these words if we cannot and dare not try the spirits?

Should I be afraid to judge when God Almighty sent me to do it? Afraid to distinguish a crabapple from a sheep-nosed apple when God sent me to do it? Afraid to look at a wolf and say, “You are a wolf,” when God said, “Look out for wolves”? Afraid to try the spirits when God said, “Try the spirits whether they be of God”? God is not going to send me out to do something and then damn me for doing it. He is not going to send me out and say, “You go out and judge the fruit,” and then damn me for judging fruit.

Scripture says, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5: 21), and if we cannot exercise moral judgment, then I want to know how we can know good from bad. The Scriptural injunction is, if anyone that is called a brother commits fornication as well as any of these other things, idolatry and all the rest, do not eat bread with them. That is, do not have communion with him at the Lord’s house. We are where we are because we have silenced the preachers who dared to find out what is wrong with us, who dared to inquire where the remnant is or even if there is a remnant.

To be continued…