"Who am I to judge?" vs "I have already judged him!"

The verse about "Do not judge" is used so many times in the church today not always in the right context though. It is almost a cliche! Two days ago I read the headlines about the Pope saying "Who am I to judge?" with regard to gay priests. That was flashed over almost all the news sites that day. 

When asked about the gay priests by a reporter on his way back to Rome from Brazil, the Pope replied, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” I will leave that thought with you for a while

I don't know if it was a coincidence but I was studying 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 in which Paul rebukes the immorality in the church. I was so amazed at the way Paul wrote these chapters. It stands as a wonderful example for conflict resolution and effective communication. Two very important things that have risen in demand over the years especially in the corporate world. I thought I will just post the entire chapter here because it is so beautifully written and speaks very directly about judging not the world's way but God's way.

Chapter 5

1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,ab so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sisterc but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Chapter 6

1If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? 5I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. 9Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with mena 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

God calls us to judge not to condemn but to correct out of love. It is not be done out of pride but based on God's word alone. It has to be directed towards the sin and not the sinner. Because God calls us to love sinners and he lead a perfect example doing that while on earth. We see in his next letter, Paul encourages us to forgive when the sinner repents and comes back, again love being the underlying factor

2 Cor 2: 5-11

5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

  

Our vacation at Nashville and the Great Smoky Mountains

Day 1: July 4th, 2013

It was a last minute decision to go on this trip. God was gracious in providing us with good deals. We stayed in Nashville for a fairly decent price and in Pigeon Forge we paid almost nothing.

Nashville was our first stop. On our way to Nashville which happens to be around a 10 hour drive we decided to memorize scripture. We picked 1 Pet 1:3-9. It was such an encouragement as we were driving to think about God’s amazing grace and the truth that through faith we are being shielded by God’s power. Have you ever imagined yourself inside an invisible giant bubble with super powers? And I mean not just physical protection but protection in all realms of life. Because of God’s gift of His Son Jesus Christ, we have access to an imperishable inheritance. Though imperishable and inheritance don’t go together, in our case it is the truth and the reason for our hope. When God called us to follow Him, he never promised us a bed of roses. But He did promise faithfulness in providing for our needs in all times (Isa 43:1-2). Rightly so Peter writes in his letter that in this we greatly rejoice that even though now for a little while we may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, our faith, of more worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in the praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Oh how wonderful to think of the day when we meet our Savior face to face!

Vijay and I were talking about how gold is considered as one priced possession in today’s world. In India gold is handed over from generation to generation as an inheritance. We use the value of gold we have to represent it in our personal property. Sadly we do see that the value of gold never consistently rises. It does fall too. Also it perishes as time passes by. But do we realize that our faith is more precious than gold? Sit back and meditate on this fact that your faith is more valuable than gold and that it never ever perishes. You will be amazed to see how as Christians we fail to remember the power of Christ in us. Our faith leads us to the salvation of our souls. Our faith has the power to defeat darkness, sin and death. Our faith can change the lives of those around us. Our faith can produce a master piece from a sinful life when the Day of Judgment comes.

We expected very little at Nashville. It is the “Home of Music.” To be more specific American music and to be even more specific it is the home of country music. Like other places in this country, there were advertisements and the hype about Nashville displaying the largest fireworks. So we geared up to watch this highly anticipated event. Not forgetting to mention the big bands that came to perform live music on that special day. Nevertheless those names really did not matter to us. Vijay or I don’t know much about the country music stars. It was raining all day. We were praying that God would give us a chance to see the places around.

We were at the Cheese cake factory in the evening to enjoy one of my favorite delicacies. We had some nice samosas, pasta and cheese cakes (the Mango key lime and the Chris’s outrageous!) When we were almost ready to leave, the rain stopped! I mean literally stopped! Our hotel receptionist told us that the city planned to cancel the fireworks because of the rain. But God seemed to have other plans. We praised God that we were able to view the spectacular display of fireworks. Whether it was the largest in the country or not is debatable. It was so beautiful that it made us think that if our hearts felt so excited at this manmade display, how much more glorious heaven would be(Psa 19:1-6). Would we be able to even contain it? We all will have to wait and see when that day comes!

The place was crowded with people because the rain stopped and the live music was on. After the fireworks we decided to walk down the street in the downtown area. There were all kinds of people. I mean really all kinds. We walked into the Hard Rock Café which people talk about so much. It was more like a curious visit than a desire to visit. It was filled with smoke and the smell of alcohol. In between we could also smell some delicious food too. We wanted to pick up a souvenir and went to the shopping place. We were not surprised to see all these symbols of darkness in there. It reinstated the fact that there is nothing there that either Vijay or I would want to touch or pick up. We walked through the place and looked at all these clothes and letters some of the great singers have left. It surprised me how people adore these singers when in reality they get nothing out of it. I mean may be some entertainment and pleasure to an extent but can they truly fill the void in their lives? (Prov 21:2) Anyways as we walked up we saw all these scribbled letters of singers, their shoes, torn outfits and even their hair!? All of them nicely boxed in glass and kept for audience to WOW at!

We walked up to the place where the live music was being played. We had to get some stamps on our arms after showing our ids. This was to ensure that we were above the permitted age. I guess they needed licenses to lead people to destruction ( Ecc 12:14)! When they began to sing, we were amazed at the wonderful voices and gifts those artists possessed. What good is i

t for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (Mk 8:36) However we felt sad that they were not using their gifts for the sole purpose they were created for. To praise and glorify God! We were feeling uncomfortable after sometime and so left after our tour was over.

Tired and sleepy we decide to go back to our hotel and when we came out we saw cops everywhere. One boy was surrounded by 5 cops as they were trying to stop him from escaping. We did not know what happened but it was something serious because there were lot of cops and cop cars around that area. We saw long lines of people desperate to get into the night clubs. We saw cops trying to check on those who were under 18 to leave the place. We saw people who were drunk and trying to get their act together. On the whole it was an interesting experience. That brings to an end our first day.