Quote:
Originally Posted by Halibut
I believe the great progressive Jesus preached that we should, "Judge not ..."
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That has to be one of the most misunderstood quotes from The Bible. Matthew was talking about the final judgement, saying that humans cannot judge is another man is going to heaven. We really can't tell what is in another man's heart.
As I said, judging people is one thing and judging actions is another. What do you have to say about a man that rapes a nine year old girl, or someone that murders a family because they thought it would be fun? Should we not judge those actions? Should we not say that those people did bad things? Can we not make a reasonable assumption that someone who continues to do bad things and has no remorse is a bad person?
Sometimes a person will commit an atrocity and later come to see the light and regret that deed or perhaps there was some kind of emotional or mental issue going on at the time for which the person has gotten help. In those cases, we might say that the person did something terrible, but because he shows remorse and is truly sorry or was somehow inflicted at the time, he is not a bad person. It was simply a mistake.
Are we not passing judgement in any of these cases? Can we not judge people to be fine upstanding people?
Matthew 7:1-3 is one of the most misunderstood passages in The Bible. Unfortunately, people use it to excuse all kinds of bad behavior. We all judge every day and it is not wrong to do so.