Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: ( Maybe not what you think it means )
No verse in the Bible has given me more unrest as to its true meaning than this verse and the same in Matthew 7:1. Many modern day Christians who are living in sin try to use these verses as a shield against others Christians pointing out that Jesus said that they should repent of the sin they are living in. My unrest would come from preaching and defending God's ways to others; while these scriptures were always in the back of my mind. After much study and prayer, Jesus finally gave me the answer; that makes the perfect sense and gives me the peace I had looked for, for so long. Go back with me to the words of Jesus to his disciples in Luke 24 verses 46 and 47 And said unto them, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." ( Repentence, that we turn away from our sins, and remission, that when we do, Jesus will forgive us of our sins. ) For a person to have a true relationship with Jesus, willingness of the person to repent of the sins they are living in, is a given. These verses were not written to us modern day Christians, they were written specifically written to the Jewish people of his day as the New Covenant between God and the Jewish people; because they would not keep the original Covenant that God gave to Moses. Matthew 10:6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." and Matthew 16: 24 "But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Please remember that by the covenant of Moses, people were being judged and condemned to death daily by people of the Jewish Synagogues and others who thought they were Holier that thou. I am convinced that Jesus was using the words "judge not and condemn not" to mean, " to determine ones fate." Paul later told us that he had judged and we as Christians are to judge and discern what is right and wrong; a different use and meaning of the word "judge." John 8:7 above is where Jesus tells them all that he has replaced the Old Covenant of Moses and that none of us are Holy enough before God to sit in judgment of anyone. As we know, all the people who were going to stone the woman caught in adultery walked away, because none of them were without sin. He then said to her, "Go, and sin no more." Jesus took the Judgment phase of the Old law with him and nailed it to the Cross, giving all of us the power through him, to overcome any of our sins. He did not come to judge us; he came to save us all from the coming judgement of all men. He did not in any way change what his father had identified as sin. Unfortunately, some people accept Jesus with the intention of repenting of their sins, and fall right back into the sin later. The God of Abraham identified what was sin before him in great degree in the first Mosaic covenant; which has been accepted as the moral way of living by almost all faiths including Christians, Jews and Muslims of the world, which by far make up almost all faiths of the world. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And in John 12:48 Jesus said it all "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Jesus is returning as every man's judge; and as a true Christian, it is a given that we keep God's ways of the Old Law out of our love for him, while we worship him in spirit and truth. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, repentance of our sins is our commitment to the sacrifice he made for us. He washes away and covers our sins and makes us acceptable to his Father through his shed blood on the cross. If we backslide into sin after making that commitment to him and his Father, we can be assured that our end will not be well. Preaching the Gospel, and telling others the ways of God and the sin they are living in; is not Judging anyone, in any way. We are supposed to do it as instructed by Jesus himself, and the teachings by Paul in the New Testament. And what would Jesus say to those Christians today using these verses as a cloak for the sin they are living in ? He would say sorry folks, I was not talking to you; and you had better not die in your sleep.
No verse in the Bible has given me more unrest as to its true meaning than this verse and the same in Matthew 7:1. Many modern day Christians who are living in sin try to use these verses as a shield against others Christians pointing out that Jesus said that they should repent of the sin they are living in. My unrest would come from preaching and defending God's ways to others; while these scriptures were always in the back of my mind. After much study and prayer, Jesus finally gave me the answer; that makes the perfect sense and gives me the peace I had looked for, for so long. Go back with me to the words of Jesus to his disciples in Luke 24 verses 46 and 47 And said unto them, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." ( Repentence, that we turn away from our sins, and remission, that when we do, Jesus will forgive us of our sins. ) For a person to have a true relationship with Jesus, willingness of the person to repent of the sins they are living in, is a given. These verses were not written to us modern day Christians, they were written specifically written to the Jewish people of his day as the New Covenant between God and the Jewish people; because they would not keep the original Covenant that God gave to Moses. Matthew 10:6 "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." and Matthew 16: 24 "But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Please remember that by the covenant of Moses, people were being judged and condemned to death daily by people of the Jewish Synagogues and others who thought they were Holier that thou. I am convinced that Jesus was using the words "judge not and condemn not" to mean, " to determine ones fate." Paul later told us that he had judged and we as Christians are to judge and discern what is right and wrong; a different use and meaning of the word "judge." John 8:7 above is where Jesus tells them all that he has replaced the Old Covenant of Moses and that none of us are Holy enough before God to sit in judgment of anyone. As we know, all the people who were going to stone the woman caught in adultery walked away, because none of them were without sin. He then said to her, "Go, and sin no more." Jesus took the Judgment phase of the Old law with him and nailed it to the Cross, giving all of us the power through him, to overcome any of our sins. He did not come to judge us; he came to save us all from the coming judgement of all men. He did not in any way change what his father had identified as sin. Unfortunately, some people accept Jesus with the intention of repenting of their sins, and fall right back into the sin later. The God of Abraham identified what was sin before him in great degree in the first Mosaic covenant; which has been accepted as the moral way of living by almost all faiths including Christians, Jews and Muslims of the world, which by far make up almost all faiths of the world. Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." And in John 12:48 Jesus said it all "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Jesus is returning as every man's judge; and as a true Christian, it is a given that we keep God's ways of the Old Law out of our love for him, while we worship him in spirit and truth. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, repentance of our sins is our commitment to the sacrifice he made for us. He washes away and covers our sins and makes us acceptable to his Father through his shed blood on the cross. If we backslide into sin after making that commitment to him and his Father, we can be assured that our end will not be well. Preaching the Gospel, and telling others the ways of God and the sin they are living in; is not Judging anyone, in any way. We are supposed to do it as instructed by Jesus himself, and the teachings by Paul in the New Testament. And what would Jesus say to those Christians today using these verses as a cloak for the sin they are living in ? He would say sorry folks, I was not talking to you; and you had better not die in your sleep.