An Error In Judgment - Matthew 7:1-2 Series

Enforcing judgment calls

Now I am guessing most of you were just fine with that principle until I gave those specific examples. As soon as I start giving examples we realize that this is not a simple issue, because there are problems connected with every one of those things in the example. There are a lot of ways you can sin by smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer or getting a tattoo or even by wearing leather. If you do that as an expression of rebellion, or because you want to identify with a godless culture, or it is a controlling, enslaving habit, or poor stewardship, or jeopardizes a weaker brother or a host of other things – those things become sin.

So what should you do with those kinds of things? Well, when something is not specifically prohibited in the Bible but it is fraught with spiritual danger, each one of us must apply wisdom in our particular situation and make the best possible judgment call on how to handle those things in a way that is most profitable spiritually. And the key phrase there is judgment call. Exactly how much is too much? In which contexts would it be sin? We all have to make our judgment call in those areas, and that judgment call is very important because if you violate it, then for you that is sin. If I decide that, in my case, my judgment call is that the best course is no drinking any alcohol at all, then for me it is a sin to have a drink. It is always, always sin to go against your conscience (Ro.14:5, 22, 23). So everyone should follow their conscience on judgment-call issues. But what about people who make a different judgment call than you? If the judgment call they make for their lives is less strict than yours, the temptation is to take the judgment call you have made for your life and enforce that on them. That is a very natural thing to do. You say no to some enticing thing for the sake of Christ, then your brother goes ahead and indulges in that thing – it is natural to question his devotion to Christ. Natural, but wrong. It is legalistic judging. Maybe it is sin for them but that is not for you to determine. You can give them advice, you can offer your reasons for why you think it is dangerous, you can even establish rules for your household, or if you run a business or an organization you can establish policies for that, but you cross the line into legalism when you require other people to make the same judgment call you make on a grey area.

Looking down on those who are more strict is also legalistic

And there is another kind of legalistic judging. It is legalism if you look down on the guy who is less strict in his judgment calls, but it is also legalism if you look down on the one who is more strict. Maybe you feel perfectly free to drink and smoke and break all kinds of traditional taboos and you look at someone who abstains and think, “What a legalist. He probably thinks he’s better than everyone else because of his strict rules. What a self-righteous, goody-goody.” Or maybe you just say, “What a dope. Doesn’t he realize we are free to do all those things? He must not understand grace.” That is also legalism. If you look down on the one who calls it in a less strict way or in a stricter way – either way it is sinful, legalistic judging. In Romans 14 the issue had to do with eating meat sacrificed to idols.