Judging
By annaspruell
@annaspruell (20)
United States
January 13, 2013 1:40pm CST
I've been meditating on this one a long time and I have many ideas but would love to get some more thoughts on the subject.
After attending an Old Testatment class I began to notice a pattern in scripture, when God "judged" man it seemed to be via an action. For example, God "judged" the earth to be filled with nothing but the wicked (save Noah and family) and so He flooded the Earth. The same is true of the Judges He raised at the Israelites request, though it's not all they did, they handed out "judgements" to settle disputes among the people.
So, here's my question. Given the Biblical evidence (at least to my mind) that God considers "judgement" to mean "taking action against", do we as humans (Christians specifically) have the definitions of "opinion" and "judgement" confused? Seems to me there is an awful lot of hurt feelings in society, congregations, basically throughout the entire world because we are often accusing each other of "judging". Could it be that we need to detail the definitions more Biblically? Such as an opinion is the way one feels about a certain...anything; a judgement however, means because we felt a certain way we took action for/against a certain...anything.
Looking forward to all thoughts and ideas you might have.
3 responses
@stary1 (6612)
• United States
13 Jan 13
annaspruell
I usually do not interpret the bible literally so I don't think the meaning of judgement should be interpreted to have just one meaning. When the Bible says judge not, I don't think of that as necassarily meaning to not take some action against someone.
For me the beauty of the Bible is we can have several interpretations of the same words. The Bible 'speaks' to us and often with something we need at the time.....
@annaspruell (20)
• United States
13 Jan 13
I very rarely interpret the Bible in the literal sense either. But, I'm not really sure this is a "literal" kind of question. If the Bible says "judge ye not, lest ye be judged" then it seems to me that there has to be some solid, if not literal, definition of what "juding" really means to God. If you've got some examples of other places where the bible gives examples of judgement, I really need them. I've been tossing this idea around for a while and I greatly appreciate your ideas. Thanks for the post.
@annaspruell (20)
• United States
14 Jan 13
I partially agree with andy77e. I think everyone brings their own interpretation to the table when reading the Bible and I think God knew and even intended it to be that way. But, I also think that the Bible tends to define itself wherever necessary and it seems, to my mind, that where it gived specific instruction it would also give fairly specific definition.
@mariaperalta (19073)
• Mexico
14 Jan 13
My deal here is, I seem to think everyone understand the bible in a different way.
@DANINJA50 (23)
• United States
16 Jan 13
One of my topics on this discussion group is what was dubbed "The Infinity Code". The Bible is a self defining book and can be defined using the numeric values of the Hebrew and Greek words themselves. Once you have the numeric value of the word you can actually go to the chapter of that same numeric value and find either the word, the antonym or synonym of the word or its definition. I can give examples if interested.
@annaspruell (20)
• United States
14 Jan 13
Agreed. And that's exactly what I'm looking for. I need someone to give me alternate ideas about what God might define as judging. But, I want it backed up with scripture. I gave an example of such when I said I believe judging in God's sight means "action" because of specific stories contained in the Bible. I'm looking for someone to give me the alternate point of view. How does judging not involve "action" and give me an example in scripture to back up the idea. Or links to some research I do. I am genuinely interested in alternate points of view but I need some evidence to go on.
@inopiratum_a_medio12 (877)
•
14 Jan 13
words has a hundred meanings to understand depending from each usage.For me, partly you have a point there regarding the definition of judgement based from the Bible, God has the only authority to judge other people but it doesn't mean people won't do any actions to punish people from hurting people to give lesson or even give such words out of judgement to help others to change there bad ways or habits that affecting other people. I also read Bible few times when in despair.
Bible teaches us what to do and not to do understanding between the lines but not all the verses and the books, it conveys mix message of taking it in literal meaning and reading between the lines for such based on the culture of the people before as reflected from the book of Leviticus and other books in the old testament. Try to read the book of Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Jobs etc. it directly teaches you how to respect family, to use wealth and other stuffs in life :) I hope I contribute something
@annaspruell (20)
• United States
14 Jan 13
Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Job all give examples of the same definition of "judgement". God takes action, or calls others to take action for or against man's sinful ways. This is exactly what stirs my brain. Biblically speaking is there is a difference between a "judgement" and an "opinion"? I'm afraid some have misunderstood what I'm really asking here, sometimes I get "wordy" and don't really get my point across, so here's an example.
If I found someone consitently out of line with Godly behavior I will decide in my mind, or in other words form an opinion of who that person really is and what they really stand for. (The Bible speaks of such in 3 John)
However, because of what I find the Biblical definition of "judgement" to be, this would merely be my opinion of a person and their actions. To me, to "judge" that person, in this case, would be to take action against them, such refusing to associate with them, witholding help from them that I could possibly provide, etc.
To my mind, these scenarios I've described define two different things. The first defines an opinion, the second defines a judgement. Does that make sense? Sometimes I confuse myself.
Thanks for your response, all points of view are appreciated!
