Are Christians to Judge and Expose Error of Others?

JUDGING, EXPOSING ERROR, AND CALLING NAMES: IS IT RIGHT OR WRONG?

false doctrine judging expose error One of the primary goals of the mystic spirituality that has been making major inroads into the modern church is to unite all faiths under its banner. Therefore, mystics do not address false
doctrines and false spirits. It would only hinder the higher “truth” they earnestly believe in and want all of humanity to agree with — the belief that “all is one.” Mystics teach that we all,
whether Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, etc., simply need to further develop our own spirituality
to see that we are all really children of the same god. But this is not so, and the Bible makes it clear that some are the children of the True God and some serve false gods! This is
why one of the greatest gifts the Lord gave His Church was the ability to discern the difference.
W.E. Vine says that discernment is “a distinguishing, a clear discrimination . . . judging by evidence
whether they are evil or of God.” So, is it right for a Christian to judge? Not only is judging,
exposing error, and calling names the right thing for a Christian to do, it is not right not to
do them. The Christian is actually disobeying God when he refuses to do such. In fact, Jesus
taught that one of the greatest indicators of an evil leader is his very refusal to exercise judgment.
In other words, it is really the people who dogmatically oppose judging, exposing error, and calling
names whose sincerity should be questioned! Isn’t it amazing how the church has been conditioned
to believe just the opposite — that those who point out error are somehow religious bigots?
What a tragedy that those who are truly doing what is good are called evil. Jesus wept when
Jerusalem killed the true Prophets (Mat. 23:37). “Woe unto them who call evil good, and good evil;
who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
(Isa. 5:20).
THE TRUE SHEPHERD
God will put it in the heart of a true Shepherd to protect his flock! Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd: the good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But he who is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees, because he is a hireling, and cares not for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11-13). Jesus is saying here that if a leader does not guard the people of God, he is simply not a shepherd. He is a hireling, and more than likely his Christianity is completely false! Likewise, any layman who does not exercise discernment does not have the proper love of Christ for his brethren. The Lord told one true Shepherd, Ezekiel: “Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the House of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me” (Ezek. 3:17). And Paul, another true Shepherd, encouraged the Church in Rome: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them” (Rom. 16:17). John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees “. . . a generation of vipers . . .” (Mat. 3:7). True men and women of God are compelled with a Holy Call to defend that which is precious to the Lord, including both His Church and His Word! If you do not sense that this is part of your ministry, perhaps you are not called at all.
The Word, which is Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, is the standard upon which the Christian is able
to rightly judge. His Word is a mighty weapon, “. . . the Sword of the Spirit . . .” (Eph. 6:17). However, just as the authority of the Word is the greatest weapon with which the child of God may exercise discernment,
the twisting of the Word can become a great weapon for the enemy. Knowing that God’s children
value His Word, nothing has worked better for the Devil than to pervert it to confuse the Body of Christ. The Devil wants to distort it in the Believer’s mind, and suggest that certain passages mean something that the Lord never intended. This is why it is so important for every Believer to not only read the Bible, but to understand it. “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (II Tim. 2:15).
Matthew 7:1 is one of the most misused verses of Scripture with which people try to excuse their
refusal to exercise righteous judgment: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” But, if you will notice, almost every time a person quotes this verse, he has neglected to consider the rest of the passage. He has lifted a verse out of context, which both stifles the true meaning and justifies a lie. See, in just the next few verses of Matthew, Chapter 7, it becomes obvious that the type of judgment referred to here involves self-righteous
hypocrisy, not righteous judgment for the purposes of Redemption. Verses 4 through 5 say, “Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? You
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then you shall see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother’s eye.” This means that we can only judge righteously when our own sin has been dealt with! No one who is blinded by pride can rightly judge. When our own heart is right, however,
our judgment can come from love. In these verses, Jesus shows us that a correct spiritual position will indeed give us the ability to judge righteously!

THE FRUIT
Furthermore, Verses 16 and 17 teach us exactly how to judge — by inspecting fruit! Fruit is the evidence that a new life in Christ has been planted in a person’s heart and, accordingly, you will begin to see a changed life! On the contrary, evil fruit is a sign of the same old tree, the same old nature of man which is full of sin
and self-pursuit. “You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.” Paul did not hesitate to judge fruit. “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him who has so done this deed. For what have I to do to judge them also who are without? do not you judge them who are within? But them who are without God judges. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (I Cor. 5:3, 12-13). Not only should we inspect fruit to
protect the Body, but hopefully to give the one in sin a chance to get right with God. “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good . . .” (5:5-6). Paul means, here in Verse 6, that glorying in a person’s ability to live
in sin while professing Christ at the same time was not a good thing. A sinful lifestyle is not acceptable
to God, and Christians should not want to aid the sinner in his deception.
PAUL
Also, Paul did not hesitate, even in the slightest bit, to call names. He publicly called out the name of his friend and fellow brother in Christ, Peter, when Peter failed to uphold the standards of the Gospel. And
thank God Paul did this so that Peter was able to see his error, repent, and continue on with the
Lord and his ministry. Peter may have backslid altogether had he continued on the path he had started to follow. “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed”
(Gal. 2:11). Godly correction is a good thing, and the Bible says that a wise man will welcome
it! (Prov. 9:8). “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and Doctrine” (II Tim. 4:2). Paul also named Demas for his refusal to follow the Lord: “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world” (II Tim. 4:10). He named several others as well:
“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil . . .” (II Tim. 4:14). “. . . Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme” (I Tim. 1:20). “. . . of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who concerning the Truth have erred, saying that
the Resurrection is past already; and overthrow the Faith of some” (II Tim. 2:17-18). Also, John named Diotrephes: “. . . but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, receives
us not” (III Jn., vs. 9). Moses, John, Peter, and Jude all exposed the false prophet “Balaam” (Num., Chpt. 22; Rev. 2:14; II Pet. 2:15; Jude, vs. 11). Attempting to find Biblical proof that Christians should not call
names is clearly a futile effort! THE MAN, JESUS CHRIST The Lord Jesus Himself gave us the greatest example of how a Christian should live, because while He was both God and man, He did not act as God while on
Earth. Rather, he carried out His earthly existence as a man full of the Holy Spirit. Knowing this, let’s look at the position He took regarding righteous judgment. As we have already mentioned, Jesus warned us to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing . . .” (Mat. 7:15). He also warned the people
to watch out for the heresies of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. “. . . Beware ye of the leaven of
the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Lk. 12:1). He made it very plain who was teaching false doctrine
and spoke very strongly to these religious leaders. He said to one particular group of Pharisees,
“O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mat. 12:34). Throughout the New Testament, He called
false religious leaders “hypocrites,” “evil,” “blind guides,” “blind,” “whited sepulchers,”
“serpents,” etc. Since we know that Jesus never sinned, it is made plain to the Believer that calling a spade a spade is not sin. It is actually the right and honest thing to do. The ecumenical movement today, however, tries to do just the opposite, as Christian leaders attempt to maintain a fake fellowship with those
who teach doctrines just as unscriptural as Pharisaical leaven. The church today even claims to have fellowship with an entirely different Gospel known as Roman Catholicism. Jesus did more than speak
against false leaders at times. When He saw that the temple in Jerusalem was transforming into
nothing more than a marketplace, He took it upon Himself to fashion a whip with His own
hands (Jn. 2:13-16). Now, whips are not made for mild disciplinary procedures; the crack of a
whip never sounds sweet! Yet, Jesus took the whip and with it, did something quite startling. He drove all the people and animals out of God’s house, poured out the changers’ money, and turned over their tables, all without any regret of His actions! Sometimes, the Holy Spirit makes us bold! Jesus actually
cleaned out the temple in this manner twice, once at the beginning of His ministry and once at
the end. You see, the mild-mannered, peace-loving Jesus that is presented today is not the Jesus
of the Bible! If that is your idea of our Lord, you worship “another Jesus” (II Cor.11:4), and you might as well worship Buddha! Clearly, the True Jesus was in favor of righteous judgment; Jesus was no coward. This
doesn’t mean, however, that He did not have to endure some pain; it hurts when our refusal to
compromise breeds the hatred of others. We often think of Jesus’ suffering at Calvary, but we sometimes
forget the wounds He bore years before. Still, He never once apologized for His stand, and
He never once backed down! There is one other point to be made here. While Jesus did make tremendous stands against the errors and hypocrisy of the religious leaders, he was not in the business of pointing out the personal sins of men. He quickly identified errant doctrine and spirit, but not personal failures.
TRY THE SPIRITS
This brings us to another strong directive regarding Biblical judgment. The Bible says Christians
are to “try the spirits,” for many are “lying spirits.” “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I Jn. 4:1). The
Holy Spirit commended the church at Ephesus because they had “. . . tried them which say they
are Apostles, and are not, and have found them liars” (Rev. 2:2). On the other hand, the church at Pergamos was rebuked because they tolerated “the doctrine of Balaam” and “the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate” (Rev. 2:14-15). The spirit of both persons and their doctrine should be “tried” or “judged”.
Again, this weighing of spirit must be in accordance with the Word of God and, thereby, in accordance
with the Holy Spirit as well. The scales should balance when weighed against God’s Word. “To
the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no
light in them” (Isa. 8:20). If you are looking for “balance” in your church by any other measure, the
apostasy of your church has already begun. The Holy Spirit will bear witness when you receive a brother in
Christ, so if you do not surely recognize this witness, you have reason to be cautious. In fact, a man
might say everything right, but still be operating under the influence of another spirit. This
is why the Bible tells us to try the spirit of a man, even more than his words or his actions.
False brethren will lie, and false brethren will conform in outward action. But, praise God,
He has given us a deeper level with which we can see the truth, with which we can expose the works of the enemy. The Spirit, Who works in accordance with the Word, will let us know if a man is a true brother in the Lord. The Holy Spirit cannot be fooled! “. . . Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His” (Rom. 8:9). “. . . and Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Rom. 2:29).