Judging judging

During the chicken wars a while back, I read several comments in the neighborhood of "we shouldn't be judging," and "what someones does in their own home is their business," and things like that.

I was talking to a friend about another subject, no chicken to be had, but the thoughts came back to me about this notion of judging.

Jesus clearly said we were not to judge, or at least He told us that we will be judged as we judge, which says to most folks, "uh, oh, the pressure is on."

But this morning as my eyes moved across the page to Galatians 6, I read this, "My friends, if someone is caught in any kind of wrongdoing, these of you who are spiritual should set him right;"

Whattha?

How do we set someone right if we can't judge whether they are right in the first place?

This is a serious question, I figure, deserving of serious discussion, and I've read little about this in the past.

First, the rest of the sentence adds ... "but you must do it in a gentle manner."

So, Paul tells us that if someone is messing up, we're supposed to tell them in a gentle manner.

Martin Luther said of this sentence (in another translation, of course), "If we carefully weigh the words of the Apostle we perceive that he does not speak of doctrinal faults and errors, but of much lesser faults by which a person is overtaken through the weakness of his flesh."

A commentary on Biblegateway says, "The responsibilities of those who are spiritual are directly related to the problem of division in the Galatian churches."

Finally, Matthew Henry's commentary says, "We are to bear one another's burdens. So we shall fulfil the law of Christ. This obliges to mutual forbearance and compassion towards each other, agreeably to his example."

In other words, Paul is writing the church members, church goers, believers, persons involved in the church, not the unchurched. I'm not exactly sure (being the deep thinker that I am) why that makes a difference, but apparently it does.

Then I read the next sentence in Galatians, and some clarity comes. "And keep an eye on yourselves, so that you will not be tempted, too. Help carry one another's burdens..."

To help someone in their low moments, to share in the mistakes someone makes, to be gentle in telling them about what they're doing wrong only will be accepted if we, too, are wary of our own low moments, mistakes and doing wrong. If we don't, we're just sign-carrying misfits who don't really worry about the whole judging thing.

And that's serious business.