We respond to a correspondent:
Hi Helene, Victor here.
There is a common falsehood (among so many others) propagated in nominal Christendom. It goes like this:
“We mustn’t ever judge anyone. God alone knows the heart and mind.”
You repeat the mantra several times: “BUT only God knows their heart.”
We can provide you with links on judgment to deal with the false notion that only God knows the heart and therefore we ought not to judge anyone. To be sure, there’s some truth in those words, which makes the matter confusing for many, because they don’t have understanding.
Consider that Jesus spoke positively of judging others, when He said:
“Hypocrite! First cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall see clearly to cast the splinter out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5 MKJV).
And: “Do not judge according to sight, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24 MKJV).
Is it true that only God knows the heart? Where do you ever find that in the Scriptures? It isn’t there, but the opposite IS:
“But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:15-16 MKJV).
Jesus had the Father’s mind. He said they were one. He prayed that we would be one with Him as He was one with the Father (John 17). Accordingly, He gave His Spirit to His disciples, and still does today, so that they and we might have His mind and be one with Him. John says to the saints, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20 MKJV).
So, I show you that those truly in Christ, with His mind, do know others’ hearts, and judge righteous judgment, with Him.
But, Helene, aren’t you also making judgments on hearts when you say, “The rest of them I turn off cause I believe that they are a bad witness”? I don’t fault you for that. It’s true, and we are given to know truth and error, otherwise we are vulnerable to evil and as good as lost. Now, isn’t that knowing the heart?
You write, “They believe in their heart of hearts that they have the truth.” There you go again! If only God knows the heart, how can you say what you just said?
How have you judged those people to be bad witnesses, if not at least partially by the fruit of their lips? At least I hope that your judgment is not just by appearance, which Jesus condemned.
Now the record is that the mouth speaks from the heart:
“Offspring of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings out good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings out evil things” (Matthew 12:34-35 MKJV).
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he; Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you” (Proverbs 23:7 MKJV).
The Bible, in all its instruction, tells us to know the heart, time and time again:
Matthew 7:15-18 MKJV
(15) Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
(16) You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
(17) Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
(18) A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits, nor can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Would you like to know who prefers to believe the lie that only God knows the heart? It is those who are afraid of discipline and refuse to be criticized or corrected. And why is that? Because they prefer their sins.
John 3:19-21 MKJV
(19) And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.
(20) For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
(21) But he who practices truth comes to the Light so that his works may be revealed, that they exist, having been worked in God.
If we are to represent the Lord in this world, we will be as Him:
“In this is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so also we are in this world” (1 John 4:17 MKJV).
In the day of judgment? Where does our judgment begin? “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17 KJV)
Helene, I can know the nature of the well by the bucket of water I draw from it. That is God’s calling and will for His saints.
Victor Hafichuk
– June 20, 2011