Judgement among the People of God

What is to be made by Christians of God's judgement and the punishments stipulated in the Law?  Is God not merciful and forgiving?  What are we to make of judgement within the Church?  Are Christians called to forgive everyone without distinction?

The claims that God is an impartial judge (Deuteronomy 10.17; Job 34.19; Luke 20.21; Acts 10.34; Romans 2.10; Galatians 2.6; 1 Peter 1.17) who judges the peoples with equity (Psalm 67.4) and who will one day judge us for every deed and secret thing run throughout Scripture (e.g., Psalm 62.12) Ecclesiastes 12.14; Matthew 16.27; John 5.22, 27; Acts 10.42; 17.31; 24.25; Romans 2.6, 9-11; 2 Timothy 4.1; Revelation 20.12-13).  Paul writes, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2 Corinthians 5.10).

The Church is also to judge those within it who are persistent in sin (cf. Matthew 18.15-20).  In 1 Corinthians 5.13, Paul tells the church to ‘purge the evil person from among you’.  This is a reference to a verdict given for several sins in Deuteronomy: a prophet or dreamer teaching rebellion against the LORD (13.1-5), a person serving other gods (17.2-7), one refusing to accept the verdict of a Levitical priest or judge appointed to decide difficult cases (17.8-13), a malicious witness making a false accusation (19.15-21), a rebellious son (21.18-21), a woman found not to be a virgin after marriage (22.20-21), adulterers, including cases of persons betrothed (22.22-24), and kidnapping a fellow Israelite to enslave him (24.7). 

Paul applies this verdict differently.  First, he does not mean the church should actually carry out a death penalty in 1 Corinthians 5 but exclusion from the church.  This is because God’s people are not operating under civil law as a state but as an intentional or voluntary community.  Paul’s focus in chapter 5 is on the case of a man sexually involved with his father’s wife.  In the Law, this sin requires the death penalty for both of them (Leviticus 20.11; cf. 18.8; Deuteronomy 22.30; 27.20).  Second, Paul gives a partially different list of sins from those in Deuteronomy (but not indicating any closed listing or disagreement with Deuteronomy): sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviler, drunkard, or swindler.

The Old Testament calls for exclusive devotion to Yahweh, and this means separation from the sinful nations and their practices.  How this worked out for a nation in its own land with its own government and laws in the OT is different from how it works out for the Church.  The NT’s focus on sinners being saved by grace through faith is the basis for inclusion, but this is not incompatible with an application of Israel’s exclusion in its understanding of the Church.  This is because the Church is to fulfil what Israel failed to do, to be God’s holy nation and kingdom of priests (Exodus 19.5-6; 1 Peter 2.9).  This means that they are to show the world God’s holiness and declare His glory, which is rather the opposite of showing the world that they are inclusive of anything sinful and congratulating themselves in being so welcoming to all.  Thus, Paul calls for exclusion and avoidance in the churches of those suggesting a different teaching (Romans 16.17), participating in the religions and practices against God’s law (2 Corinthians 6.14), and doing the ‘unfruitful works of darkness’ (Ephesians 5.11).  Christians are not to fellowship with a Christian walking contrary to Christian tradition (2 Thessalonians 3.6, 14).  Paul says not even to eat with so-called Christians continuing in sin (1 Corinthians 5.11).

The practice of judgement in the Church is itself a form of grace.  Walking together in fellowship and empathy with someone about to jump off of a cliff is hardly love and compassion.  As Paul says about the man living with his father’s wife in sexual sin, the church should deliver him ‘to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 5.5).  By purging this evil from the church, the man may realise from his exclusion that he is not a part of God’s people but Satan’s.  This condemnation on his delusion that his sin is acceptable may lead to repentance unto salvation.  This also keeps the church pure (5.6-8):  the church is not a community of ongoing sinners saved by grace but a holy community transformed by saving and sanctifying grace.  Only so can it bring to fulfilment the mission of Israel to the nations to be God’s holy people declaring His glory to the nations.  What, then, of Jesus' statement that His disciples should not judge lest they be judged?  The passage (Matthew 7.1-5) is about hypocritical judgement.  Paul even encourages the church to judge matters among Christians on the grounds that they will one day even judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6.1-6).  They should not have any cases against one another, but, given these, they should not pass the role of judgement among believers over to outsiders.

Yet we must close this reflection on judgement among God's people by emphasising that the Gospel is good news for sinners if they repent.  The time of salvation--of repentance and forgiveness--is now (2 Corinthians 6.2).  The Gospel tells us that Christ died to save sinners (1 Timothy 1.15) and salvation is through Him, not through our works (Ephesians 2.8-9).  We are called to receive His forgiveness--we cannot achieve it through our own works.  Christians are not to judge those outside the Church but leave that to God (1 Corinthians 5.9-13).  They are to forgive one another as Christ forgave them (Ephesians 4.32).  The call to judge those within the Church refers to those who do not acknowledge their sin and intend to continue in it.