Thoughts on judging

FB Meyer in Our Daily Walk rightly clarifies the verse in Mathew: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."
-OUR LORD evidently does not, in these words, condemn that honest judgment which, for our own safety and for the good of society, we are compelled to form of men and women with whom we come in contact. Such judgments are inevitable. But He condemns that censorious and uncharitable judgment which is always finding fault, always neglecting the good and dwelling on the bad, always spreading unfavourable and inaccurate reports, which are often founded on very superficial and insufficient grounds.

A difference is appreciated between righteous and unrighteous judgment. That is a necessary understanding if the Church would return and yield to Divine Government. This reckless relativistic society in which we live is a sad testimony to the misuse of this verse in which it is wrongly thought to say "you cannot judge anything or anybody...that is not loving."

I am admonished  to evaluate my inner thoughts in regards to unrighteous judgement and I would make every thought captive and obedient to Christ. But our Lord, by Who He is, has already set the terms for righteous judgement and has written it throughout the Old and New Covenant. I cannot change that. I can yield to it or be broken by it.

-Christ gives us the infallible test. He suggests that in every age there will be those who care for the fleece more than for the flock, and who come into the fold under a most winsome and bewitching guise. Beware of such people, and judge them, not by their doctrine, but by their fruits. The Devil is the most orthodox theologian in the world: "I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God." "By their fruits ye shall know them." You cannot judge what a man is by hearing him repeat a creed; but as you observe his character, his disposition, his behaviour; not in public, but in private; not for a day, but for a year, you can come to an almost certain judgment as to whether God or self be the ruling consideration of the inner being.

And Morgan teaches of Malachi who holds accountable the priests of his day who says of them (2:17) "You have wearied the Lord with your words. Wherein have we wearied Him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them; or. Where is the God of judgment?" What did they mean? "Our God is a God of love; there is no judgment. That man you say is evil, is good, if you only knew it. God delights in him." That is beyond weariness and snuffing; that is treason of the very worst form. That is a countenancing and an excusing of sin. That is an attempt to gloss evil and treat it lightly, as of no importance. When man begins to excuse sin, and to say that it does not matter so much, that God delights in them that do evil, that there is no judgment; then he is committing high treason.

This is a solemn topic, therefore let us not trivialize the things of God and be guilty of diminishing His Government.