Any time we get a response such as this, we need to first examine our own motives and make sure we have not come across in our teaching with a self-righteous attitude. II Timothy 2:24-25 warns us to be gentle and patient when we teach, “in humility correcting those who are in opposition.”
However, there are also occasions when a person offers this response to a legitimate scriptural warning of disobedience before God. The Lord warned against judging one another when it is a measuring of someone by our own standards (Matthew 7:1-2). Further, we are warned against prejudicial judgment, judgment made when we do not have all the facts (John 7:24). But in this same text we are also told to “judge righteous judgment.” In Philippians 1:9-10 we are told increase in “knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent.” Again, in I John 4:1 we are told to “test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” John continues in verse 6 telling us the standard by which we are to test: “He who knows God hears us (the apostles); he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
We are not violating the Lord’s prohibition against judging when we are simply teaching what God has said about what is right and wrong, moral and immoral, and discerning between a false teacher and one who speaks the truth.
Possibly related:
- I can’t believe God is as picky as you make Him out to be. If we love Him and are sincere it doesn’t matter if we do everything exactly the way the Bible says.
- You speak of having to obey God on the basis of “commands, examples, and necessary inferences.” Where did you come up with that idea?
- Do not talk to me about “commandments” and “law.” We are no longer under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14), and therefore we now have freedom in Christ (Galatians 5:1).