A friend of mine asked me: “I would be curious as to how you understand First Corinthians 6-7 where Paul chides the Corinthians for their inability to judge. No one was mature enough. I know he is speaking to the baptized about internal church practice but then add that our Lord says that once you take the log from your eye you WILL see clearly to take the speck from your brother’s eye. It seems to me we are to make judgments about doctrine and about practices and about sinful behavior. If my brother sins I am to go and tell him his sin…” I do agree that lack of repentance is the true sin at that point but nevertheless I am judging my brother’s actions. How do you deal with this?” Let me start out with the first point that he makes about judging. It starts with the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 6, where it says:
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren.
Notice the odd structure of this passage, because it continues on through various parts of 1 Corinthians 6-7. He starts out by fustigating the Corinthians because they are going to a secular law judge in order to resolve their disputes. And, so, he answers quite correctly that those who have had their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit are much more able to exercise correct judgment than any secular judge because we see the truth of the world. More than that, he makes an end-times argument that we shall judge the world precisely because of our open eyes. [Note: Neither I nor many others are certain what exactly this means.] Given that, he says that there should be at least one among them who has learned sufficient wisdom and holiness to be able to mediate (judge) the matter. But, just as one is expecting that he will end up with that suggestion, Saint Paul slaps them with the Gospel. The minute one believer gave in to anger against another believer, they had already lost. Catch what Saint Paul says. The aggrieved party should have simply “let [themselves] be cheated.” As Christ said, they should have turned the other cheek, parted their cloak in half, etc. The very fact that the aggrieved party takes the other to court already proves that the aggrieved party themselves are sinners. So, Saint Paul starts out saying judgment and judge, but finishes up with an incredibly “do not judge” type of guidelines.
In the same way, much of the guidance given in these two chapters shares this same structure. With the exception of a few verses, which appear to be the only ones constantly quoted nowadays, much of the guidance given is the opposite of passing a judgment. Do you want to be celibate? That’s good, maybe even better than marriage. Do you want to marry? Well, that is good and allowable also. Do you want to not marry off your daughter. Well, that is excellent. Do you want your daughter to have a husband. Well, that is certainly a fine and godly thing to do. Is your spouse willing to live with you? Well, then don’t divorce them. Does your spouse want to leave you? Well, give your spouse the divorce they want. Do you want to eat food? Well, it is okay, but watch out for the sin of gluttony. In all this—again, with some exceptions—the attitude is that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that we so ought to conduct ourselves that we preserve that thought. “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.” But, at the same time you can almost hear the other whisper saying that you can change your condition. So, in the Book of Philemon, Saint Paul counsels Philemon to let the future Saint Onesimus to go free because Onesimus wishes to change his condition.
With the exception of a few verses, those two chapters show just how much the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ turned the expected way of thinking upside down. These two chapters thoroughly demonstrate how little a “law” was applied by Saint Paul to the way in which the Corinthians lived. Though there were some things in which Saint Paul had to speak, look how much more often his attitude is permissive rather than prescriptive. He does not say, “it must be this way.” Rather, he almost seems to say, “This is my advice, but if you wish to do this other thing, well, that is OK too.” This is a long way away from judgment and a massive statement of how God, is more concerned about, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
I agree that the Church must exercise her judgment in any of various ways at various times. But, these chapters call us to allow a significant amount of flexibility in the lives of our people. Saint Paul’s hesitancy to give rules to the Corinthians, except when absolutely necessary, show us how little the Church should exercise her office of judge. She does have that office, but in all possible it should be lightly exercised.
Saint Isaac the Syrian has some sayings that show just how far against judgment some of the Early Church Fathers were prone to go, but those saying also illuminate something that is very often lacking in all our lives:
Good works and mercilessness are before God like a man slaughtering a son before his father. The man who corrects his companions while his soul is infirm is like a blind man who shows others the way.
Justice is the equality of the even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves; and when it makes recompense, it does not incline to one side or show respect of persons. Mercy, on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by goodness, and it compassionately inclines a man in the direction of all; it does not requite a man who is deserving of evil, and to him who is deserving of good things it gives a double portion. … As a grain of sand cannot counterbalance a great quantity of gold, so in comparison God’s use of justice cannot counterbalance His mercy.
The beginning of divine wisdom is clemency and gentleness, which arises from greatness of soul and the bearing of the infirmities of men.
As the flame of fire cannot be checked from rising upward, so the prayers of the merciful are not hindered from ascending to Heaven.
I could go on, but the point has been made. “Do not judge, lest ye be judged.” I understand that there are times when we have no choice but to judge. In that very same Book of 1 Corinthians, Saint Paul is forced to express judgments which it is obvious he does not want to express, but he must. In 2 Corinthians, he even stops in and says to stop punishing a brother lest he be driven out of the Church and then out of Heaven itself. Yet Saint Paul’s attitude is that as much as possible, he will avoid giving judgment. Rather, in all that is possible, mercy should be expressed. We use the word grace a lot in American Christian circles, but I prefer the word “mercy.” Mercy is grace made practical. Mercy is expressing ourselves in such a way that our very mercy calls our brother to follow Christ. Mercy is the face of the martyr calling on Our Lord in the Coliseum, in imitation of his Master who died upon the Cross asking God to forgive them, and in that face the very soldiers see God and become Christians. Justice should be rare while mercy should be frequent. The Jesus Prayer says, “’Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
In many of the Desert Fathers that mercy meant a not-understandable-to-us willingness to forgive the brother found in a sin so that mercy might rule rather than justice. In all possible we should exercise mercy rather than justice. But, if we must exercise justice, then let us do it with fear and trembling lest we be judged by the standard with which we have judged others.
Some old men went to Abba Poemen and asked, “If we see brothers sleeping during the synaxis, should we wake them?” Abba Poemen answered, “If I see my brother sleeping, I will put his head on my knees and let him rest.” Then one old man spoke up, “And how do you explain yourself before God?” Abba Poemen replied, “I say to God: You have said, “First take the beam out of your own eye and then you will be able to remove the splinter from the eye of your brother.”
There were two monks who committed a very serious sin when they went to the village to sell their wares. But they were wise enough not to let the devil trick them into discouragement and so they came back to the desert and went to the Abba to confess their sins. To ease them into their conversion, they were asked to go and live on their own for one month on bread and water, to pray and do penance. When the time was over, Abba himself came over to reunite them with the disciples. However he was very surprised because one came out grim, downcast, pale while the other was radiant, buoyant and brisk. “What did you meditate upon?” Abba asked. The sad monk answered : “I thought constantly on the punishment which I merit and the justice of God”. The happy monk answered : “Well, I used to remind myself constantly the mercy of God and the love which Jesus Christ had for the sinner.” Both of them were joyfully accepted back in the community but Abba remarked on the wisdom of the brother who kept his mind fixed on the compassion of God.
Amen.