ajw333 wrote:
How can we help those who are bringing something impure into the body if we don't discern it and make a judgment?
You cannot judge the state of a soul, AJ, and to judge someone's level of faith is to judge the state of their soul. ONLY God can do that. You can judge that what they were saying in tongues is bad, since they were cursing, instead of praising, but to assume from that point that they do not have a level of faith, or the wrong kind of faith is not for you to judge.
Quote:
You are to judge the way they conduct themselves as Christians. To judge whether or not someone has or has no faith, or the level at which they have faith is not for you. That is for God to judge. And no, I am not taking that scripture reading out of context.
I didn't say that we should judge the level of their faith but that we should be able to discern that there is something impure mixed with their faith. [/quote]
Same thing, AJ. You cannot judge someone's faith. When you say you can discern there is something impure mixed with their faith, what exactly are you saying? That you can see into their hearts, into their souls? Because that is what you would have to be able to do to do what you are saying. The only thing you can judge is what came out of their mouths. And it happened to people who thought they were praising God, therefore, one has to be very careful with such things. We are not to enter into these kinds of things lightly.
Quote:
Mt. 7:1-5 "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you . Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden bean in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrit, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
This passage is often misunderstood to be a blanket ban on pointing out the faults in others. The scripture says that we are first to sort ourselves out so that we can then see clearly to help others. If someone was cursing God in tongues, shouldn't we be able to discern it and do something to help them?[/quote]
No, it's not. It's specific. Look to yourself before you judge someone else. And with what measure you judge, especially if you judge wrongly, that measure you will be judged. So for you to judge one's soul, especially when you do not have the eyes of God, is a very dangerous thing in my way of thinking.
Quote:
I see this scripture as especially fitting for you, AJ. As you refuse to see the truth right in front of you, yet you think you can judge the level of someone else's faith. May God have mercy on you.
As I said, it isn't the
level of faith we are to judge but the
purity. And the reason we do this is not to condemn but to help - I see nothing wrong with this[/quote]
I agree with you completely that we have to help one another, which is why all of the Catholics on this site continually try to explain to you the faith that you seem so stubbornly set on denying.