No one wants to be judged. Culture has made a mantra out of that fact. We all want to do whatever we want to do, but no one wants to be judged for it—we shouldn’t judge each other for it. Especially not in the church. We’ve latched on to the mantra telling people not to judge us. We can do what we want to do.

Can we? Really?

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it is certainly your job to judge those inside the church who are sinning in these ways. God will judge those on the outside; but as the scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (NLT)

As Christians, we often shy away from or even shun our duties and responsibilities. We want to be left alone to live our lives as we please and not be bothered with the difficult or uncomfortable stuff. But that’s not how it works to be a part of a family. That’s not how it works to be a part of a body.

When a body part suffers from sickness, the entire body is affected. Even if it’s just a sniffle, the whole body is weakened while fighting what has affected just one part.

As the body of Christ, we are often remiss in our duties to cast those things out that weaken the body. We say that it’s not our job to judge.

Get out of my life, you evil-minded people,
for I intend to obey the commands of my God.

Psalm 119:115 (NLT)

It is not our job to judge unbelievers—they are held to a different standard than we are as believers. Sinners are supposed to sin, after all. But Christians, on the other hand, are supposed to act like Christ. We are a new creation. The old man is gone.  And, when there are members of the body who fail to act like the new creation we’re supposed to be, it should not go unaddressed. That one part of the body that isn’t acting like it’s supposed to needs to be dealt with before the sickness spreads to the rest of the body unchecked. Either the behaviour must be corrected or that part of the body removed.

It is our responsibility, our job, as believers to help maintain the integrity of the entire body—it’s not just the job of our pastors and leaders. We are all accountable to each other as members of the same body, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you don’t allow sickness to continue in your physical body, why would you allow it to continue in the spiritual body? As we keep our physical bodies healthy and in shape, we should all be working together to accomplish the same thing as the body of Christ.

Daily Bible reading: Psalm 119:105-176, 1 Corinthians 5