teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." Paul saw evidence of this even at Corinth. I do not believe that Apollos or Peter, from what we understand about them, catered to the desires of the people at Cor inth, but there were probably cer tain leaders there who thought they were wise and wanted to be pop ular so they specialized in serving the people but forgot about the instructions of the master. Even today, we tend to cater to the weakness of people. We try so hard to please the people that we fail the master. When we cater to the weaknesses in individuals, we contribute to their downfall and we are building, as Paul formerly told us in I Corinthians 3, with wood, hay and stubble, not with substan tial things such as gold, silver and precious stones. A pastor in the midst of his peo ple can determine what the people enjoy and what they like. Then, without any careful consideration of the Word of Cod, he can con struct messages that appeal to his people. It happened at Corinth. It is happening today. JUDGING OTHER CHRISTIANS Should a Christian judge others? This particular question has been thought through, I suspect, by many of you as you have tried to figure out whether or not it was right for a Christian to evaluate and to pass sentence upon another Christian. There are some who feel strongly that we must judge others. There are others, however, who will quickly quote Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
At first glance, Paul appears to support both sides of the question. He tells us in I Corinthians 11:31 that we must judge ourselves. And he is disturbed in I Corinthians 5 because the Corinthians had not judged a case of immorality in their midst. Later we will consider these pas sages and see that it is wise for Christians to evaluate their pattern of life in the light of their ministry or the testimony of the church. This form of evaluation and action is concerned with a man's pattern of life and how it effects the body. Even here caution must be used. Paul is talking about another form of judging in I Corinthians 4, and there he forbids any judging on the position one may have in Christ. Paul reminds the Corinthi an Christians who were prone to judge all ministers that it was, frankly, not in their province to conduct any investigations or ren der any pronouncements on either Paul, Apollos, or any other teacher. Why this strong prohibition against judging when he later urges them to do more judging? It is because we are talking about two different kinds of judging. The first has to do with our position in Christ; the second relates to our procedure or pattern of life as a Christian. Man is best limited to judging those acts that relate to human conduct on the human plane. If immoraity exists contrary to clearly stated Biblical principles (such as adultery) or the laws of man to day (such as marijuana), Christians have the right to make decisions and take action. Both I Corinthians, chapter 5 and chapter 11 will de velop this line of thought. But even
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