The Bible Restricts Believers from Judging One Each Other

Hey! Thanks for setting this debate up as desired. I wanted this to be shorter, but still have the 10000 character count. Thank you for also jumping right into the arguments, as requested. On your structured points: 1. The Proper Understanding of Matthew 7:1-5 I completely agree with your interpretation of this portion of the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, I will be using this very fact of "Exercising righteous judgement" throughout this debate to raise an interesting question. 2. Believers Are to Judge Those Within, 1 Corinthians 5:12 I like your list here, as it points out and proposes a list by which to judge other people. 1. One who claims to be a brother and is guilty of any of the following. A. Sexual Immorality. B. Greed. C. Idolatry. D. Reviling. E. Drunkenness F. Swindling We will use this as the basis of justification of judgement. Paul does say that it is for the insiders of the church, but who is he to judge even them? I will be covering that in my arguments. 3. Ironing Out the Details, A Look at Other Relevant Texts You seem here to reinforce your idea that Hypocrites may not judge others, but the righteous judges can. This is the entire point I will lay out in my arguments. On your concluding statements It is strange that you would say that the bible contradicts itself and is not inerrant. However, I will go along with this assumption. My Arguments I will lay this out in a few stages as well: 1. Establish the sin nature. 2. Show the conditions of judgment. 3. Show that man cannot judge anyone because of sin nature. 1. Establishing the sin nature. Genesis 3:1-4: The fall of Man (1) "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord god had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (2) And the woman said unto the serpent, We may ea of the fruit of the trees of the garden: (3) But the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch, lest ye shall die. (4) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die It was after this fateful conversation that goes on to convince Eve to take the first bite, who then convinces Adam to take the second bite, that condemns man to his sin nature. After the punishment laid out in Genesis 3:16-19, we see that Adam and Eve bare Cain (Genesis 4:1) and we see later that Cain kills Abel (Genesis 4:8), showing that the sin had passed from one generation to the next, showing that we are all born in sin. Indeed, in Ephesians 2:1-6, Paul says this: (1)And you hath be quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the power of the air, the spirit now worketh in the children of disobedience: (3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of you your flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (4) but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (5) Even when we were dead in our sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace we are saved;) (6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus: It is shown there that our spirit is dead in our sins, which is made alive again by Christ. But, is our flesh made alive by Christ? No. Before Christ's salvation having entered our hearts and souls, we see that we have no choice but to sin as is our sin nature. However, God cures our soul of the sin nature and we then have the choice to fight the flesh. It is written in many places of the bible (1 Timothy 6:9, Mathew 26:41, 1 Peter 5:8, etc.) that we must avoid the temptations of the flesh. It is known throughout the bible that the flesh is evil, poisoned by sin, that only our soul is saved only through Christ Jesus, who made the blood sacrifice of a perfect man who was also of God and atoned for our sins. We see now that the flesh is sinful, a burden on the soul that is saved, and it is the reason we sin. Even the saved are not free of its curse, as Jesus says this in Mathew 5:29-30: (29) And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. (30) And if they right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. We see here and in other translations of the bible, (which states if your eye causes you to sin, and if your hand causes you to sin, to cut them off) that our body, our flesh will and can cause us to sin and that it is still of sin nature, only housing our saved soul. With this I rest my case on sin nature of man. No matter if we are saved, we are still plagued with the sin of our fathers and ourselves and the temptation of the body. Though our soul may be washed clean, our bodies and flesh are still of this sinful world, and of this sinful world they shall remain. 2. Show the conditions of judgment. Mathew 7:1-3 Again (1) Judge not, that ye be not judged. (2) For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (3) And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? We see here that Jesus establishes a simple fact that is this: Another man cannot judge another unless he is free an clear of the beam in his own eye. We also see from Con's argument that we get a certain list of things a man does that deserves the casting of our judgement as long as he is in the church. A. Sexual Immorality. B. Greed. C. Idolatry. D. Reviling. E. Drunkenness F. Swindling This list shows the sins that allow for judging. So, according to Jesus and his anti-hypocrisy teachings, that you must also be free and clear of these sins as well. You must have removed the beam from your own eye before ever even attempting to remove the mote from your brother's eye. So, in other words, you must be free of these six sins, never or very very rarely doing any of them. Some of them get very strict, as Jesus says at one point that even to look at another woman is adultery and in another place, the bible writes that anything you put above god (even subconsciously) is idolatry. We see that no human can be perfect as the only one that ever was died for our sins and paid that great sacrifice. 3. Showing that man cannot judge anyone because of sin nature. John 8:1-7 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. (2) And Early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. (3) And the Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, (4) They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. (5) Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? (6) This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. but Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. (7) So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her. In this moving passage of the bible, we see that Jesus himself did two things: First, he refused to judge the woman by ignoring the scribes an pharisees, thereby also avoiding the voice of temptation that even his flesh was also weak too, but because he was God as well, was able to refrain from sin in thought and practice all his life. Second, we see him finally, upon persistence by the Scribes and Pharisees, stand up and answer them by telling them that they without sin could cast a stone. And in verse 8, he begins to ignore them again by continuing to write on the ground, and in 9, the Scribes and Pharisees were convicted of their sins and they left him and the woman to go. Why is this so important? We see that, though Jesus was absolutely perfect, he did not judge this woman. Instead, he tells them that if they are without sin, they may cast judgement upon her. Should this not be applied to all people, within and outside of the church? If we are all full of sin, even those among us that are saved, how can we ever judge another human? We are all in sin, and, unless someone is completely Christ-like, completely free and clear of sin, we cannot judge one another, as it is not our place. Jesus, in all his innocence and perfection, told us that we are not to judge one another unless we are without sin. Conclusion My argument stands as this: All man is full of sin, even after the saving of our soul. To judge, you must be without sin. So, only God and Jesus can judge, and that is it. We are not perfect, therefore we cannot judge. On the contradictions with Paul, it seems that in a book full of contradictions, that we must prioritize what is said. It is easy to put the New Testament over the old, and it is even easier to put the teachings of Jesus above anything else. So, in the case of contradictions, Christians must look at Jesus's stance on it.