Judgment (Continued)

2 Timothy 4: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ⁴ They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

“Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”
― Rick Warren

We are truly living in the times Paul prophesied about in 2 Timothy.  From my perspective we live in a time of unprecedented secular humanism in which we blend scripture with secular worldview based on logic, reason, and intuition to justify whatever behavior we desire.  The Methodist Church, for instance, is undergoing a "schism" over sexual immorality of all kinds, especially homosexuality which is driven by a misrepresentation of scripture by a very small minority of leaders who may have good intentions, but have been led astray by such blending.  Note that Paul told Timothy to "be prepared" which tells me that we have to know Jesus so well that we immediately recognize anything that is not representative of Him (Study!).  Furthermore, we are to correct, rebuke, and encourage. As I pointed out in my last post, this isn't to be done harshly or broadly, but strictly as led by the Spirit. Note that Paul even included direction on what to do with leaders who sin  
1 Tim 5:  ²⁰ But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning.

Unfortunately, Rick Warren is right.  Satan has robbed us of the power of the Spirit by convincing us that to disagree with someone's behavior is to fear or hate them or more often to "stand in judgment of them."  I don't need to stand in judgment, scripture clearly states that we are known by our deeds.  Gal 5: ¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
So by our actions, we bring judgment of God upon ourselves.  If I go speeding down my street at 100mph, for example, clearly I'm sinning.  No one is judging me, trying to figure out my motives, and whether I'm living in relationship to God or not; NO - I need to be recognized for what I'm DOING: endangering others, and need to be stopped!  Addressing sin doesn't require judgment, it requires discernment.  By recklessly speeding, I've judged myself.  Failure to do so, I remind you, is to doom me to a "multitude of sins" (James 5:20 - see yesterday's post). 
We often talk about sin being defined as "missing the mark" - Hamartia in greek.  I've got a real beef with how we in the church teach this, however.  I've stood behind enough guns to know that if I don't aim at the target, I absolutely will not hit it.  So to call living a lifestyle of sin "hamartia" is to misrepresent that sin.  We all sin because we are human and fallible.  Yet there is a difference between trying to live a Godly life by depending on the Holy Spirit, scripture, and Godly council, and to shun scripture and live a lifestyle in obvious conflict with scripture.  This isn't hamartia as you're not aiming at "the mark" of a lifestyle patterned after becoming Christlike.  This may be a prodigal experience or an indication that Christ simply isn't Lord of your life, or even that Christ has no place in your life.  It's not up to me to determine your motives or your salvation condition.  What it is up to me to do is to discern "acts of the flesh" vs "fruit of the spirit" and if called upon by God, to confront that sinful lifestyle. 
Eph 5: ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Failure to do so when called upon has significant ramifications:
Hebrews 10:²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.