Unrighteous Judgment

After John 3:16, one could argue that the most widely known Bible verse might be, Matthew 7:1 - judge not lest you be judged. This verse is especially well-known amongst those who are unbelievers and don't know what the Bible teaches. 

Clearly what is known as 'unrighteous judgment' is condemned all throughout the Scriptures. 

But on the other side, there are commandment to/for believers to judge. Yes, for those who don't know the Bible, you heard me rightly. Christians are actually commanded to judge.

For example, Jesus Himself, who famously said "judge not", commands His followers: "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)

The Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Corinth, that "the spiritual person judges all things" (1 Cor. 2:12). 

And probably the most instructive teaching is when Paul tells the Corinthian Christians that we are NOT to judge those outside the Church, but we are to judge those within it: "Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (1 Cor. 5:12). 

Paul rebukes the Corinthian Church for NOT JUDGING an unrepentant professing believer in their midst who was living in sexual immorality.

Recently, I met with an unmarried Christian couple living in sexual immorality. I called them to repentance and gave them Biblical instruction which in their case was to get married as soon as possibly. I was attempting to obey Paul's instructions. 

They ended up being deeply offended by what I had said. I would imagine they were thinking more about Matthew 7:1 than the other passages. 

I believe I had gone about confronting them in a good way. Even when we are judging an action we can do so in the wrong way, the wrong spirit. My sense is that the meeting had gone well. I only found out later about them being offended. Thankfully, they had done what I advised them to do and gotten married. 

So, unrighteous judgment is condemned. But righteous judgment is commanded and expected.

A great short article on the topic I just came across is entitled, "Judging Others in Light of Christ's Command to "Judge Not"" - LINK

My interest in this blog post however is related to a growing chorus of unrighteous judgment as I have been watching carefully the situation that has been going on with Mike Bickle and IHOPKC (the International House of Prayer Kansas City). 

A group of former IHOPKC leaders confronted Mike Bickle and the leadership of IHOPKC about a sexual sin issue in Bickle's life. They were following the protocol of Matthew 18:15-18 and eventually due to the lack of response, they proceeded to "tell it to the church" (v. 17).

As far as I can tell and from what I was told by friends who are more closely involved, the way it was done by these leaders constituted righteous judgment. God of course is the only one who knows the motivations of people's hearts. 

Where then is the unrighteous judgment? What have I observed? In the wake of the allegations against Mike Bickle, a number of "self-appointed" judges emerged.

Social Media posts exploded. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, etc.

YouTube videos started to be produced. Some of them posting multiple videos each week. Any time a new bit of information or a new development occurred new videos were getting uploaded. 

Also, many Blog posts and articles were/are being written.

And the comments on these posts/videos and/or comments on official posts/announcements from IHOPKC have been endless.

What has shocked me is the level of vitriol, the bitterness, the anger, and the further unsubstantiated, speculative claims being made (that clearly violate the approach of Matthew 18) by the self-appointed judges and commentators. 

One of the more egregious aspects of their judgments is the way they are judging many of the IHOPKC leadership's motives (which is ALWAYS unrighteous judgment). Yes, you heard me correctly: IT IS ALWAYS UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT TO CLAIM YOU KNOW THE MOTIVES OF SOMEONE ELSE'S ACTIONS. 

I don't want to end up being guilty of the same thing they are doing - judging UNRIGHTEOUSLY, but I want to at least explore a bit more as to why they are not engaged in the type of judging that is commanded and is honoring to God.

1. Many of them have no relationship whatsoever with Mike Bickle and IHOPKC. From a distance, they are claiming to be exposing things and bringing the truth to light. They are not in relationship with the people involved. They are self-appointed critics who seem to be taking advantage of a huge controversy in the church that is getting them "views" (or "clicks"). They remind me of the countless "discernment" ministries who think their God-given mandate is to go around and critique everyone else's doctrine who doesn't agree with theirs. 

2. Some are former IHOPKC staff members who have admitted that they did not depart the ministry in a positive way. For righteous judgment to take place, our hearts need to be right. We can't have unhealed wounds. We can't have ongoing offense and/or unforgivness. I can't speak for all of this category of critics, but ongoing offense is apparent in many of the comments. They simply should NOT be weighing in if that is in fact the case. They believe they are bringing righteous judgment but unhealed wounds, unforgiveness and/or other offense actually disqualifies them from being able to bring godly, righteous judgment.

3. Where is the Fear of God? As we have been greatly influenced over the years by Mike Bickle and IHOPKC, it has been extremely sad for us to discover what has come to light. We assume there is more to come. Our hearts are broken. And to be honest, it is frightening to think of the supernatural call and mandate God gave to Mike Bickle and the sin he allowed into his life. This entire thing should cause us all to fall on our faces before our Holy God. To get us to reconsider the fear of the Lord. I guess with many of the critics and commentators, I have not really sensed that this is something that they are communicating which concerns me. All of us should be thinking, if this could happen to a leader like Mike Bickle, what makes us think he couldn't also happen to us! 

My prayer for the critics and commentators is that they would consider the very issues that I've just highlighted that is causing me to have to tune them out even as I am still following the story. May the Lord reveal to them what is fueling their fire, what is motivating them to do what they are doing. And for those of them who are in fact acting as 'unrighteous judges', may they repent.

AFTERTHOUGHTS - I have simply had to tune out all of these critics' voices as it was really defiling me. I found myself doing to them (unrighteously judging them) what they were doing to IHOPKC. Their attacks on those involved, or those whom IHOPKC has hired, are simply relentless and more and more brutal. The spirit in which they are doing it is more and more defiled. Yes, there are exceptions but the most vocal, the most visible of these self-appointed critics are being driven by something diabolical.

#ihopkc #mikebickle #kansascityprophets #mikebickleallegations