Good morning, Pastor John.
In 1Corinthians 4:5 it reads, ”So, judge nothing before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and expose the intentions of hearts, and then from God will praise be given to each one.”
Is this referring to when Jesus comes back in the end, or could “wait until the Lord comes” be referring to a present time when the Lord makes His judgement known to us on a particular matter?
Thank you,
Anna
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Hi Anna.
Paul’s words could be taken to mean the same thing Jesus taught about judging if you put two of Jesus’ commandments together. First, Jesus commanded his disciples to “stop judging, so that you won’t be judged” (Mt. 7:1). Then, he clarified what he meant in John 7:24, when he told them, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge righteous judgment!”
Put together, those two commandments tell us that we, in our own wisdom, are not to judge anything, but are to receive from the Spirit whatever judgments we make. So, yes, what Paul said could be taken that way, and that would be true. We are to be led by the Spirit in our judgments.
But I think that in the scripture above, Paul was speaking of the return of Jesus at the end of this age to declare God’s judgment concerning who will be saved from His wrath and who will not be saved. For anyone at the present time, then, to claim to be saved is jumping the gun, to say the least. Jesus will have the final word on that.
Hope that clears things up for you.
Pastor John
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