A very important doctrine and distinction to know my friends is the difference between Judgement and Discernment. Some Christians today do not know the difference, and so they continually fall into the wrong path. In this article, we will go into what exactly are Judgement and Discernment, and what is the key difference between them both, and how it is applicable to our Christian lives.

Let's go into what Judgement is. Judgement (Greek, krinein) as used in famous passages such as Matthew 7:1, means to render a verdict. I hope what you know what this means my brothers and sisters. Judgement as it is used by Jesus in Matthew 7:1 means to determine the eternal state of the soul. We are not to do this. To do so is to put ourselves into God's Judgement seat, which is not right, for that is what the hypocrites known as the Pharisees do. They render verdicts on people's salvation state. This kind of Judgement is the earthly kind of Judgement. It's earthly because 1) the person judging the other person in this manner is guilty of the same sins that he is judging, 2) the person judging puts themselves into God's seat, feeding their own pride, and 3) since Judgement in this manner, deciding the eternal state of the human belongs to God alone, to assume it is to demonstrate a lack of trust in God's Wisdom and Righteous Judgement. That is why Jesus warns us not to judge people in this hypocritical way, for if we judge people in this manner, we would also be condemning our own selves, for we would be guilty of the same things. You who condemn the liars to hell, do you lie? You who say that the impure will have eternal suffering in hell, are you impure? This quote from a Saint is true: "If you constantly count the sins of others, you multiply your own." (Nikolaj Velimirovic). So therefore, when it comes to this kind of Judgement, it is wise to avoid it at all costs. Do not by a hypocrite, but be impartial in everything. Similar judgement is also read about when Paul wrote he first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 4:3-4, in which there the word judge (Greek, anakrinein) is comparable to investigation that is before and during a trial, and the preceding judgement. The Corinthians at the time prejudged Apostle Paul, prejudging him as in denying his Apostolic Authority and prejudging him as an unfaithful steward. Saint Paul thinks that this is improper for them and even himself to prejudge his own life, for ultimately Jesus Christ is the Judge, and the only one who can Judge righteously when it comes to matters such as this. This is seen in Sant Paul's next sentence, 1 Corinthians 4:5: "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God." So my brothers and sisters, do not put yourself into the judgement seat of Christ, nor commit any acts of prejudgment against people or yourself even, and simply leave Judgement in this sense up to Christ, the Righteous Judge.

However, there is a truth that we can perform Judgement as an act of virtue, not hypocrisy. The main warning for us Christians is to not judge each other as if we were God. But we can judge in a virtuous way. This is where discernment comes into play. Discernment is a wonderful gift from God, a gift of Wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Discernment is simply recognizing what is right from wrong, what is sin from righteousness, what is life from death, what is the truth and what is heresy. The Holy Spirit is who gives true and righteous discernment. We experience this all the time in the life of the Church and our own Christian Lives. Whenever tempted to be impure, we make a discernment from right and wrong. Of course we recognize that being pure and chaste for God is indeed righteous and good, and being impure and immoral is bad and sinful, because it separates us from God. This is a proper discernment inspired by the Holy Spirit. And upon that discernment, you make a judgement on what to do, being filled with Wisdom. In this example, the proper and righteous judgement should be to choose purity and chastity, and this is indeed according to the will of God. How about anger? Unrighteous and murderous anger are very sinful, and it is best to be gentle and calm with everything, again imitating God. But there is a thing called righteous anger, which we use anger to drive out sin and drive out all evil. This is virtuous in the sight of God, for he did it himself when he was cleansing out the Temple. In both examples, we see that we are discerning by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and by that same Grace we are given a proper and righteous judgement on what to do.

There is a lot more on what Judgement would be for us, and how we are to Judge, but for now, this is the teaching for us Christians today. In later articles there will be further and deeper teachings on what the Saints and the Scriptures testify as to Judgement, both pertaining to God alone and to us Christians in his Church. We must not judge and prejudge each other the way that God will judge us on the last day. But by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, we are free to discern what to do according to God's Will, and so make proper and righteous judgements on what to do based on that discernment. Amen.