I just got back from a Japan trip for a family tour and to visit a missionary couple in Fukuoka. Just before I left, the news of CHC pastor Kong Hee falsifying the church’s financial account was reported in the news. Many people came to his defense. Among them, many quoted Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.” to criticise Christians who have given disapproval to the actions of Kong Hee.
Firstly, this is not the true meaning of Matthew 7:1. The verse does not mean that we should not point out from the mistakes of others. In the same chapter, Mt 7:15 records, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.” How are we to identify false prophets? Doesn’t that involve judging them to see if what they preach and do are what the bible approves of? Doesn’t it take careful judging to see amongst the sheep if one of them is a wolf waiting to devour the rest of the sheep?
Mt 7:16 goes on, “You will recognize false prophets by their fruit...” It carries on in 7:17-20, “every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, neither can a bad tree produce good fruit....So you will recognize them by their fruit.” How do we recognize if we are not allowed to judge? The very nature of recognizing if someone is a true teacher of God’s Word involves judgement. It involves careful discernment. Careful discernment if a person who claims to be a teacher of the bible has produced good fruit. That is, if he has lead a life that God favours, by doing good, not only in outwardly actions where it is visible by surrounding man, but more importantly, having a truly pure heart with inwardly good intentions which only God can see.
Jesus in fact commands us to judge righteously. Jesus once went into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at the authority of His teaching. But yet, they began to reject His teaching and even claimed that there is a demon inside Him (John 7:20). Jesus responded to them not to judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgement (John 7:24). To judge if He is in fact a demon, or the true Son of God.
So what did Jesus meant when he spoke the words in Mt 7:1? Jesus was speaking to his disciples to be on guard against the hypocritical, unfair, self-righteous, harsh judging by the Pharisees. The Pharisees judge others but they themselves are committing the same sin or even worse sin. They command people to do good but they themselves are not doing it (Mt 23). They impose overly self righteous moral standards and laws to the people which they themselves are not observing. They cheat the possessions of widows’ (23:14), did not exercise justice and mercy (23:23). Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in a whole chapter in Mt 23.
Jesus is not telling us that we are not to recognize the mistakes of others if they have truly committed a wrong. He is telling us not to be the kind of people who would judge other people’s wrong and yet, ourselves committing the same kind of sin that they have just judged. This is the hypocritical judging that Jesus does not allow us to have. He says in Mt 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” He carries on in 7:5, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
An example of hypocritical judging is if someone is watching pornography, yet he rebukes another brother for looking lustfully at scantily clad women in a magazine. Isn’t the case of pornography worse?
Jesus wants us to first examine ourselves for any sin that we might have first before we rebuke the similar sin in others. Thus, in the case of Kong Hee, when we read of the financial fraud that he has committed, let us examine ourselves of any financial fraud that we might have committed too. Have we ourselves gain any dishonest profits or possessions?
But this is not to say that we can just take a neutral stance towards his case of financial fraud. Financial fraud in the eyes of the law already warrants a life imprisonment sentence to the convict. There were two previous large scale financial fraud cases in Singapore. The first one, involved an employee in Asia Pacific Breweries who falsified 117 million. He was sentenced to 42 years in jail. The other involved an employee in Singapore Airlines who falsified 34 millions and was sentenced to 24 years in jail. In contrast, Kong Hee falsified 26 million and the highest penalty is a life time imprisonment.
The secular law already warrants such judgement against Kong Hee. What more the bible which examines in the inner most depths of the hearts of man? We have to be on guard against greed. We have to be alert to judge and recognize a church leader who is involved in financial fraud.
to be continued...
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