Even atheists have heard this one: In Luke 6:37, Jesus says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

That’s it, right? No judging?

Not so much, Paul says in I Corinthians 6:1-8, “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

“Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

“So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

“To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!”

Wow! Turn the other cheek rather than suing a sibling in Christ.

What about grievances you can’t take to court?

Jesus tells us how to handle them in Matthew 18:15-17: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

“But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” 

IOW, someone you wouldn’t trust as far as you could throw ‘em.

What happens then? Is the offender thrown out of the body of Christ, out of reach of those who might have been providing a job, a car, a place to stay?

Paul’s answer is spread out over I and II Corinthians. In I Corinthians 5:1-5, he tells the first part of the story: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

“And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.

“When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

Sounds harsh. In fact, it sounds a lot like the opinion that non-Christians have of the Christian church — harsh, unforgiving, legalistic, and hypocritical.

But Paul hasn’t finished his instructions. In I Corinthians 5:9-13 , he says, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

The story’s not over, though. In II Corinthians 2:4-9, Paul writes, “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

“Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.

“For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.”

Paul must have been thinking about God’s commandment in Zechariah 7:9: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another,’” for Paul goes on in II Corinthians 2:10-11 to say, “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

What are Satan’s designs concerning our sins? In Revelation 12:10, he is called “the accuser of our brothers … who accuses them day and night before our God.”

Is that how you roll?

Think about it.

Then look at Luke 6:37 in context, with verse 38: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;  give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

IOW, what goes around comes around. Are you ready for that?