Then multiple judges (knowledgeable teaching elders) are to carefully cross-examine all witnesses, including those presenting evidence, to determine if their testimonies are true, or if the physical evidence they present is valid (Deut. 19:18). Yet, during this entire systematic process, it is assumed that the motives and intentions of any individual being judged must be examined too, with care and in subtly revealing ways. All judgements must determine intentions and motives, and whether there can be true repentance or not. For all maximum penalties are only for those who commit sins or crimes intentionally, with a malicious motive and without any repentance. But those who did a crime unintentionally, without any malicious motive, or those who truly repent, must be set free. No just judgement simply determined whether or not a person did the crime. Justice was also to determine why they did it and for what reasons. Then the criminal was to be taught what should be done, and why that right way is necessary for the good of all. This teaching about God’s right ways provided an opportunity for repentance and focussed on solving problems. This is how God wants each unique case to be judged, individually and informally, with many questions and with much discussion, even about personal thoughts. God forbids us to judge in the way Greco-Roman judgements are made.
Above all, God taught us how to make right judgements through the many examples of judgements He Himself made. And the primary work of God, in all His judgements, was teaching. When God engaged in the process of judging individuals or whole nations, including His own church of Israel, He first sent prophets and preachers to them, to teach them what was wrong and what was right. Of course, God already knew the sins and crimes they had committed. God already had pronounced them guilty. But, before He punished them, He taught them. If they repented into the truth, like the Gentile state of Nineveh did during the days of the prophet Jonah, God did not punish them. If they refused to repent, like His church of Israel did many times, God punished them until they repented. And, by following God's examples of these principles recorded in God's Word, many believers also learned how to judge rightly. Thus, we saw Christians advocate for justice reforms like parole systems and the education of prisoners, so that those who repented could rejoin society and become contributing members in it, without any stigma attached. Based on the fact that all human beings are equally sinful, a truly repentant sinner is not to be treated as a one who is less than all other citizens.
Not only in biblical times, but for all time, God has continued to illustrate how to judge rightly by the way He Himself is always applying His principles to personal lives and to whole nations who obey or disobey Him. In the end, those who spurn His teachings destroy themselves and usually many others too. But those who follow in His example, rightly handling His Word in the ways He Himself applies His own teachings, are blessed, and become a great blessing to everyone they touch.
Thus, through God's examples, we find one of the more important principles for making right judgements is this: When we judge, there is to be a “decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another,” and so on (Deut. 17:8, ESV). That is, we must realize that there are “degrees” of guilt regarding any particular kind of sin, where that degree of guilt is always based on the motive and intent of the one committing the sin. In all God’s judgements, He found different degrees of guilt in each individual and, therefore, He assigned different degrees of guilt and gave different levels of punishment for each individual in each circumstance. When two committed exactly the same sin, God judged each one differently.
Consequently, when judging anyone or anything, after we determine that something wrong was done and who did it, we must also find out how and why the sinner or criminal did the sin or crime. We do not merely judge guilt or innocence, although this is one of the preliminary steps. The more difficult steps follow this. After determining that something is indeed a sin or crime, and after finding the one who did it, we need to accurately determine exactly how much guilt, if any, this individual possessed while committing that sin or crime. That is, we thoroughly examine all one’s motives and intentions.
The guilt and condemnation of a sinner increased in direct proportion to the amount of malicious intent, the unjust motives and the personal capacity involved in committing the sin or crime. If one had no intention of committing the crime, if it was done by accident or in ignorance, without any negligence, there is no guilt for the crime. The crime becomes a tragedy for both the victim and the perpetrator, something allowed by God, either as a punishment or perhaps as His discipline, to bring about a more intense focus upon Him or His ways. But if one committed a crime through negligence alone, perhaps through greed or apathy, then one becomes more culpable for the crime. So the guilt and punishment can be greater, although one is still not fully guilt. Or if one sinned while one was incapacitated by alcohol or drugs, if something reduced one’s ability to exert self-control and make rational decisions, the sinner may also be charged with a kind of negligence and remains partially guilty, although one is not fully guilty. Many other factors need to be considered as well, such as coercion, mental illness, dysfunctional thought processes or even demonic possession. Only if the motives and intentions were malicious and deliberate can the sinner be held completely guilty for the crime and receive the maximum penalty prescribed by God’s law. And no human court should ever exceed the maximum punishment set by God. The severity of any punishment is never to exceed the severity of the crime or level of the sinner’s motives and intentions. At most, a criminal must pay an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Also, only those who showed no mercy in committing their crimes are to be shown no mercy in their punishment, if they earned the maximum penalty (e.g., Deut. 19:19-21; cf. James 2:12-13). However, we must never forget that God never assigned any minimum penalty for any physical sin or crime, not even for murder. Therefore, even if one did a terrible sin or crime, but that sin or crime was deemed unintentional, no punishment was required.
Now God commanded, “Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another” (Zech. 7:9, ESV). So only merciless psychopaths should receive the maximum penalty, without kindness or mercy. For their hearts are totally incapable of responding to mercy and kindness. Psychopaths only respond to physical threats, to the fear of physical punishment, and often not even to that. In the eyes of a psychopath, anyone who shows mercy to them is just a worthless dupe whom they can exploit. Since these merciless ones are inwardly lawless, without any ability to justly love anyone, they only respond to a fear of the law. So it tells us that “the law [i.e., the maximum punishment of the law] is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane,” for all who have no love, no heart to do God's loving will (I Tim. 1:9, ESV).
If there was no bad or malicious intent or motive at all when a sin was committed—if a person committed a sin accidentally, or through some kind of coercion, or through a temporary madness— why should such a one receive the maximum penalty, the same punishment as the psychopath who continually practices to perfect his evil? God's maximum penalty was not for those with teachable spirits; not for those with the potential ability to love in a just and God-like way; not for those who are able to truly repent from their sins and into a knowledge of real truth, when they receive right teaching under favourable circumstances. In other words, the law is not for condemning any of the elect, although the law can be used for condemning and punishing sinners. Even if the elect sin through blind rage or other temporary emotions of the flesh, but their spirits later repent through godly sorrow, mercy is to be shown. They must be given a penalty less than the maximum, or often no penalty at all. For remember, God never set any minimum penalty for any sin. God had always allowed for complete forgiveness. So a sinner may be punished lightly, if there is still some impure motive within. But a sinner may not be punished at all, if all impure motives and intentions have been purged from the heart. Many times God allowed a sinner to suffer no consequences whatsoever.
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalms 32:1-2, ESV, cf. Rom. 4:1-8).
When an elect spirit learns to be honest about his or her own sins, those sins are fully forgiven. This is why Christians, after the Protestant revival of the 18th century, started to demand changes to the old Roman justice system prevalent throughout Europe at the the time. They wanted an acquittal or reduced sentences for unintentional crimes, for crimes with extenuating circumstances, for those done in ignorance or through coercion or through diminished capacity, and so on. This is why they pushed for parole systems, releasing criminals from prison if they proved to be repentant. We must always remind ourselves that, while God defined a maximum penalty, God never designated any minimum penalty. Since God allowed for the complete forgiveness of any sin, so the sinner might be freed without any penalty, we likewise must allow for the complete forgiveness of any sin, without any penalty. God's law put in place a whole system for the complete forgiveness of sins committed without malicious intent, for sins that most Bibles call “unintentional” sins. In fact, if God did not allow for this complete forgiveness, not one person in history would ever be able to enter heaven.
So now we must learn from God when we are to forgive and when we are not to forgive. This is critical for the protection of the innocent, for the freedom of those whose hearts are right before God. Above all, the Holy Spirit of Jesus must make this clear in our hearts regarding every particular sin committed by each individual sinner. In every judgement, we must ultimately let God decide, and seek God so we may clearly know His decision. For every decision must be based on the motives and intentions of the heart, and no man is able to fully see these. Still, judgements must be made on them, to provide a suitable result for each individual. For God's Word provides many examples of how people who committed basically the same sin received different kinds or degrees of punishment based on their motives and intentions. And, if we are to judge rightly, we must judge all in this way.
One of the best examples of how God's judgements were made according to the motives of the heart occurred during the days of Moses, when Aaron, Miriam and Korah all committed basically the same sin. Each had different motives and intentions of the heart, which caused each to bear a very different degree of guilt for the same sin. Consequently, one of the three sinners repented completely and immediately, while one repented in time. Then the one with malicious motives and intentions did not repent at all. So one was not punished at all, while the other two received different punishments.
Now, as mentioned, all three committed basically the same sin against God. They all rebelled against Moses. And, since all Moses said or did was expressly said or done by God’s commands to his heart, their rebellion against Moses was actually a rebellion against God. Besides, Moses was not the kind of teacher and judge one would ever want to rebel against. For Moses was never harsh, never like a worldly dictator. On the contrary, Moses simply considered himself to be a lowly servant of God among equal brothers. He took no glory for anything, but always and truly gave God all the glory.
Still, Korah and his followers imagined Moses to be just the same as all the vain, self-indulgent, self- glorifying pagan rulers they saw in the world, the kind who jealously guarded their ill-gotten power obtained through ruthless cunning. So Korah and his followers wanted to grab a little of this imagined glory and power for themselves, since they felt they were far more adept, articulate and intelligent than Moses, far more qualified to be stronger, “better” rulers, in a parasitic pagan way.
Of course, God knew why He had chosen Moses. In fact, God loved and chose Moses precisely because Moses was not like pagan rulers, because Moses was humble, loving and faithfully served Him, without seeking personal wealth, esteem or special privileges. So, when Korah opposed Moses, Korah was clearly opposing God, and did this through a delusion, by wilfully believing a lie. Thus, God called Moses and told him to confront Korah. Then Moses dutifully prophesied the words God commanded him to speak: “In the morning [Yahweh] will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Him. The one whom He chooses He will bring near to Him” (Num. 16:5, ESV). In no uncertain terms, God declared that a man must not raise himself up to rule over and judge His church. God does not let men choose who will represent Him in the church. Rather, God chooses His own servants to rule and judge His church. And this same principle applies to this day.
Now Korah and his followers were given one night to ponder their actions and repent. Then, if they did not repent, they were to present themselves before God, who would prove their thoughts to be true or false, to prove the legitimacy or illegitimacy of their demands. In other words, they were to come before God to be judged. Meanwhile, Moses dutifully rebuked them and reasoned with them, so they might perhaps come to realize they were not actually rebelling against him, a mere brother, but were actually rebelling against God. This possibly stimulated some to accept the truth and repent, to turn back from following Korah in his sins. And, no doubt, some did repent. Then, in the morning, God judged those who refused to repent. God opened the earth and swallowed those unrepentant sinners alive (Num. 16:31-33), so all the people would “know that these men have despised [Yahweh]” (Num. 16:30, ESV). Also, it should be mentioned that, when God swallowed all the households with the men who followed Korah, it likely would not have included children, only those old enough to “despise [Yahweh]” and discern between good and evil, those over twenty years old.
Yet, just before this incident, Moses' own brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, committed basically the same sin as Korah. In fact, their grumblings against Moses were very similar to those of Korah. For Aaron and Miriam said: “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” (Num. 12:2, ESV). And did not Korah say almost the same thing when he told Moses, “For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Num. 16:3, ESV). All three were saying that they and the whole congregation were equal to Moses. And this is true. But none of the three realized that God made each individual for a different purpose. So God created and chose Moses for this particular purpose while He did not create or chose them. So all three committed almost exactly the same sin. Korah, Miriam and Aaron all rebelled against God's commands and authority worked through Moses. They all demanded a share in that authority for themselves, without God actually granting them that authority. They all rebelled against God Himself, not just Moses, the humble representative of God who only spoke what God commanded. However, the inner motives of Aaron and Miriam were different than the inner motives of Korah. Furthermore, God also limited the extent of Aaron's and Miriam's rebellion, and did not allow them to drag other people into their rebellion. Yet, God caused others to follow Korah, to share in his condemnation.
Because Aaron and Miriam committed this sin first, it also made the sin of Korah and his followers worse. For Korah and his followers sinned after hearing how and why God condemned Aaron's and Miriam's rebellion as a sin. So Korah and his followers did not act in nearly as much ignorance as Aaron and Miriam did. After hearing how God responded to the sins of Aaron and Miriam, Korah knew that God would condemn any rebellion against Moses, and that God would consider it to be a rebellion against Himself. Yet Korah and his followers went ahead and rebelled against Moses in spite of their knowledge that it was a sin. So Korah committed a more intentional sin than the others.
The rebellion of Aaron and Miriam seems to have risen from a mere petty squabble over a family matter, through angry thoughts rising from proud delusions in their minds of flesh. Their sins did not originate directly from the spirit in the heart, like Korah's sin did. For both Aaron and Miriam obviously had truly elect spirits, born of God. Aaron's and Miriam's minds of flesh simply refused to heed the rational pleas from their own inner consciences, from the minds of their elect spirits. Their rebellion began after their brother, Moses, married an African woman after his first wife died. Of course, many Gentiles of many races joined Israel, and Israel fully accepted those converted Gentiles as their brothers and sisters. In fact, Moses' first wife was also a Gentile, and they had no complaints about her. So they were not entirely racist. But Moses' new wife was a Cushite, from a dark-skinned African race, a woman who did not look at all like their own familiar Semitic people. So there was indeed some racism involved. Finally, these ill feelings grew so intense that God had to intervene, and called them to a meeting for their judgement. Yet their punishment was nothing like Korah's.
When God judged Aaron and Miriam, He once more focused on teaching them the truth, to cause them to repent into the truth. Of course, both Aaron and Miriam were already well taught, regarding God's Word. So God's teaching was simply a brief reminder of what they already knew. Still, by teaching them first, it revealed the method God used in judging them. God began in His usual way, by teaching them to discern between right and wrong. Then He rebuked them for doing wrong. After this teaching, God only punished Miriam, although very lightly. And Aaron was released without even a slap on the hand. Compare this with how ambitious Korah was swallowed alive by the earth!
For Miriam's punishment, God made Miriam's flesh leprous, likely symbolically, because she sinned regarding the colour of flesh belonging to Moses' new wife. Yet God only let her leprosy last a few moments, until Miriam realized the wickedness of her sin towards her sister-in-law, and began to resist her evil thoughts. The moment Miriam began to cry out with godly sorrow leading to real repentance, Moses humbly prayed, asking God to heal her. And God did. But God did not yet seem to see full repentance. Thus, God commanded her to remain outside the camp of the church of Israel for a week, to meditate on her sinful foolishness. Meanwhile, absolutely nothing was done to Aaron. And I would say another reason was because Miriam likely incited Aaron to his rebellion. She was probably the first to disapprove of the woman Moses married. Also, Aaron likely had a stronger inner conflict concerning this sin, which made for a more instantaneous and complete repentance.
Therefore, the very same sin resulted in one guilty party receiving no punishment, in one being punished lightly, and in one being punished with extreme severity. Each one was guilty. But each had different degrees of maliciousness and repentance. So each received a different judgement ranging from no penalty all the way up to the worst death sentence possible. God wants us to take note of this and learn from it, so we might follow His example and learn to judge in the same way. We too must judge each individual in a unique way, and if we punish any, it must be according to each one's degree of guilt, based on each one's degree of evil intent in the heart. But, if any heed the rebukes of right teachings, taking them to heart and truly repenting, they should not receive any punishment. A sinner must not suffer any penalty if they respond to godly rebuke with the spirit's repentance into a knowledge of truth. For this sinner can then go on to serve God and His people effectively after that.
Consider many other examples in Scripture showing us how God judged people, including kings, when they committed sins like murder, adultery and lying to cover up sins. God's maximum penalty for both adultery and murder was the death penalty, even without mercy for intentional sinners who did not repent. God has physically and spiritually destroyed many adulterers and murderers during the course of history, and He has often had them executed by men. But that is because many were not His elect children, because they could never repent into a knowledge of the truth. Yet, when king David committed these very sins, God simply educated and rebuked him. God did not punish him at all. For God's words, through Nathan the prophet, were enough to cause David great sorrow in the heart, leading to true repentance. After Nathan came to him, David wrote about how God forgave him of multiple murders, adultery and lies (in Ps. 51 and elsewhere). And, obviously, God utterly forgave David because David responded in a way that pleased Him, because David learned to hate his own sins and turn from them, then eagerly sought to restore the losses his sins had caused (which is called “bearing fruits of repentance”). By doing all this, David's spirit submitted to God's thorough cleansing and purification of his heart, to God's truth, to God's spiritual works in his repentant heart. Of course, some point out that God also caused the death of David's innocent child at that time. But this did not seem to be a punishment for sin. It appears to have been done for deeper reasons, such as to spare the boy from living out his life with a stigma of illegitimacy, and to bring God’s child home.
Since God's purpose for giving us such examples is to learn His ways, we should use these examples for that purpose. We can start by searching out the reasons for God's judgements through a plenary knowledge of the whole of Scriptures, while taking into account our own experiences in life. Now we know it says that, on that last day, God will judge and reward all men according to their works (e.g., Mat. 16:27; II Tim. 4:14). But, clearly, as seen above, God does not judge solely by the works themselves. God never simply adds up a man's merit points then subtracts his demerit points from them, to see if he is worthy of heaven—where men assign more merit points for bigger good works than for smaller good works, and men assign more demerit points for more overtly bad sins than for the more hidden sins, then tell God how many of each a man should get. God did not do anything like this in any examples of His judgements. Rather, all God's judgements depended on the condition of the person's heart, not on the kinds of sins and good works one did, not on how effective a good deed or sin was in the eyes of other men. When the world saw a ruthless, psychopathic ruler make them very prosperous, they would “love” him and pray for his well-being. When the world and worldly churches saw a true prophet speak against their false teachings and wicked deeds, because God commanded the prophet to utter those very words, they hate that prophet and prayed for his destruction. But God would always ignore their prayers. For God judges each man by his heart.
God cannot judge men by how good or how bad their works may seem to be in the eyes of foolish men. For God alone produces all the effects of all good works, or allows all the effects of sins. The effectiveness of any man and any work depends entirely on God, not on man. God can bless one small good deed of giving five loaves and two small fish, making it feed more than five thousand hungry souls. Or God can make an expensive and grand good deed, like building a gold-lined temple for Him, fall ineffectively into oblivion as soon as it is completed, with a curse upon its builders.
There is no rational way for anyone to receive merits for good works or to receive demerits for bad works. This is not possible for a number of reasons. First, God initially created and gave all the abilities, strengths, attributes and propensities to each and every body and spirit. So none but God can receive glory for any goodness done by us, or for any good we are able to do. Second, God has the power to manipulate, enhance, weaken, destroy or overpower any body or spirit. And God can allow Satan to do the same. So some are moved by God into uttering good words and doing good works, while God allows Satan to move others into uttering deception and doing bad works. Thus, a man cannot take credit for either. Third, God created every resource used by man to do anything. So man must thank God alone for all he uses to do good. Fourth, God regulates every circumstance and cause of success or failure regarding every action, even every factor influencing every decision, even all temptations from Satan. So, when hearts believe and trust in God, God makes good circumstances and leads men into wise, good decisions. But, when men believe in themselves, God increasingly makes circumstances difficult, and allows Satan to make slaves of them, until some finally repent.
So God ultimately controls all the effects of all uttered words and physical actions. Therefore, how can God justly judge us by works themselves, by the effects of what we do, by the skill and by the greatness of those works? For none of those effects were actually caused by us! Thus, we can take neither the credit nor the blame for anything we do or say, whether good or bad. Since only God controls how good or how bad and how effective or how ineffective every word and action will be, He cannot judge by any of those effects of our works. If God judged men in this way, with a merit system, He actually would be judging Himself in reality, not those He is supposed to be judging.
And even the most evil hearts do some good works. However, God will not give any merit points to them for those good works. For evil people do some good works unintentionally. Then they also do many other good works intentionally, but with wrong motives. For, just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, by speaking some nice words and doing some good works, so do his children. Yet Satan and his human children only do such things to gain the confidence of their victims so they can further exploit or destroy them. Satan's children are his servants or “ministers.” So they say nice things and do good works to “disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” And God states that “their end will correspond to their deeds” (II Cor. 11:15, ESV). In other words, they will be judged according to their works, like us all. However, they all go to hell for their “righteousness.” Even when the world thinks that a child of Satan produced more merit points than demerit points during his physical life, that deceiving child of Satan will indeed go to hell. Therefore, God clearly does not judge men by the works themselves, but by the motives of the heart in doing those works. Only those who do a few good works through pure and loving motives of the spirit in the heart will be rewarded.
If a man only accomplishes one or two small, good works in his entire life, but does them through an elect spirit's pure longing for God and His loving ways, he will be saved. Clearly, the thief on the cross beside Jesus was like this. Obviously, he had trusted in his own strength and had not lived his life by godly faith. And, at first, he derided Jesus, together with the other man on the cross. But then the eyes of his elect spirit began to open and he saw that Jesus was not like other men, that Jesus was purer than any man he had ever seen. That thief began to believe Jesus was the Christ and God, who would judge all men in heaven. So he began to take a stand and defend Jesus, asking Jesus to remember him after they both died. This thief did this one small, good deed, possibly the only one in his life. Yet, Jesus told him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (see Luke 23:39-43, ESV). And Jesus did not lie. So we know, with absolute certainty, that this thief did indeed enter heaven. Thus, it seems this thief was one of the elect whom Jesus came to save. And Jesus caused that thief to do this good deed during the last moments of his life, in a pure way, straight from the spirit in his heart. Thus, God does not reward his elect with heaven because they earned it by an accumulation of more merit points than demerit points, but because they are His elect children whose spirits can be taught to do good through pure motives, through genuine, just, God-like love.
God does not judge anyone strictly by the kinds of works they do, nor by how effective or ineffective He causes our works to be. For the purpose of doing good works is to train our spirits to become fit to do go