Inspector not Judge

I read something profound today, a quote from Dr. Jim McGinley which said,

“I am not to judge you, but I am a fruit inspector, and I have a right to look at the fruit you are producing.”

What does it mean? Well here goes:

To me it can be broken down into two things:

First, we are not to judge others. Not other Christians, not the unsaved. We are not judges there is only one judge – and we are not Him. But I have struggled with what we do then, what do we call it when we need to Biblically, lovingly, gently, meekly rebuke a brother or sister in Christ. OR – what do we do when someone has NO FRUIT whatsoever and we believe that they may not be saved? What is it that we are doing, if not judging someone else, when we question salvation or put into action Galatians 6:1 which says, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted”? 

And this is where the second part comes in: we aren’t judges, we are inspectors. As brothers and sisters in Christ we should want to help a brother or sister who has stumbled in some way. We should want to bend over, help them up and brush them off and assist them back onto their walk. Our motive should be love. Our method should be love; and that love includes gentleness, meekness, kindness, goodness, patience (is this starting to sound familiar?) The second point is the Fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Well, my friend – THERE is the second point. We aren’t judges – we are inspectors. As fellow Christians we not only have a right, but a God-given command to be inspectors – to inspect the fruit of our brothers and sisters and if the fruit is either not being produced or something about it is funky, we ought to help them figure out the problem so they can get back on to producing the fruit that God has for them to produce. This fruit – this is part of the “profit” that we make from the original “talent” that God gave us to be good stewards of. (see Matthew 25:14-30 – Parable of the Talents). This “profit” we earn from the “talents” we are given will gain us rewards in heaven. So, out of love, we should want our fellow brothers and sisters to have their treasure/reward in heaven stored up to the ceiling if we can help it (and we can).

But the dilemma is that when we put Galatians 6:1 into action, we often come across as judges instead of loving inspectors. Why? Well, go back to the second point – fruit of the Spirit. It says fruit of the Spirit IS LOVE and that love manifests itself in the others listed (kindness, meekness, gentleness, etc.) and if you go back to Galatians 6:1 it makes that point all on it's own really, we just have to SEE it and UNDERSTAND it. It says in Galatians 6:1 – “each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.” It is saying that we can fall into the same sin – we can stumble over the same thing our brother or sister has AND if we aren’t very CAREFUL – and our motive isn’t LOVE… let me say it again – if our motive isn’t love – then there is a good chance that as an inspector we will ALREADY be guilty of the  “us too being tempted” part of Galatians 6:1 – we will be sinning by acting out of something besides love and then we have no way to be good inspectors.  

We aren’t the judge – we are the loving inspectors that want to get the disease (sin) out of the fruit so that it can be produced and make a profit (treasure in heaven) for our brother or sister (a fellow branch on the Vine). But we are ONLY inspectors when our motivation is LOVE for the OTHER person and a desire out of that love to restore a person to Christ. If that is not our motivation, then we are playing the Judge and we are not He. When our motivation is not in line with God then we ought to just stay quiet, and actively SHOW  love to that person because “love covers a multitude of sin” (1 Peter 4:8). (Note: I believe we can SHOW love, when love as our motivation is not present – I believe they are separate.)

Now, I don’t know about you – but the idea of being a Fruit Inspector and not a Judge really helped me “get it”! Praise God for His powerful Word that really does give us everything we need to know! Sometimes I just need a little help connecting the dots.