"JUDGE NOT...

...that ye be not judged!”

Who is Jesus saying this to?...the Church??   
No-one has even heard of the Church yet.           
No, this is said to His Jewish disciples while Pharisees were critically scrutinising what everyone else did.

So, whatever does Jesus mean by this?    
(Matt 7:1-5)                                             
Isn’t he saying?... “Don’t go around picking fault with other people - deal with your own faults first."

Now then... let’s see if today’s pastors are right in applying this to the Church, as many do...

Obviously the Christians in Thessalonica needed this reminder:
“...do your own business, and to
work with your own hands”. Yup, mind your own business, guys - which agrees with: ‘judge not’.

However...the early Church was also taught to maintain discipline: “put away from among yourselves that wicked person”. There was even instruction to ‘have no company’ with those who were idle ‘busy-bodies’.

So where does that leave pastors who use Christ’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ to skip Church discipline so as to keep their congregation full? 
“Church discipline?...what’s that??”                                                        
Are they undermining our Lord's instructions thru apostle Paul to the Church? Is it any wonder that apostasy is rampant in the Church and increasing?

The early Church was not a free-for-all like today – oh no!...                   

“...of the rest [of the people] durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them.”

Church discipline was respected by all – even unbelievers!!