When someone disagrees with us on practical church issues…we need to judge charitably in their favour if at all possible. Do they confess the faith? …confess God, Christ, and salvation by mercy? Do they live a good life, free of greed and sexual exploitation? …receive the true sacraments? These are the sorts of basic outward questions we must ask since we cannot know their inward spiritual condition—only God can (1 Samuel 16:7).  

We have all heard a casual condemnation of someone as a false teacher or a heretic. More often than not, such statements mean, this person teaches something that I personally think is wrong. In contrast, when Scripture talks about false teachers, it often locates their definition in specific and publicly observable ways.

In brief, a false teacher publicly denies something true about God and Christ and preys on the weak with greed and sensuality (Jude 4; 2 Pet 2:1–3; 2 Tim 3:6; Rom 16:18). Since many follow sensual desires (2 Pet 2:2), discovering a false teacher then often follows from evidence of their vile, sensual lust. One does not have to look far to discover that many professing Christians have exposed themselves by their deadly greed and insidious sexual exploits.

Evidently, someone can be very wrong about a particular point of doctrine and still be a Christian. Paul after all said that Peter did not walk in step with the Gospel but did not question whether or not God had called him unto salvation (Gal 2:14). So then: how can we, to use an intentionally provocative word, judge other’s faith well?

In a word, we must use “charitable judgment” as John Calvin advises in his Institutes of Christian Religion. Love believes, hopes, and endures all things (1 Cor 13:7). And our default ought to be to judge one another charitably.

The marks of a true Christian are, as Calvin will note, apparent. The marks of a false teacher are equally apparent and undeniable. While false teachers can hide themselves for some time, when they reveal themselves, it is obvious. A false teacher is not simply someone who holds to an incorrect opinion.

Here then let’s follow Calvin’s train of thought to discern how to judge each other charitably because we need to regain the capacity to do so. If we do not, we will harm the body of Christ (Acts 9:4).

Charitable Judgment

John Calvin speaks of a “certain charitable judgment whereby we recognize as members of the church those who, by confession of faith, by example of life, and by partaking of the sacraments, profess the same God and Christ with us” (Inst. 4.1.8). Calvin here provides three concrete, publicly accessible ways to discern someone’s faith. Do they confess the faith? Do they live lives that match up with their confession? And do they partake of the sacraments?

Such outward signs tell us how we can know someone is a Christian. Shortly after these comments, he also proposes a triage of doctrine. Necessary doctrines include: “God is one; Christ is God and the Son of God; our salvation rests in God’s mercy; and the like” (4.1.12). So the three outward signs of faith, life, and sacraments also involve some basic doctrines of Christianity: God, Christ, and salvation by God’s mercy.

Calvin’s view that clear outward signs signify faith seems to follow from Calvin’s view of the church. Calvin says, “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists” (4.1.9). Calvin views the church primarily as “a multitude gathered from all nations” but then divided into various places—what we might call local churches. Hence, wherever the outward signs of true preaching and rightly administered sacraments exist, there the true church is too.

Calvin’s charitable judgment of others extends to the church as well (he cannot separate the two although he does distinguish individuals and the body as such). Of the church, Calvin argues that the pure ministry of Word and sacraments are a “sufficient pledge and guarantee that we may safely embrace as church any society in which both these marks exist” (4.1.12).

Here is the most significant point to make here. God understands that we are weak, and so he, according to Calvin, accommodates himself to our capacity (4.1.8). Our capacity then to know someone’s faith requires outward signs that are obvious and clear since we are in the flesh. We cannot know the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Hence, God provided concrete signs: faith, life, and sacraments so that we might judge one another charitably.

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