Caution, road construction ahead

So, you know how I was wondering about how to handle to whole topic of confronting sin in another person's life?
It's a dreadful thing to think about, because you have to look squarely at a variety of difficult issues. For instance, if I am supposed to confront you on your sin.....is there perchance a log in my own eye? Once I examine and extricate that, I might be able to get a better look at you. Then, I'm liable to see only a sliver, which any pair of tweezers can quickly remove. This process is bound to keep one busy with the man in the mirror so often that a pair of tweezers would seldom be called for.

I am really bothered by the whole biblical idea of this. What gives me the right to censure you? There are several convenient places where Scripture says that I oughtn't to judge. Those are lovely. I think I get hung up on the parts where God has already judged, and I am to act. I just like to quote the "Do not judge" to let myself off the hook.

Years ago I had occasion to study the second half of 1 Corinthians 11, wherein we are told that the sacrament of communion is to be taken quite carefully. If I partake in an unworthy manner, why, my neck is on the line. God says that I could have perilous consequences, like illness and death. For the longest time after reading that, I simply wouldn't take communion. I believed God that it was serious business, and I preferred to be on the safe side.
However, His command to partake is inescapable.
I am told to do it, and I am given some radical caveats. I am terrified of the consequences of taking incorrectly, but God seems to have different priorities. See, He wants me to obey, even if I'm afraid. Oh, sure there are times when I need to abstain because of deliberate sin in my heart. But, overall I am commanded to assess my heart, and then move forward into obedience.This forces me to approach the Lord's table with fear and trembling.

I mention all this because it occurred to me today that the same concept may well apply to my musings of late regarding a judgment of fellow believers. I don't want to oppose someone's sin, because I don't want to do so incorrectly. But I am commanded to do it. It's as if God is more concerned with my willingness to obey than about my being correct.
Does that hit a raw nerve with you? It does with me.
I've been wrestling with the passages of Scripture that talk about
-confronting someone in sin
-about church disciple (Matt. 18)
-about "not even to eat with such a one"(1 Cor 5:11)
-about "deliver such a one to Satan...that his spirit may be saved"(1 Cor 5:5)
-about judging
Mostly, if I could throw First Corinthians out, I'd have more of a spring to my step.

Here is what I've come to, at least for now:

If I see a fellow Christian doing something which I think is wrong (a judgment), I go to them and ask about it. Perhaps I am mistaken, and they are not doing wrong after all.

If it is a wrong (sin), then I would beseech them to stop. Perhaps I would have to honor of preventing them from earning some grave consequences. This is where the Matt 18 bit could help. This confrontation is only for the purpose of rescuing the person from their own mistakes, not for lauding some sense of superiority on the part of whomever is confronting.

If they persist in wrongdoing (sin), then I need to back away and wait for God to act. He seems to do this often through natural consequences. It's a good thing that He doesn't usually cast down bolts of lightning to incinerate the guilty party.

My work is really done at this point, I think. Mostly, I ought to pray. I'd rather badger the person, or stand close to rescue, but neither are appropriate. I'm kind of co-dependent.

All of this is well and good. It's just that the specific application continues to be enormously uncomfortable and grossly countercultural.

God goes to great lengths to get us to run from sin. Have you noticed? He has a number of "caution" signs in Scripture, and numerous flaggers warning of danger ahead. If those don't get our attention, then perhaps the holes in the road will be enough to stop us.

That's a lot of word pictures. I guess I need to get the log out of my face and find a flag. Very spiritual, that.