When Christ made His Twelve Disciples in the Americas “judges” over those people in the great Day of Judgment, He did not empower them to use their own discretion to reward or punish others.  He said they would judge others “according to the judgment which I shall give unto you, which shall be just.”  (3 Ne. 27: 27.)  That same standard would apply to His Twelve Apostles in the New Testament.  (See Matt. 19: 28.)  Christ Himself will provide the decision for us all; those Twelve will have the honor of announcing it.

I’ve often thought that with the standard set by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount (“Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged” – Matt. 2: 1-2), that any time a person is given the opportunity, they should forgive others, just as Christ admonished us. (See Matt. 6: 14-15.)

Those who think presiding over a ward or stake gives them an opportunity to dominate others are taking an extraordinary risk against their own eternal interests.  My counsel would be to err on the side of forgiving, and never on the side of condemning.  Even the woman taken in the act of adultery was told by the Lord: “neither do I condemn thee.”  (See John 8: 1-11.)

Christ’s teachings were meant to be applied internally to check our own behavior.  Not externally as a means to judge or condemn others.  If you see something amiss in other’s conduct, then persuade them by your example to be better.  Lectures are almost always useless.  An example is compelling.