Judge Not - What Do the Scriptures Say About Judging?

In the world today (although this is nothing new), Christians are commonly faced with the argument “you shouldn’t judge!” It seems that no matter what the sin, whether it is gossip, lying, murder, or the current hot-button issue of homosexuality, the Christian is judged to have the wrong attitude by “judging” the person committing the sin.  If a Christian tries to explain to a person that they are doing something contrary to the Gospel of Christ, the almost instantaneous retort is “judge not that ye be not judged!”  This retort is generally followed up by an attempt to show some perceived or even real hypocrisy in the life of the Christian, which is thought to negate the sin in their own life. 

Now, can a Christian be a hypocrite in their judging of others? Absolutely.  Does that hypocrisy negate the sin the Christian is addressing in the life of another? Absolutely not.  Can a Christian justly judge another human being as living in sin? Again, absolutely.  Let us take a few moments and look at the Scriptures, not to cement our already preconceived notions (whatever they may be), but to see what the Scriptures actually say about judging. 

Matthew 7:1 is possibly the most used and misused verse in the Bible (excluding, perhaps, John 3:16).  Here, Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (NKJV).  It seems that many readers stop with this single verse as though it encompasses the entire meaning of the passage and there is nothing else to consider (not trying to be harsh or unfair in this assessment, only stating from experience that I have never seen anyone try to quote anything from Matthew 7 beyond verse 1).  A little less often used is Romans 2:1-4.  Again, it seems as though many leave off with verse 4 instead of keeping it in context.  Should a discussion make it past these two verses, another popular retort comes from John 8:7 where Jesus says, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first,” but once again context is generally neglected.  Now, to be fair, if these passages were the only ones that we had to go on (without even their immediate contexts), then coming to the conclusion that we as humans are not to judge one another would be a very logical and correct deduction.  But we need the rest of the story, so to speak, and that is found in the contexts of these passages, as well as in some additional ones found throughout the New Testament.

If we continue to read further in Matthew 7, Jesus goes on to tell us that the same measurement of judgment that we issue will be dealt back to us.  He absolutely DOES address the attitude of the judge and tells that person to remove the speck, or sin, from their own lives.  A Christian who obeys the Lord’s commands (Acts 2:38; John 14:15) has removed that speck, and thus can see clearly to remove the speck from another’s eye (Matthew 7:5).  Additionally, when a Christian uses the Scriptures as their measurement of judgment (again, attitude IS addressed in this passage), then of course we will be judged by the same measurement! In other words, Jesus addresses our attitude and essentially tells us not to take such a thing lightly.  Likewise, Romans 2:1-4 has a context.  At the end of Romans 1, Paul talks about those who are judging others as being in sin, but they themselves are doing the same things (so, for instance, an envious person is judging another person of envy, etc).  Further, Paul is discussing those that laid aside the will of God and embraced the evilness of this world (Romans 1:18-2:11).  In other words, the context of both of these passages does not indicate not judging at all, but only the right kind of judgment! The remainder of the context of John 8:1-7 is, actually, a perfect example to illustrate the discussion thus far.

While many people will read John 8:1-7, most will stop at verse 7, or at the very least they seem to ignore from there forward.  However, Jesus does address the attitude of the accusers, but He does not indicate that because the accusers had the wrong attitude that the woman’s sin was negated! What does Jesus actually do in this passage? The scribes and Pharisees had brought this woman to Jesus and accused her of adultery (since she was caught in the very act of it, have you ever wondered where the man was that was also involved?), but they were not accusing her to either save her soul or to even fulfill the law, as we are told in John 8:6.  Rather, they were brining her to Him in order to test Him! When Jesus tells them that the one without sin should cast the first stone, He is addressing their attitude, not whether or not the woman was guilty.  They are convicted by their own consciences (John 8:9).  Now, with the attitudes (which fully illustrates the wrong type of judgment discussed in both Matthew 7 and Romans 2) having been addressed, Jesus absolutely does show mercy to the woman.  He does NOT act as though she had not sinned, which is evidenced by the fact that He commands her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). 

Now, let’s take a step back for a moment.  Let’s assume for a moment that Matthew 7:1 and John 8:7 actually mean what they are generally misapplied to mean and that we are not to judge anyone.  Would that apply to the Apostle Paul? Surely we would tread carefully before judging an inspired man of God as not having the ability to judge someone in sin! Consider 1 Corinthians 5:3 where Paul writes, “For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.”  Note that Paul not only judges the man who has his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1), but that he addresses the attitude with which he did the judging (“…absent in body but present in spirit…”).  He also judges the congregation that had not dealt with this sin (1 Corinthians 5:2, 6)! Now, at this point, we may be tempted to make the argument that Paul was an inspired apostle and that we are not (please note 1 Corinthians 11:1 and 1 Corinthians 4:15-16 if this is your true stance).  Even if we again grant that argument, Paul did have the ability to judge and he has provided numerous lists of sins! There are at least four extensive lists of sins provided by God through Paul for us (1 Corinthians 6:8-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:3-7).  Galatians 5 also includes “and the like” in the list, which indicates that there must be some sort of judgment made by man since it was written to man! All of these passages are in addition to Paul’s depiction of a Godless society in Romans 1! Thus, even if we grant that we cannot judge and that Paul, as an apostle, was allowed to judge where we are not, we have an entire list of sins that we cannot participate in.  In other words, Paul calls fornication a sin, so if a person commits fornication they are sinning…not by my word, but by the inspired writings of the apostle Paul!

As homosexuality is, as I said, the “hot-button” issue of the day, let us use that as an example.  Many people today call Christian’s “haters” if they oppose the sin of homosexuality and they tell Christians not to judge.  Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6:8-10, condemns homosexuality and sodomy as being sins.  If a person is participating in those worldly things, how is it that a Christian is truly judging them? Christians merely utilize the Scriptures to show another human the path to heaven! Can a Christian do this with the wrong attitude? Absolutely.  If, perchance, a Christian DOES “judge” with the wrong attitude, is the person participating in these sins no longer a sinner? Of course they are still a sinner! Remember, while Jesus did address the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees, He did not forget that the woman had sinned!

While many people don’t think about it in these terms, all people make judgments.  If we decide that a person living in sin is “ok,” then we have judged them to be so.  If we make that decision and nobody else shows that person the Scriptures, then we may have also judged their eternal soul and condemned them to eternal torment because we were unwilling to help them see the sin in their life.  Do we want that soul’s condemnation on our hands because we had the opportunity to teach them? Do we want that on our hands in the day of our own judgment by the Lord? While they may or may not listen to us when we show them the Scriptures, our job is to show them the path to heaven!

Finally, as we begin to conclude, consider this: too much time is spent by Christians trying to defend their reasons for “judging.”  Too often, we spend so much time concentrating on the messenger’s attitude and making sure that they are doing it right (which, coincidently, involves judgment…) that the sin of the “judged” is overlooked or excused.  Note Proverbs 17:15 where we read, “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord,” and Isaiah 5:20 where we read, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

How Do You React to God's Word?

There cannot be more of a difference in reactions to God’s word than what we find with Josiah and his son, Jehoiakim.  In Jeremiah 36, Jehoiakim is given God’s word and his reaction is much less than desirable.  Rather than accepting the word of God as it was, Jehoiakim has an adverse reaction and not only rejects it, but physically destroys the scroll that it was written on by Baruch.  When Jehudi “had read three or four columns,” the king cut the scroll up with the scribe’s knife as though that will alter what the message was!

          While many people today do not necessarily cut up the word of God with a knife, how often do they (we) cut it up metaphorically? In other words, we find a passage that we do not like for whatever reason, and instead of altering our attitude to fit the passage as it is, we attempt to alter the passage to fit our desires.  Thus, a passage condemning sin no longer condemns sin, but promotes it in some way, shape, or form!  How often have you seen this done (ref. 2 Peter 3:15-17)? Many misconstrue the Scriptures and develop elaborate doctrines (mental gymnastics) that alter “thou shalt not” into “go ahead and do what you want.”  Sometimes, people may not even do these things consciously; meaning, they are not sitting there thinking consciously that they are twisting the Scriptures! They often get caught up in something that they WANT to participate in, and therefore they seek a way to make that deed allowable by God.  Perhaps the biggest threat to Christianity is when we so often try to cover the sins of a loved one by trying to explain away what they are doing as being “ok.”  Does this actually alter the word of God?

          On the other hand, Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah, had a completely different reaction to the word of God! While we should avoid having the reaction that Jehoiakim had, we should strive to have a reaction like Josiah.  In 2 Kings 22, the word of God is discovered and read to King Josiah (note: 2 Kings 22:2 says that Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord).  Josiah is distraught that they had not been following the word of God (he is distraught to the point of tearing his clothing – 22:11).  Unlike Jehoiakim, Josiah allows the word of God to create change in his own life and in the life of those he ruled over.  Throughout 2 Kings 23, we are told of how many things Josiah did to rid Israel of idolatry, which included tearing down alters and idols! Josiah not only heard the word of God, but made it applicable to his own life!

          Let us strive to be more like Josiah than Jehoiakim when we hear the word of God.  When God’s word shows us sin in our lives, let us seek to remove that sin rather than excusing it! When the Bible calls something sin, we need to accept that deed as such and not try to explain it away! This is applicable for us as individuals, but it is also applicable for those that we love; just because someone we love is doing something does not make it right in the eyes of God, nor does any amount of our explaining it away change God’s mind! Work to be more like Josiah and rid our lives of sin!  

Less Than the Best

In what other area of our lives would we accept the "desire" to do what is right? In what other area would we equate "desire" with "fulfillment"? Sometimes Christians, in their desire to attribute good to all they meet, will confuse the dsire to obtain the reward (heaven) with the desire to obey God.  Those two things are not one and the same, unfortunately for some.

Consider it this way: if you had to have brain surgery, do you want the person who wants the wage of a brain surgeon (the reward), or do you want the person who disciplined their life in order to be able to perform brain surgery successfully? There are a great many requirements to becoming a brain surgeon (and with good reason!); undergraduate work, graduage work, medical school, residencies, lab classes, etc.  Those that want to be a brain surgeon MUST fulfill these requirements (you might say that the path to becoming a surgeon is narrow).  Do you want someone who does not fulfill these requirements to cut into your head?

When we get to our spiritual life, however, we treat God as if He is lucky that we offer anything to Him at all.  Like becoming a surgeon (and even being able to maintain an active surgeon status, they have requirements for continued education, etc), the Christian has requirements to fulfill in order to achieve the reward of heaven, not JUST the desire to reach heaven (obviously having a desire to reach heaven does play a part...otherwise, why would anyone bother?).

We obviously would not allow the person who only desires the wages of a surgeon, but has not fulfilled the requirements to do such work, to do brain surgery on us.  However, we consistently accept (or make excuses for) those that have the "desire" for the reward of heaven, but do not do the commandments of the Lord (John 14:15; John 15:14).

Perhaps we should also consider it this way: would our jobs or school accept us doing our duties for them the way we do our duties for the Lord? If we constantly told our school or work that we simply "couldn't make it" in because of this reason or for that reason? If we were consistently late for either of those things? Yet, we aruge that this is acceptable for God and that God will just have to understand.  Consider Malachi 1:7-9 in which people were offering things to God that they would not dare to serve their dignitaries.  We often frown at passages such as this and shake our heads, but do we not do the same thing today when we offer God less than our best?

Remember Matthew 6:33 where we are told to seek the kingdom of God first.  The context of this passage is that God will see to our earthly needs as He sees fit if our service is first to Him, not this world.  This doesn't mean that we will necessarily be "rich" with earthly things, but we will have our needs met as He sees fit! We cannot use the materialistic things of this life that we "need" as an excuse not to obey the commandments of the Lord.  Remember the words of Joshua, "...But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).