Judge

Just about anyone who has ever heard of Christianity (whether they are Christians or not) can quote this verse. The way it is usually interpreted is that you shouldn’t say anything “negative” to anyone by either pointing out their sin, quoting the Bible concerning a subject if it is likely to offend someone, correcting an attitude, methodology, or doctrine which doesn’t line up with scripture, or asking someone to repent. But is this really what the word “judge” means here? Is there a difference between judging someone and using discernment and sound Biblical principles to reprove, rebuke, and call for repentance? Are these not the very subjects with which the majority of the Bible is concerned and which we ourselves are commanded to exercise?

In the original Greek the word which is usually used is krino and could mean many different things depending on how it is used. It could be interpreted as to condemn, to decide, to stand trial, or to sue. However, its most common meaning is “to pronounce an opinion concerning right and wrong.”(1)

Of course, there are several different types of judgment discussed in the Bible. There are the judgment of human courts, the judgment which each person uses in every day life, the judgment of the Church in determining internal matters, the judgment of God upon His children with which he disciplines them (Heb. 12:4-11), the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) for Christians (called the bema in the Greek), and the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15) for unbelievers. The first two are generally understood and the last four have essentially been swept under the rug. However, the type of judgment which I want to consider in this article is the judging of right and wrong as it is defined by the Bible and as it applies to attitudes, behaviors, and doctrine.

Does Matthew 7:1 really mean that no one should differentiate between right and wrong using sound Biblical principles concerning what someone else says or does? Or if you do, then you should keep it to yourself because God will condemn you if you say anything about it? Let’s take a look at what some of the major Bible commentaries have to say concerning this:

Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible
Because we must not judge others, which is a great sin, it does not therefore follow that we must not reprove others, which is a great duty, and may be a means of saving a soul from death; however, it will be a means of saving our souls from sharing in their guilt. The consideration of what is amiss in ourselves, though it ought not to keep us from administering friendly reproof, ought to keep us from magisterial censuring, and to make us very candid and charitable in judging others. Our own badness is so far from excusing us in not reproving, that our being by it rendered unfit to reprove is an aggravation of our badness; I must not say, "I have a beam in my own eye, and therefore I will not help my brother with the mote out of his.’’

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
This is not to be understood of any sort of judgment; not of judgment in the civil courts of judicature, by proper magistrates, which ought to be made and pass, according to the nature of the case; nor of judgment in the churches of Christ, where offenders are to be called to an account, examined, tried, and dealt with according to the rules of the Gospel; nor of every private judgment, which one man may make upon another, without any detriment to him; but of rash judgment, interpreting men's words and deeds to the worst sense, and censuring them in a very severe manner; even passing sentence on them, with respect to their eternal state and condition.

The 1599 Geneva Study Bible
We ought to find fault with one another, but we must beware we do not do it without cause, or to seem holier than others or because of hatred of others.

Jamieson, Fausset, Brown - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To "judge" here does not exactly mean to pronounce condemnatory judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favorable or the reverse. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is that disposition to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, and unlovely judgments upon them. No doubt it is the judgments so pronounced which are here spoken of; but what our Lord aims at is the spirit out of which they spring. Provided we eschew this unlovely spirit, we are not only warranted to sit in judgment upon a brother's character and actions, but in the exercise of a necessary discrimination are often constrained to do so for our own guidance.

People’s New Testament
The term "judge" is used in more than one sense, but Christ's meaning is plain. 1. He does not prohibit the civil judgment of the courts upon evil doers, for this is approved throughout the whole Bible. 2. He does not prohibit the judgment of the church, through its officers, upon those who walk disorderly, for both he and the apostles have enjoined this. 3. He does not forbid those private judgments that we are compelled to form the wrong-doers, for he himself tells us that we are to judge men by their fruits. (See verses 15-20.) What he designs to prohibit is rash, uncharitable judgments, a fault-finding spirit, a disposition to condemn without examination of charges.

However, this verse has been misconstrued to mean that it is somehow ungodly or immoral to attempt to discern whether a behavior or a belief is of God or not of God. It was not intended to dissuade us from using God’s Word or the Spirit of God to discern truth from error. And it certainly was never intended to keep us from speaking the truth in love to both the world and our brothers and sisters in Christ concerning sin, repentance, God’s judgment, and sound doctrine.

In fact, God’s Word commands just the opposite:

Ezekiel 3:18 “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.”

John 16:7,8 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

Mark 1:14,15 Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Luke 17:3 Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

2 Timothy 4:1-4 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; REPROVE, REBUKE, EXHORT, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Ephesians 5:11 11Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them

Titus 1:10,11,13 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain… For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith.

Ephesians 4:14,15 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

Acts 20:26,27 “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.”

When we do speak out concerning sin or false doctrine it must always be out of a love of God and our brother with the intent of causing repentance…not out of a desire to inflict pain or make ourselves feel superior. We all deserve God’s condemnation and eternal Hell save for the finished work of Christ. The first and foremost call for repentance must be within ourselves.

Having said that, pointing out sin in someone else’s life will always cause one of two reactions; anger or remorse. And the former is more common than the latter. Even though we love our fellow man, we (as a good surgeon) must be willing to inflict a little pain for their long term good. It is not an expression of love to avoid calling someone to repentance but of cowardice. Are we willing to allow our brothers and the Church to suffer the consequences of unrepentant sin and allow the world to go to Hell in order to avoid the possibility of conflict?

That, my friends, is exactly what those of us within the Church are continuing to do and the result is a quite staggering plethora of false doctrines, perverted gospels, and anemic Christians. Whenever anyone calls for repentance, our “mile wide inch deep” congregations whip out ol’ Matthew 7:1 and shout it down with a chorus of “don’t rock the boat.” The only way the Church will begin to achieve a degree of true unity and grow past the current state of arrested development is if we are willing to examine ourselves in complete honesty with a willingness to change (a.k.a., repent).

1 Corinthians 11:31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

Do you not see your own unworthiness more acutely as you grow closer to God? Do you not feel grief when you observe the world reveling in its own wickedness? Do you not despair when you see your brothers compromising with the world and speaking false gospels and doctrines in the name of making the Cross more palatable? Little wonder then that you feel no passionate need for repentance. Perhaps your conscience has been seared and you should ask God to allow you to see these things with His eyes and heart.

1 Timothy 4:1,2 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron

So, next time you hear someone say “judge not” when you expose sin for what it is, just remember the words of Inigo Motoya, “you keep using that word…I do not think it means what you think it means.”