Is it Right to Judge Others?
Posted: Monday, April 18, 2005
by M Randall
http://www.christiantruths.us
Today it seems the most often quoted Bible verse is Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Some use it without realizing its true meaning and others, Christian and non Christians, use it to avoid accountability. Hypocrites for example would use it to avoid being challenged in their wrong doing. What does this verse really mean? Does this verse teach that we cannot judge others?
Therefore, the answer to our question is that Christians are to judge others. If judging others is unchristian as some charge, we would be unable to have the various levels of government, we would be unable to be a good parent, we would certainly make a poor employer, none of us would be able to sit on a jury and the list goes on.
Jesus does condemn a critical and judgmental spirit, one with a sense of moral superiority. He commanded us to examine ourselves first for the problems that we so easily see in others. It is when we examine ourselves that we can better see the problem and get help for our own problem first. Christians are not only commanded to judge but to judge righteously and not just by appearance. John 7:24, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."
Christians must use spiritual discernment in coming to conclusions on matters of right or wrong or good and evil. Judgment that judges right from wrong and good from evil is always legitimate judgment for Christians. Hebrews 5:14 states, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Christians can discern both good and evil which according to the Bible is a legitimate judgment.
If a person is doing wrong and I tell them they are doing wrong I am not judging that person but I am judging that persons behavior. God will judge the intent or motivation of man, Romans 2:16, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel."
The Greek word for judge is "krino" which means according to W.E. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, "to separate, select, and choose, hence, to determine, and so to judge, pronounce judgment." This is spiritual discernment and as we shall see in the following it is required by God. Judgment for punishment or sentencing belongs to God and not to mankind. Romans 12:19 explains, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine I will repay, saith the Lord." Hebrews 9:27 , "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
Paul, writing to the Corinthians stated in 1 Corinthians 6:1-2, "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" The saints, believers, shall judge the world so judging is not only permitted but required. If a Christian has a matter against another Christian he/she is to take it before the saints, believers. This can only be done if Christians can judge the right or wrong of the matter. Therefore, it is not unchristian to judge others when done in a righteous manner.
Now look at the next two verses, 1 Corinthians 6:3-4, "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church" Not only is mankind held to a standard, this verse implies that angels also have a standard. The saints, or believers, are to judge angels so there must be a standard for them as well as for mankind. Obviously, Christians are to judge the things that pertain to this life.
There is a proper way to judge. Matthew 7:1 states, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." This means that we can judge but we must first judge ourselves confessing our sins and then judge righteously not condemning. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32, "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."
Some would say, "Hey, I have seen you do the same thing so you cannot judge me for doing it." This is covered in the verse following the "Judge not" verse in Matthew. Matthew 7:4-5, "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Before I can judge another I must not have any unconfessed sin in my life. If I have unconfessed sin in my life then I cannot judge. When I come before God in prayer and confess those sins I can then judge properly. Therefore, having done the same thing I can still judge if my sins have been dealt with. If I confess my sins I receive forgiveness.
Don't miss the end of the verse above, "and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." This informs us that we can judge after we have cast the beam out of our own eye. "Judge not," does not mean that we cannot judge but we must first clean up our own act by confessing our sins and we will be forgiven, then we can judge but judge righteously. One must first become a believer to have ones sins forgiven so this makes it impossible for an unbeliever to biblically judge others.
A most important item for Christians is for Christians to first judge themselves. 1 Corinthians 11:31-32, "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." If we as Christians would judge ourselves first and judge others in the same manner we would certainly be more charitable in judging others.
There are many biblical examples that show Christians are required to judge. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul writes of a church member living in open immorality. This church member's sin was being ignored and when Paul heard of it he judged the immorality of the sin and demanded the member be turned over to Satan for destruction of the flesh. In other words, he was put outside the spiritual protection of the local Church. 1 Corinthians 5:3, "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed," Therefore, the church, which is an assembly of believers, is to judge members of the assembly.
Further on in Matthew 7:15-16 we are told, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits." If we are to beware of false prophets we must be able to know them and we can only do that by judging. Verse 16 goes on to tell us we shall know them by their fruit so we are to judge them by their fruit. Verse 17 explains further about the fruit, "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit."
The letter to the Ephesians gives more information about the fruit, Ephesians 5:11 , "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." To have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness we must be able to judge and not only that we are to reprove them! Many Christians are wrongly judged for judging right or wrong, never mind reproving anyone.
Right after the "Judge not" passage we have a few verses later a command. Matthew 7:6, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." It is obvious that one must exercise spiritual discernment, judge, to fulfill this command.
What standard are we to use for spiritual discernment? The original question of judgment was the use of the Bible verse of Matthew 7:1 to "Judge not." Since a Bible verse was first used it is the Bible that is to be used as a standard of right and wrong and spiritual discernment. The Bible has the only absolute moral standards but the relativist would respond that there are no absolute standards and those who use them are being arrogant and judgmental. These accusations are unwarranted but the absolutist could respond that the relativist has just made a judgment and is also being arrogant and judgmental.
If a Christian makes a judgment from a sense of moral superiority he/she would be wrong. The proper sense of morality would be that except for the grace of God there go I, rather than a false sense of moral superiority. The Bible requires a Christian to use spiritual discernment to come to the truth of a matter but no where does the Bible address this matter for an unbeliever, possibly because the unbeliever is unable to use spiritual discernment since he/she is spiritually dead
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More commentslet the man without sin cast the first stone....get the plank out of your eye before you try and remove the dust from your brothers. those are other good verses on not judging others. i see it as if your of sin you have no right to jude others for their sins. there is only one judge. i think the way people interpret matthew 7:1 is actually the correct way it should be interpreted unless you are saying the bible contradicts itself.Casey
I'm not sure how the people you are referring to interpret Matt. 7:1 since people interpret it in different ways. I believe you have missed reading part of my article. This is the way I see it.
The verse saying, get the plank out of your eye does not say we are not to judge, it says we are not to judge if we have sin in our lives. Read on down to verse 5 and the meaning becomes clearer, "first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." This informs us that we can judge after we have cast the beam out of our own eye, otherwise if we judge and we have sin in our lives we are hypocrites. "Judge not," does not mean that we cannot judge but we must first judge ourselves to be sure we have no sin. If we do have sin then God is faithful to forgive if we confess that sin. Then we can judge and judge righteously.
You are correct if you mean there is only one judge who will judge ones salvation.
In many other matters not pertaining to salvation Christians are commanded and/or expected to judge. Rather than quote a lot of verses to prove that let me just give you the references and you can see that in all of these the judging is not done by Christ! I will list a few but there are many others.
John 7:24, 1Corinthians 6:1-2, 1 Corinthians 6:3-4, 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
These show that Christians are to judge with righteous judgment, they are to judge other Christians, they shall judge the world, they shall judge the smallest matters, they shall judge the angels, and they shall judge things that pertain to life.
We don't have to agree but hopefully you will take another look at the passage. Hope this helps and may God Bless as you live for Him.
Casey
We have to judge everyday of our lives just as Randall has pointed out.
We have to judge who we leave our children with if they will keep them safe or abuse them. We have to judge who teaches our children if they will teach them or harm them. As employers we have to judge who we hire, will they be good employees or rob us blind. We look at their records and have to come to a conclusion if their records are clean enough to be hired. How they have conducted themselves in the past.
We have to judge who we allow in our home are they there to help us or harm us. We have to judge when we are called to serve on jury duty, this is a law of the land and God has commanded us to obey the laws of the land.
We have to judge who will be our next president. We cannot have a man or woman who doesn't have our best interests at heart. Choosing incorrectly could have dire consequences.
We have to judge everyday of our lives. God expects us to. He does not want to us to judge others if we are unclean ourselves. So make sure you repent everyday and live your life in harmony with God. By doing those things you will not be judged by judging others.
Always judge righteously. If you are unsure of the person in question, always pray and ask for guidance.
This sounds very much like my article, "I'm Going To Judge You" here on searchwarp that I wrote on Dec of 08
Rabbi StanleyRabbi Stanley
I was not aware of your article. Since my article was posted 3 years prior to your article I would agree that your article sounds much like mine. I enjoyed your writing and found it on target. I particularly liked the 1 Corinthians reference and the explanation. When I have time I will read some of your other articles.
You left out this verse which holds best the truth on judging:"So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another." (Romans 14:1-13)No matter from what angle, no matter what is the justification, none of us human should judge. Only God. So for us human to judge, that's the same as to saying we human are God.Clearly the article above is speaking of judging between right and wrong, good and evil, etc, based on Matthew 7:1. The verse you mention, Romans 14:1-13, speaks of judging ones salvation and is not referring to judging right and wrong or good verses evil. God is the only judge of a persons salvation and their walk as a servant of His.
Romans 14:1-13 does not prohibit anyone from judging a person who daily abuses prescription drugs and steals to support his drug problem as one who is wrong and one who is evil. However, God is the only one who can judge a Christian's salvation or his walk as a servant of His and this is what Romans 14:1-13 is speaking of. In the early church there was a conflict of beliefs between the Jews and the Gentiles of the early church regarding salvation and a Christian's walk with God. Romans 14:1-13 is addressing this conflict.Paul said, "But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man" (I Cor. 2:15) If you're not spiritual then you shouldn't judge. If you're ignorant, you shouldn't judge either. Leave judgements to people who ARE spiritual and who have discernment. Rabbi Stanley
the verse has more than one meaning
M. Randall, a good argument and article. I find judgment is everywhere in all we do. Now to make a valid decision one must "judge" that is who we vote for, what we buy, how we do something, who e choose to associate with, one can go on and on. In fact the Great White Thrown is a judgment, "and the books were opened and our works are judged." So yes we are not to be vindictive, we are not to judge anyone carelessly, but we are to, if a someone who professes be in sin, approach them, explain to them why they are in error, that what they do is sin , etc. Now rightious anger is acceptable. So in effect when we say don't smoke but we do, we are in error, when we say don't take dope but we do, we are in error, when we say don't steal but we do, we are in error and certainly when we lie, decieve, connieve, take. Yet as I say, you shall know them by their works and that is what is judged. We are even warned to stay clear of them, don't sup with them, don't let them enter our homes, all judgement. So it depends on what, who, how you apply that? Good job interesting. No in my opinion we are definiely not to turn a blind eye and therein I sense the confusion.
Sorry that I have just found this article. It was a great read and I loved the way you explained "judge" and not "judging". Thanks so much for doing such a great job of stating and explaining in depth this oft read Bible verse.Sandra
Thanks for writing this article.
Amazing revelation of a tough issue and thank you for sharing it. That is a very hard word for most who are so steeped in religious bonddage that they cannot see the truth clearly. Be bold, be obedient, ad you will be blessed.
I found your article to be very balanced and helpful. In my opinion, those who are ignorant to the true meaning of the Word quote Matthew 7:1 out of context. We must also take into consideration while reading the Word to whom the message is addressing.Thank you for sharing may this bring light, truth and clarity to those seeking such. Blessings to you.
very very helpful....solid biblical principal...highly appreciated.....period.....thank you...God bless
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