Judge Not Lest You Be Judged

This blog is based on Matthew 7: 1-3. In my opinion, it’s one of the most misused, misquoted, misunderstood verses in the Bible: "Judge not lest ye be judged." Why do I say that? When someone wants to justify their life choices to you, they pull out their trump card, “Judge not, lest ye be judged!” I hear it all the time. When this verse is misused, people expect you to immediately embrace and accept their affair, to accept they are a man trapped in a woman's body and therefore have rightful access to a ladies bathroom, to accept abortion in the 9th month of pregnancy, to accept that pedophilia is perfectly normal…whatever. Of course, if you’ve spent any time studying the passage, you know that when Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” He certainly wasn’t saying that we can’t evaluate whether someone’s choices are wrong. The world would have you believe this.

Notice the reason Jesus warns against judgment. The danger in passing judgment on someone is that we’ll have our own standard come back to haunt us. Jesus immediately goes on to say: "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure, you use it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:1-2). When we condemn someone’s behavior, whether it’s blatantly sinful or just different than our own, we almost NEVER use the proper standard of judgment. We pass judgment according to our own strengths and opinions. For example, take the issue of gluttony. Because of my DNA, gluttony has never been a huge issue for me although a small stature has. Plus, I don’t gravitate toward things like stress eating (I cope in other explosive ways as I am not perfect either). When I see someone who struggles with overeating, I project myself onto them. It's printed on the human psyche. I have been guilty of assuming that they lack self-control and that all they need is a bit more discipline. This is complete sinful nonsense because I'm judging physical appearance. When God evaluates that person, He takes into account everything about that person – their biology, sinful tendencies, weaknesses, family history, current struggles, and a thousand other factors. God’s judgment is perfectly just, my judgment is terribly skewed. Without omniscience, all my judgments are going to be off kilter. For all I know, the person who struggles with gluttony may not actually be sinning in gluttony. They may not overeat at all, but because of their unique body makeup, just can’t lose weight (genetics). Or, they may have been neglected as a child and use food as a coping mechanism (psychological). Or, it could even be a challenge related to a diseased thyroid (medical). To be clear, I’m not saying that sin is relative. Sin is sin, no matter what the circumstances. But when God judges a person, His judgment flows out of His omniscience. That’s why it’s perfect. If I pass judgment on a person, I’m doing so based on really, really, really limited knowledge.


"Judge not lest you be judged" and held accountably! It’s a terrifying thing to think of God judging us based on the way we judge others. So often, our judgments lack mercy. They lack compassion. And they lack knowledge. Do I want to be judged by God and others with the same standard? No! That would be crushing. This is why Jesus warns about the dangers of judging others "appearance"... whether you think they are a glutton, a drunk, a cheat, etc. If we’re not careful, we’re going to end up being judged by own crushing standards. We can and should call out sin. Judging by "appearance," "opinions," or "assumptions" IS WRONG. However, there’s a massive difference between judging arrogantly (by our standards) and judging with humility (God's standard). John 7:24 tells us to not judge the appearance of others, but to "Judge righteous judgment." Did you know as God's child we are called to judge WITH RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT? Oh yes. We can judge SIN when we see it, when we judge it by God's standard, by what He said, by what he taught, and by what He warned. THAT is righteous judgment. This may shock many of you, due to the fact that many Christians don't study their Bible aggressively and have become weak apologetic's in the defense of "the faith." Way too many times we hear people wrongly quote the Bible, saying the scripture, "says not to judge"! I hear this from believers but non-believers especially, like it's the only verse they know to exempt them from scriptural do's and dont's. The world will say it is not our job to say anything regarding sin in someone's life. Well, that's dead wrong because we are commissioned to speak up, 1 Corinthians 6:2 "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is going to be judged by you, are you, therefore, unworthy to judge the smallest matters?"


What is so unfortunate about many claiming to be Christians is that they ARE "living in sin" and when you come to them with biblical correctness (righteous judgment) they get irritated or defensive. Instead, they should receive the rebuke in repentance. Scripture teaches, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction" Proverbs 21:7. If you look up the original Hebrew meaning of the word instruction, which in English is 'musar-moo-sawr,' it means discipline, chastening, correction. Those who claim to be Christians and don't receive 'musar-moo-sawr' (correction) are regarded as "fools," not by me, by the Bible. The word fool in Hebrew means one who despises wisdom, of one who mocks when guilty, of one who is quarrelsome, of one who is licentious. Ever notice when you approach a fellow brother or sister in the faith regarding a sin they know is wrong, how defensive they get? Many of you reading this, this may be you, while for others it's not, because they are humble and receive Divine correction. I’m not writing this blog to offend you but to enlighten you, because I care about your eternal security. We need to stop running away from the Spirit of God and receive his love and correction. So basically, if you reject God’s judgment upon you for your sin and you refuse to repent you are a bastard, a fatherless child. God is not your Abba like you claim if you don’t open heartedly receive his guidance and counsel. For one to pass judgment he or she must be practicing what they preach, otherwise, they have no authority from God because they are being a hypocrite. We cannot pass judgment upon others when we are living in sin ourselves, that’s a false type of judgment against someone. We are only being hypocrites. That’s the judgment Jesus was referring to in the Matthew 7:3, "And why behold the mote that is in your brother’s eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye? There are different types of "judgments" if you will. See if you can see the difference …


Arrogant judgment says, “What a despicable, vile, weak person.” Humble judgement says, “Apart from the redemption of Christ, I’d be joining them, and apart from God, I would lose my salvation.” Arrogant judgment says, “I would never do something like that.” Humble judgment says, “Though I may not struggle like they do, I sin in 10,000 other ways.” Arrogant judgment says, “I’m better than them.” Humble judgment says, “We both need Christ.” Jesus said, “Judge not lest ye be judged,” as a gracious warning. If I start playing judge, jury, and executioner to people, I’m going to find myself on the business end of my own standard. That’s a frightening prospect. HOW SHOULD WE JUDGE THEN? When I see someone sinning, I can acknowledge that it’s sin in need of repentance, but I can also say, “Tell me more.” I can work to understand all that’s going into their behavior. How much of it flows out past experiences? What did they see modeled in their parents? What have they been taught by others? Compassionate judgment seeks to stay faithful to Scripture while also truly loving the person who struggles. It strives to identify the speck in someone else’s eye while simultaneously trying to rip the log out of their own. Jesus didn’t say, “Judge not lest ye be judged,” in order to make us meek and mild people who celebrate anything and everything. He said it so that we would be slow to judge and so that our judgment would be tempered by mercy. We are good at finding specks, but there is a saying that for every one finger we point at someone we need to point four back at ourselves. The more critical our attitude of others is, the more we will be blind to our own faults. May we seek the Lord and ask Him to do spiritual surgery on us first, so we may confess, repent and mourn over our own sin.
Until Next time,
-Pat-