The Truth About Judging Others

"Don't judge me!" seems to be the mantra of today's society. We want to be able to do whatever we want without any regard to law, morality, or common sense. Behavior, long frowned on, is now touted as acceptable and is flaunted without shame.

Even Christianity is not immune. Sin must be tolerated in the public forum. No one can judge another's actions to be wrong even if Scripture clearly states the behaviors are sin. It doesn't matter, either, that these sinful behaviors offend or cause the Christian to go against his or her religious conscience. But even worse, sin is allowed to breed within our church circles and few dare to say anything. Church discipline has gone out the window.

How did this happen? Christians and non-Christians alike are aware of Matthew 7:1 that says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

So, everybody suddenly has the idea that judging is inappropriate in all situations. But, is this really what God meant? Are we really to accept all behaviors and allow them to flourish?

In the first place, we, as a society, make judgments all the time. We have laws that we enforce, that say murder is wrong. Theft, treason, and drunkenness are others. Society still believes adultery, child abuse, and bullying are wrong. Why can these sins be judged, but not others?

Obviously, our society doesn't truly believe that all behaviors are to be free from judgment. But with the belief that society's mores are changeable, behaviors that were once shunned in the public mind  are now to be found acceptable. And somehow it is the duty of these enlightened thinkers to force everyone else into their way of thinking. Alas, Christianity's resistance to these changes is softening and many Christians seem to be following suit.

But let's look at Matthew 7:1 closer. Could it be that Biblical illiteracy is the cause of Christians not standing up for the definitions of Biblical sin? Could Biblical illiteracy even be one of the causes that society, in general, doesn't understand sin?

Matthew 7:1-2 (KJV)
¹ Judge not, that ye be not judged.
² For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.


Matthew 7 doesn't say that we can't judge. It merely cautions that by whatever standard we use for judgment will be the standard by which we, ourselves, will be judged.

Here are some other verses that point to our ability to judge:

Matthew 7:3-5 (KJV)
³ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
⁴ 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?
⁵ 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.

This is a continuation from Matthew 7. Again, we see that the caution is to be careful in how we judge. If we see a fault in someone else, we need to make sure that we have removed the worse fault  in our own life first. This whole passage is about hypocritical judging, not about never judging.

1 Corinthians 6:2-3 (KJV)
² 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?
³ Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?


This verse speaks about how believers will judge the world and the angels.

1 Corinthians 11:31 (KJV)
³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.


Here 1 Corinthians says that we should judge ourselves.

John 7:24 (KJV)
²⁴ Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

John also says that we need to be careful in our judging, that the standard cannot be according to appearance, but rather righteousness.

And where do we find what is righteous? It is in the Word of God, the Bible, where we find what God considers right and wrong. This is to be the perfect standard upon which we are to make judgments, whether of ourselves, the church, or the world. And this standard never changes, contrary to what society is trying to tell us.

One last thing. There is something that we cannot judge, and that is another's heart. Only God can see that. He is the only one who knows whether someone is saved or not, or what motives lie in the soul. Based on what we see can cause us to judge incorrectly. That is why God cautions us about judging. There is a fine line between judging a person's character and judging his or her actions. God is responsible for the judging of one's heart. But we have the responsibility and duty to judge behaviors and to judge righteously. Don't fall for society's mantra. It is simply incorrect.