Many times I hear from people who aren’t Christians, “you are judging, Christians are not supposed to judge.” They point to one of the few verses they know, which is Matthew 7:1a, which says, “judge not.” But they don’t have anything to say beyond that.

If we only looked at those two words, we would think we are never supposed to make judgements about anything in life. But is this what Jesus is really saying? The question is, what do we mean by judging.

If we would look a few verses later at Matthew 7:15-20 we would see that it doesn’t mean to not make any assessment about anyone. Jesus warns us concerning false prophets. He tells us how we can recognize them. To say it another way: to judge if they are false prophets. He tells us that we need to look at the fruit of what they are doing to see if they are false prophets. 

We clearly need to understand that when Jesus says “judge not,” He doesn’t mean we can’t judge anything. So what is He warning us against? Matthew 7:1-6 gives us three ways we shouldn’t be judging.

HYPOCRITICAL JUDGING:

The first thing Jesus warns against is hypocritical judgment, or plank and speck judgment. This is judging where we have something major in our lives, and we are looking at the minutiae of other people’s sins. It is hypocritical because we are more concerned about others’ small sins than our own large sins. But even then, he doesn’t tell us to leave the other person alone, but to deal with our large sins first, and then talk to others about their sin.

JUDGING BY OUR OWN STANDARD:

The second thing He says to avoid is judging by our own standards. This is where we make decisions or opinions on what is right or wrong of our own accord. This is the opposite of using God’s standard. We can address things we see in others lives that God has said is sin. What we are told not to do is measure others by our own ideas of what is right or wrong, because “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

JUDGING WITHOUT MERCY:

The last way we are told to avoid judging is judging without mercy. That means saying things like, “this person will never change.” Or only condemning someone without telling them God can offer them forgiveness through repentance and confession. The big idea of the passage is judging others unmercifully. It’s having mercy for or ignoring our own sin, and pointing out and focusing on others. We need to make sure we have mercy for others as well.

So is Jesus saying we shouldn’t judge as Christians? No. He’s saying we shouldn’t judge hypocritically; we should judge by God’s standards, not our own; and we shouldn’t judge without mercy. In reality, this isn’t judging, but just noticing what God has already said.

Think About It

Do you judge without mercy? Do you judge by your standards or God’s? DO you judge hypocritically? God calls us to notice certain things to protect us. We are not the ultimate judge, He is.