Judge Not...a misunderstood Bible verse

I can't tell you the times this week I have been told to “not judge” someone. It started when I posted an article about Lauren Daigle—the second time I heard this was when I commented on an article on Facebook about a man in France who is a landlord and he took the trash that a former tenant left and dumped it on the tenants new yard. 

In Lauren Daigle’s instance, I have said “We must be ready to give an answer at all times; and that answer should be ‘All sexual immorality is wrong.’” However, when we, whether ordained or laity, won’t stand, it brings up the church-wide authority problem we face. When theological training is de-prioritized and even avoided, then our celebrities become our experts. In the case of the landlord—the site was saying that the landlord was doing the right thing and teaching “Do unto others…”, My response was “I can’t believe anyone is saying that the landlord is correct in his actions.”

Needless to say, I was quoted Matthew 7:1 and Matthew 7:3-5. These are phrases that bring us comfort regardless if we are believers are unbelievers. It’s a phrase that is used all the time during conversations when a person is contentious or defensive. 

Eric J. Bargerhuff states “Those who mishandle this verse often use it as a “shield for sin,” a barrier to keep others at bay, allowing them to justify living as they please without any regard for moral boundaries or accountability. Their objections sound like this: “Aren’t we all sinners? What gives us the right to make moral judgments about someone else? Isn’t that God’s job?”

Let’s look at Matthew 7:1-5 

“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Jesus here was not opposing church leaders rebuking and correcting others. Instead He was opposing anyone who sets themselves up as the Final Judge instead of Him and His Word, and anyone who judges others about certain sins while refusing to turn from similar or worse sins. What a lot of people don’t understand is that in this verse Jesus isn’t telling us to not judge, He’s actually getting us to not judge improperly.

As a matter of fact, if we look at scripture, you’ll notice that in Matthew, Jesus gives us instructions on how to judge. In Matthew 18:15-17, Christ instructed us to judge the sins of our brother in a particular way: “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” 

God is not going to judge parents, teachers, police, human judges, juries and governments for them fulfilling His delegated authority to judge others who are in their area of God-given responsibility. Instead God will judge them as to whether they have judged rightly or wrongly according to His standards and whether they have rejected their God-given responsibilities to judge as His delegated representatives. 

Many Christians today just take one verse out of the Bible without even poring over its whole context - and at times not going through the whole story. This practice is tantamount to isolating the taken text from its co-text. It's imperative for readers to read the whole chapter and the succeeding verses - not just one verse - for us to get what the Bible really wants to convey to us.

In verse 5, we can clearly see that the Bible is actually teaching us not 'not to judge' - but 'how to judge righteously'. It says that, for us not to be called hypocrites, we must cast out first the beam that is in our own eye before we cast the mote out of our brother's eye.

The way Ligonier Ministries gives this example:

Jesus is actually warning us to be fair and humble when we make our evaluations. Human beings are naturally prone to focus on the failings of others and ignore their own heinous sins. Consider David’s reaction to Nathan after he slept with Bathsheba and had Uriah murdered (2 Sam. 11:1–12:15a). The king did more evil than the man in Nathan’s parable, but David wanted to chase after the speck in that man’s eye, so blinded was he by the plank of his own sin. Today, church leaders who have gossiped might come down mercilessly on someone who has occasionally used lewd language. This latter sin is real and inexcusable, but we have done wrong when we who judge do not hold ourselves to the same standard by which we judge others (Matt. 7:2).

John Chrysostom says, “Jesus does not forbid judging but commands that one first remove the plank from one’s own eye” (Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, 23.2). We must be harsher on ourselves than we are on others. Let us make sure our consciences are clear before we judge our brothers and sisters.