“How We Should Judge – and Not Judge”

Steve Corley

 

Originally given as split sermon in Houston in February 2005

Expanded to full sermon and given in Roanoke and Kingsport 5/22/2021

Given in Knoxville 6/12/2021

Given in London/Corbin 6/18/2022

 

Should we judge others?  If so, where, when, how and why?  Sometimes we may look at Matt. 7:1 – “Judge not, lest you be judged” – and fear to make any kind of evaluation of another person.  On the other hand, we may read the last part of 1 Cor. 5 and the first part of 1 Cor. 6 – which includes verses such as “Do you not know that we shall judge angels, how much more then matters of this life” – and then feel free to make any and all kinds of evaluations and judgments of the motives and hearts of other people.  Is there a conflict here?  We may look at these and other verses on judgment and not be sure what we are supposed to do – when we should “judge” and when we should not.  If we believe the Bible we realize that there can be no conflict.  But how do we harmonize these passages, and what is the effect on our Christian life?

In this sermon today I would like to go through these and other related passages in detail.  I would like to discuss the different things we can mean when we refer to “judgment,” and where to draw the line – what the Bible indicates that we should do, may do, and definitely should not do with respect to “judging” others.  We can title the sermon “How We Should Judge – and Not Judge.”

We are indeed commanded to judge – in John 7:24 Jesus commands us to “judge righteous judgment.”  How do we make sure we are doing this and not judging according to appearance?  Just what do we mean when we refer to “judging” a person?  There are at least four areas to which we might refer.

1. The first is simply the determination that, to our knowledge, a person has (or has not) committed a certain sin, a certain violation of God’s Law.  (Of course, we have to know what God’s Law on the matter is!)  If we see a person commit a sin, then we of course thereby make a judgment that that person is guilty of committing that particular sin.  Note that we are not saying anything here about the person’s heart with respect to whether it is right or not.  Of course, we may also judge that a person has committed a particular sin based on hearsay and that is where we may fall into trouble even in this area.  Also we may tell others about the sin, others who have no need to know, and such also leads to trouble.
2. Another kind of judgment of people is rank-ordering people with regard to performance (behavior) in one or more areas or in regard to having one or more inherent traits.  Of course, every manager who manages multiple people has to do this in performance evaluations.  All of us who are married have likewise done this in regard to selecting the attributes we desired in a marriage partner.  Sometimes we can get into trouble into this area also if we go around telling others that person A is better in a certain area than person B, for example, or if we start openly comparing our children and this leads to favoritism (examples of Isaac and Rebekah with Esau and Jacob, of Jacob with Joseph and his brothers).
3. Another kind of judgment of people consists in applying a penalty – the sentencing phase.  This is something we all sometimes have to do to our children when they engage in undesired behaviors.  However we have to be very careful about applying penalties to other adults and especially to our brothers in Christ.  Sometimes in setting what we think is an appropriate penalty for another we are actually judging that person’s heart as being wrong – and this gets us into the very dangerous ground of the next area.
4. The final type of judgment of others involves an evaluation (which can lead to their being found wanting) of a person’s heart or motives.  We may attempt (with some success) to do this with our children (in administering the appropriate penalty for misbehavior, in dividing our estate in a will, etc.) but we are generally on dangerous ground if we try to do it with other adults (especially in combination with a penalty).  Man does not know the heart (1 Sam. 16:7) and we do not know how well any other person realizes what God’s Law says and how well he knows what is sin.  In this area we are not generally able to “judge righteous judgment” – we have to rely too much on the “appearance” of a person’s heart and mind as manifested through his outward behavior.

In your workplace you may have been exposed to a concept called the “ladder of inference,” and it is certainly an idea consistent with the Bible.  The bottom rung of the ladder is composed of the things and happenings we actually see or otherwise perceive with our senses.  The next rung is composed of inferences we draw from these things we perceive – for example, if we smell smoke we presume there is probably fire although we do not see the fire.  The third rung is composed of further conclusions and inferences we draw from the conclusions in the second rung – for example, that someone probably started the fire and guess who.  I smell smoke on you so probably you started the fire!  We can see the danger we get into when we climb too high on the ladder of inference.  We need to stick close to what we actually observe (I smell smoke).

Let us take an example to which young people can easily relate – the example of a bully at school.  We can objectively see that he is bullying others around.  He is demonstrating bullying behavior.  We can certainly judge that he is doing so and that his behavior is wrong.  For example, if he is forcing other students to give him their lunch money we can see that he is violating the commandment against stealing.  We can objectively rank-order him as showing more bullying behaviors than most of his classmates.  If we are teachers or school officials in a disciplinary position, we can rightfully apply a penalty or sentence to him based on observed and documented incidents of his behavior (this is not the case if we are fellow students – the penalty is not ours to administer except insofar as reporting the bully to the disciplinary authorities).  However we do not know what the bully’s motives are (unless he tells us and even then how do we know he is being honest?).  We do not know what is in his heart and why he is bullying others.  If we judge his heart we are treading on dangerous ground.

Let us go over the specific Scriptures involved in detail.  Let’s first turn to Matt. 7:1 – the famous “Judge not, lest you be judged” passage.  Verse 2 – God will judge us in the same way we judge others and by the same standards.  Example of this would be the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23) in which the servant would not forgive his fellow servant in the same way he had been forgiven.  His fellow servant acknowledged the debt, was conciliatory and promised to pay it when he could but the unforgiving servant considered it overdue and insisted on applying the penalty.  As a result, the master of the unforgiving servant canceled his forgiveness with terrible consequences for the servant who had insisted on applying the penalty.  The unforgiving servant had not administered a penalty endorsed by Scripture (which probably would not have been his to administer in the first place) but was punishing the other servant purely as part of a personal vendetta.

Note here in the parable that Christ was not talking about seeing someone commit (or not commit) a sin and the judgment as to whether someone had done so.  (He could not have been talking about this because verses such as Matthew 18:15-17, James 5:20, Proverbs 24:11-12, 1 John 5:16 and Jude 23 clearly tell us what to do if we see our brother sin.  In order to do this we first have to recognize that our brother sinned.)  Christ was not talking about rank-ordering either.  He was talking about the penalty phase.  The second servant was not being punished for a sin – failure to pay a money debt because of inability to do so is not normally a sin.  The first servant was simply lashing out at the second in anger, wanting to punish him for not being able to repay a debt (analogy to behavior of organized crime today).  This would be essentially revenge – and Leviticus 19:18 and Romans 12:19 warn us against avenging ourselves.  But more likely the money debts simply represented sins or wrongs and the second servant had sinned by doing wrong to the first.  However, it was not the place of the first servant to apply the penalty to a repentant man, especially when he himself had just been forgiven of wrongs far greater.  In effect, the first servant was judging the heart of the second – that his repentance was not genuine and that he therefore deserved to have the penalty applied.  We can see here that this form of judgment is clearly associated with non-forgiveness – and Matt. 6:15 shows us that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us and our ultimate future is bleak indeed.

While we are in Matthew 7 let us continue to verses 3-5 and mention the speck and the log in the eye.  Although Christ does not condemn the first form of judging another, that of simply noting and observing that that person has committed a particular sin, He certainly did indicate that our own sins can blind us to the ability to perceive properly those of others and to help them.  Note in Psalm 51:1-7 and 13 that David realized that he had to clean up his own act before he could teach others effectively.

Now let us go to 1 Cor. 5:9 – the passage about judgment that at first read may seem to conflict with Matt. 7:1.  Let us go through this passage and see what is actually being referred to.

Verse 11 – the reference to “not associating” deals with disfellowshipment administered by the ministry, not to ostracism applied by members on their own or especially by gossip – one of worst forms of judgment (1 Tim. 5:13, cf. Lev. 19:16, Prov. 26:20-22 and many other passages in Proverbs)

Verses 12, 13 – note that this form of judgment is not to be applied to outsiders at all!  God judges them.  We do not know enough about them to “judge righteous judgment.”  Let’s take the following example.  Some stranger cuts me off in traffic – this is indeed a dangerous act to cut directly in front of a driver -- and I yell “You moron!”  What did I just do?  Moron.  Remember Matthew 5:22.  The Greek word for “fool” here is μωρός (“moros,” Strong’s #3474).  In this particular passage it is used in the vocative (addressing) case and the form is μωρέ (“more”), whereas in the Greek accusative (direct object) case the form of the word is actually μωρόν (“moron”).  I have just judged a person’s intelligence and competence to be zero and have called him by the very word with which Christ Himself said there is a terrible penalty for addressing someone.

We do not necessarily need to avoid associating with immoral people out in the world – and, in any case, we have no business judging their motives or their heart.  Of course, we can make the objective judgment that their behavior violates the laws of God, but we can really go no further.  (Example of two gay men living together in a house, perhaps “married” to one another.)  (However, when we do associate with them, it must not be to join in their sins – and we need to guard against being influenced by them to do so.  We should not refuse to associate with an outsider, for example, simply because he likes to get drunk frequently and has no intention of stopping.  However, neither should we accept his invitation to go join him in a bar for an evening of getting drunk.)  However, the rules regarding fellowshipping with brethren disfellowshipped for doing these things are much stricter.  This is because we can be much more influenced by one who bears the name of brother who is openly doing these things – more influenced to feel that maybe it is all right to do them – than by an outsider who is engaging in the same behaviors.

1 Cor. 6:1 – now the issue is focused on going to court with another Christian (and proper resolution of disputes within the Church).  Note that “the saints will judge the world” and “we shall judge angels” do not mean we have free rein to judge one another now.  Remember that Christ refused to judge an inheritance dispute in this age (Luke 12:13) even though He is the ultimate Judge of all mankind (John 5:22) with regard to salvation.

Verse 2 – “are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?” through verse 5 – this refers to dispute resolution in the Church (through the ministry or through those designated to handle it).  It is a proper step in the escalation of the handling of a dispute between brethren (Matt. 18:15-17).  The situation was that brethren were taking their disputes to civil courts when they properly should have been settled within the Church.  The verse emphatically does not authorize us to judge a brother, saying “How could he do this?  Some ‘Christian!’” and tell all our friends about what he did.

It is true that Peter was able to exercise righteous judgment when he judged that the heart of Simon the sorcerer of Samaria was wrong (Acts 8:18-23).  Likewise, Paul was able to make a similar judgment about another sorcerer, Elymas (Acts 13:8-11).  Apparently God, through His Holy Spirit, had revealed to both Peter and Paul the actual mental state and motives of the two sorcerers.  However, I am in no condition to make a similar judgment about a person – I certainly cannot claim to have as much of the Holy Spirit as was given to Peter and Paul, and I am not in a position where I have any need or right to make such a judgment anyway!  As an example which more closely approximates where we might find ourselves, we can read the account of Phinehas and the altar builders in Joshua 22:10-16 and 21-34.  Phinehas (though a priest) totally misjudged the motives of the eastern tribes and was ready to condemn them unjustly.

The ministry has to make judgments regarding a person’s heart from time to time – for example, when a person is requesting baptism the minister will have to make a judgment on whether, given the information which he has, the person appears to be a Christian.  Normally, however, the only time that a member like you and me would have to make such a judgment about a person (of course, except for one of our children) is if we are considering marrying that person, as discussed in 2 Cor. 6:14.  However, even there the ministry can certainly help us.

We have seen, in recap, that there are at least four different ways we can judge others.  The first is the perception that we see someone else has sinned, and this perception is not normally wrong.  The second is a rank-ordering of people, which is generally also OK if there is a need for us to do so (but can get us in trouble from time to time if we broadcast it to others).  The third is a penalty phase for sin, which we normally are not in a position to administer to another adult.  The fourth is a judgment that a person’s heart or motives are impure, and here, as we have seen, we are treading on very dangerous ground. 

Hence we can see that these Scriptures regarding judging others do not conflict in any way.  Matthew 7:1-3 warns us not to condemn others – not to judge the hearts of others and to be very cautious and careful when it comes to administering any penalties.  1 Cor. 5:9 through 6:6 deals with disfellowshipment and dispute resolution in the Church and these verses are addressed primarily to the ministry.  It nowhere gives us permission to gratuitously judge the motives and thinking of other brethren or of outsiders.  And the overriding command and warning is in John 7:24 – “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

Yes, we have read in 1 Cor. 5:2-3 that “the saints shall judge the world” and “we shall judge angels.”  But at that time we will have supernatural power.  For now we are still physical and we should heed the words of 1 Sam. 16:7 – “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” and Matt. 7:1 –“Judge not, lest you be judged.”  The next time that we are tempted to impugn the motives and thoughts of another person, let us remember those verses – we cannot yet know a person’s heart and we therefore must not condemn it.  If indeed the passage about the woman taken in adultery actually belongs in the Bible – we do not know this, but it is certainly consistent with other Scriptures – let us remember what the ultimate Judge of the salvation of all mankind told her in John 8:10-11:  “Neither do I condemn you – go and sin no more.”