August 17, 2024

Matthew 7.1, 2 (NIV)

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

“Minding our own business” is not a Christian virtue if it means ignoring evil things going on in our midst.*

In our culture, “judgmental” is one of the worst things we can call another person. As Christians, we tend to choose one extreme or the other in the exercise of judgment. We are the judgmental hypocrites that the world thinks we are; or we act as if we believe that Jesus preached a universal acceptance of any life-style or teaching.*

If we take Jesus’ words to mean that Christians are called to unconditional approval,* then we leave ourselves with no ability – or authority – to make evaluations of whether any behavior is acceptable to God.* But as Christians, we can’t not form an opinion of conduct that is clearly evil.*

We need to learn the difference between discernment and judgment. When we make assessments (judgments) about a tree based on its fruits, we aren’t deciding the fate of the tree; we are just evaluating the quality and quantity of its output. In John 12.47, Jesus says, “I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.” While Jesus didn’t judge, he certainly didn’t hesitate to use discernment. We might say that he made “judgment calls.”

In order to avoid becoming judgmental and self-righteous, remember these points:

• Recognizing and confronting sin in another person does not release us from our responsibility to love them.
• “We can judge the fruit of a man, but we can rarely judge [his] motives with accuracy.”* There is no such thing as a good reason to commit sin but we should be sensitive to the circumstances that have led to the wrong behavior.

In Jesus’ time, the rabbis taught that God had two measures by which he judged people. One was a measure of justice and the other was a measure of mercy. Which measure would you want him to use with you?*

It is not merciful to be nonjudgmental.*