Judge Not?

Matthew 7:1-6 (read this first)

Of all the verses in the Bible, Matthew 7:1 is probably one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. More often than not, the people who use it are people who are living in sin, whether they be saved or unsaved. The interpretation is that it isn’t the responsibility of people to point out the wrongs of other people. Each person needs to simply focus on themselves and their own problems. However, the later verses go on to tell how to approach someone who is living in sin. While this may seem like a contradiction to some, it actually presents both a sensitive and also a proper way to go about correcting someone,

The first thing we need to do to understand this passage is to knock out that first verse. To do this, we should look at the key word here: judge. Judge is a name for God, and can be found in passages such as Psalm 96:13, Acts 10:42 and Ecclesiastes 11:9. A judge is someone who hands out a sentence. If God is the Judge, He is the one who either sentences people to Heaven or sentences people to Hell. When the Bible says judge not, it is essentially saying to not be God. It’s one thing to tell someone they’re doing something wrong. It’s another thing entirely to play God and act like we have the authority to determine their eternal destiny. Jesus reminds us in the second part of the verse that if we start judging others, our same works-based standard will be used against us. Considering one sin is enough for God to banish us to Hell, this is not something anyone should want.

Now, how can we approach this? Is it right to tell someone that they’re doing something wrong? Well, yes and no. The no comes into play with unbelievers. It’s one thing to show an unbeliever what he or she are doing so they can know they’re lost, but there’s a certain movement in Christianity that tries to do otherwise. This widespread movement likes to ostracize itself from the unsaved community, save for the few times they decide to point fingers at them and try to force them to live like Christians. We can’t expect unsaved people to behave like saved people. Psalms 51:5 tells us that we’re all born into sin, and sin is all we know before we come to Christ. Instead of teaching an unbeliever how to live right, why not lead them to the One who can give them the desire to?

The yes in this answer is outlined in the remaining verses of our passage. No, this does not literally mean that people have planks of wood and specks of dirt in their eyes. That’d be weird and somewhat painful. What this does refer to is self-examination. Jesus wants us to know that before we go to another believer and tell him he’s committing sin, we need to take some time to look at ourselves. This isn’t so we can realize we’re sinners too and have no right to say anything. It’s so we can get right with God on anything we might have committed against Him so that our actions will be righteous.

Judging and confronting are two completely different things. One we have no right to do, and one we are encouraged to do. In fact, much of Paul’s letters to the different churches were him confronting them on ungodly actions. We just should never forget to come before the Lord first and examine ourselves.