Is It OK to Judge Others?

“Don’t judge me” has become the anthem of tolerance in the West. When people pull the “don’t judge me” card I feel like I’m in the 3rd grade again playing imaginary laser tag with my friend who, when I’d shoot him, he’d cry out, “I forgot to tell you I have invincible armor on!” I’d usually respond with “I forgot to tell you, my laser gun can penetrate invisible armor!”

My friend’s invincible armor made playing with him pretty unfun, you could never win because there were no rules of play. Just when you thought you made a successful hit he’d think up something else, something bigger and more powerful that would render your miserly attacks useless.

But worst of all was the invincible armor. I mean what do you do with that? You might as well put your guns down and raise your little white flag because the game is over.

“Do not judge” is the invincible armor in today’s moral war. Once someone pulls out the do not judge card from their back pocket you’re done, there’s no comeback… or is there?

We all like to judge

Here’s the problem, like it or not we all judge others, even the short statement “Don’t judge me” is a judgement call.

Not only do we judge others, but we love doing it!

Yes, we love to judge and criticize and then judge and criticize others for judging and criticizing us. Of course, we never really officially judge anyone, we just discuss their behavior with a few close friends and wonder how in the world he or she could ever think of dating that person, or wearing that blouse, or how they had the gall to ask that question.

OK, let’s face it we’re not really sure what is the greater problem: that we love to hate being judged or that we love to judge!

Let’s go back to the source of that famous statement “Do not judge” and see what the author, Jesus meant.

For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured again to you.
But why do you look on the twig that is in the eye of your brother, but do not see the log in your eye?
Or how will you say to your brother, Allow me to cast out the twig from your eye; and behold, the log is in your eye!
Hypocrite, first cast the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to cast the twig out of the eye of your brother. Matthew 7:1-5

Jesus didn’t prohibit all judging

Here’s something we know about Jesus’ teaching on judgement, he was not prohibiting all judgment of all behavior at any time.

How do we know this?

All you have to do is look a little further down in chapter seven and you’ll find that Jesus tell us:

Then surely from their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven. Matthew 7:20-21

Hmm, so how are we supposed to know who is a true believer? By their fruit, Jesus is telling us to make a judgement call based on behavior that we observe.

Jesus even tells us to rebuke a brother who has sinned against us.

Take heed to yourselves. And if your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. Luke 17:3

At times we are called to judge yet we must be very careful before we make judgments so that we don’t fall into the danger of wrong judging.

Jesus’ exhortation not to judge is a warning against judging wrongly.

Wrong judgment looks like this:

• Judging someone because they look different that you or have a different approach to things than you.
• Judging the hidden motivations of the heart.
• Judging to put someone down.
• Judging in an area where you are not doing well or are not willing to live by the same standard.
• Judging when you have very limited information.

Good judgment looks like this:

• Judging actions that are clearly against Scripture.
• Judging actions rather than guessing and judging motivations.
• Judging in love in order to warn someone of danger.

So the next time you’re tempted to judge someone you might want to stop and check your motivations. Are you judging properly?

If you are judging righteously and the response you get is,

“Hey don’t judge me!”

That’s the time you might want to quietly remind yourself of the very next verse in this text,

Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before the pigs, that they should not trample them with their feet, and turning they charge you.  Matthew 7:6