Many people like to jump on Christians and condemn them for being "judgemental" by throwing out "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." However, brief look at the context of that verse will yield a more thorough interpretation.
Matthew 7:1-5The admonition here is not that we should never judge between good and evil, but rather that we should approach judgement cautiously and humbly, aware that we will be held to the same standard we apply to others."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.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Further, there are three aspects of justice. The first, reserved to God, is the right to set the rules and lay down the definitions of right and wrong. When man usurps God's authority to make the rules (or expands on the rules God has made) he engages in what is often called legalism -- a practice Jesus soundly denounced.
Luke 11:46Once the laws have been established, each individual action must be held up to the light and examined to determine whether it is good or evil; this is the second aspect of judgement, and God entrusts it to us, imperfect though we are.Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."
Romans 12:9This discernment requires wisdom, as it's easy to mistake our own predilictions for God's perfect standards. Nevertheless, it makes no sense to command us to "hate evil" and "cling to good" if we're not able to classify the concrete experiences of our lives into these abstract categories.Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Our responsibility to judge is restricted to the application of God's laws. If we see someone murder, we are right to condemn him for breaking God's law. If, however, we don't like blue hats and decide to condemn blue-hat-wearers, we become a law unto ourselves and put ourselves in God's place.
The third part of justice is perhaps the most complicated: the execution of punishment. God delegates earthly punishment to governments -- who are required to act justly -- and reserves the determination of eternal punishment for himself.
I've been pondering this for a while and while I haven't come to any particular conclusions, it is interested that Jesus never imposed his beliefs on anybody. He simply stated facts and pointed out reality, often in a very unusual but poignant manner.
If we choose to impose our views on others, say by banning Gay Marriage, we can expect that others will impose their views on us. This is the essense of the judgment listed here as well as described by the Golden Rule.
Thus, I am conflicted. I personally believe that Gay Marriage is wrong. And yet, who am I to impose my views on somebody else, lest they attempt to impose their views upon me? If I don't want any external views imposed upon me, I should refrain from attempting to impose my views upon them.
I would certainly be interesting in your, or any other persons, thoughts on the matter of imposition of views upon others.
Nice commentary. As a sidelight, I've been reading the Bible for the past year on the issue of "God's Justice" -- and not only does he reserve it to himself, he is occasionally upset that we try and preempt it with our own actions. It appears to be a matter of turning back the consequences of the behavior on the person who did it: and in that sense is like what was described as "poetic justice" when I was growing up.
From my own perspective, I spent more time learning about my own deficiencies and praying about them, since I am not the government. To the extent that my vote and voice are the government, I have to request that the government's laws agree with reality (and basic morality is as bedrock as gravity, and just as objective).
I liked the essay. Thanks again
AG: Someone's ideology has to dominate, it's just a question of whose.
AW: Thanks!
A pertinent article on the subject:
The following article is from Christianity Today magazine, and is located at:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/012/29.70.html
Who Are We to Judge?
Did Jesus forbid us from judging others?
—B. Larson, Arlington Heights, Illinois
By Lewis B. Smedes | posted 10/8/01
In three words, blunt and absolute, Jesus commanded us, "Do not judge" (Matt. 7:1). But did he really mean that we should never judge others? He goes on to suggest that it's not the act of judging but the attitude with which we do it that God is most concerned about—"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged" (7:2).
There are other Scriptures that either cloud or shed light on the issue. Paul told the Christians in Rome not to judge one another (Rom. 14:13) but taught the Corinthians that they were to judge sinful believers and leave people outside the church to God (1 Cor. 5:12-13). James said he who judges his brother speaks against the law (4:11) but also implied that our judgments of others must be done with mercy (2:12-13).
Common sense suggests that if no one ever judged other people, there would be no real human community. In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account. And, when you come to think of it, nobody would ever forgive anyone for wrongs he had done; we only forgive people for what we blame them, and we blame them only after we have judged them.
I would suggest that, in our day and age, we need more—not less—judgment. Modern Americans suffer from a fear of judging. Passing judgment on the behavior of fellow human beings is considered an act of medieval, undemocratic intolerance.
Why? Because, our culture tells us, we are all flawed people, and people with flaws have no right to judge other people's flaws. Furthermore, modern Americans do not believe that there are objective standards by which to judge. And where there are no standards, there is nothing by which to measure behavior.
Of course, the person who takes Jesus at all seriously does not kowtow to modern relativism. Judgment, for Christians, is an important piece of work that God calls us to do, especially in a world going morally haywire.
When a person judges, she also forms an opinion. But an opinion is not necessarily the same as a judgment. Opinions are often framed by our fears, pride, or ignorance. If all we had were human opinions, we might agree with those who say we should never judge.
Judgments are opinions that we form only after we have made a serious effort to know the facts, and, for those of us who are Christians, only after we have consulted the moral teachings of Scripture and prayed for Spirit-informed discernment. Any lazy or biased fool can have opinions; making judgments is the hard work of responsible and compassionate people.
For all of these reasons, common sense indicates that Jesus could not have meant that we are never to make judgments on what people, including ourselves, are up to.
But our common sense is hardly the litmus test of what Jesus meant, for in the end it is his Word that we live by. It's helpful, then, to consider Jesus' bold command in its biblical context.
Jesus may have been moved to speak as he did by the haughty way the Pharisees had of judging people. In Matthew 5:20 through 7:6, Jesus warns his disciples against following the traditions and practices of the Pharisees, who judged others as if they themselves were beyond judgment. What's more, they judged people by the letter, not the spirit, of the law.
So, most likely, Jesus meant, "Do not judge at all if you judge others the way the Pharisees do. If you do judge people this way, you will be judged with the same severity." Jesus' intent comes out in his metaphor of motes and beams (Matt. 7:3-5). We all have beams in our eyes, so to speak; to judge people for the little motes stuck in their eyes while we have big beams in our own is devilish arrogance as well as folly.
Nobody with a beam in his eye can see things clearly. He is dangerously low on discernment. And, since we all have this distorted perspective, we need either to be very humble or else leave judging to God alone. We have a moral responsibility to judge the moral behavior of others—but only if we are humbly aware that we will sometimes be dead wrong and never totally right. We must remember that our ability to judge is limited and especially that we are sinful people who will ourselves, one day, come under judgment.
Lewis B. Smedes is professor emeritus of theology and ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
Good post. It is necessary to judge in order to make any sort of decision - the key question is how to go about it.