To Judge or Not to Judge?

In today's article, we will be looking at a few bible verses concerning the topic of judging. I believe this to be an important study because there is a lot of misinformation that is spreading concerning this. What do I mean you ask? Well, namely that false converts, unbelievers, or babes in Christ will always bring up the "thou shalt not judge lest ye be judged" passage and use it on Christians.

So, I guess we Christians can't judge anybody or any action as wrong because the bible tells us not to judge right? Wrong. This is a problem because people do not read the context of the passage and compare spiritual things with spiritual (1 Cor 2:13). In other words, compare scripture with scripture.

In the context of Matt. 7:1-5, we see that we are to judge ourselves first before judging others. It is the hypocritical judgment that God condemns (Rom 2:1-3, Rom 2:19-23). Therefore, as Christians we need to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5, 1 Cor 11:31) before we go around trying to teach or correct others .

We see in the Gospel of John that Jesus did not condemn the act of judging, but rather He instructed those that were with Him to not judge according to appearance and to judge righteous judgment (Joh 7:24). Furthermore, we as Christians should not have a self-righteous attitude either. Remember the example Jesus gave of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luk 18:11-14, Gal 6:1).

If we go to the book of 1st Corinthians, we see that the saints shall judge the world as well as angels. Those that were least esteemed in the church were told to judge (1 Cor 6:2-5). However, there are some things that we as Christians shouldn't judge other believers, namely in meat, drink, holiday, new moon, and regarding the sabbath (Col 2:16, Rom 14:3-4). However, Christians must be able to judge; how else are we to rebuke people (1 Tim 5:20, 2 Tim 4:2, Tit 1:13)?

Also, how are we to obey Paul's command to separate from brethren who commit things such as fornication if we do not judge them first (1 Cor 5:11-13). There are other passages of Scripture that tell us to judge such as 1 Cor 10:15, 1 Cor 11:13, and 1 Cor 14:29. Remember, though we do not judge our brother to tear them down (Rom 14:10, Jam 4:10-12), that is to hurt them. Instead, we warn them out of love for concern over their soul (Jam 5:20).

In conclusion, we see that Christian's are in fact to judge. However, we are not supposed to merely judge others without judging ourselves as well because this will make us no better than the Pharisees of Jesus' day. It is good for us to head Jesus' warning to beware of their leaven; which is hypocrisy (Luk 12:1).

See also: Joh 7:51, Rom 14:13, 1 Cor 2:15, 1Cor 4:5