Judge not — are we forbidden to judge?

Should we judge others? Many Christians think we shouldn’t. Sermons and Sunday Schools have emphasised Matthew 7:1 — “judge not, that ye be not judged” — so strongly that many Christians seem to believe the sum total of the Bible’s teaching on interpersonal judgement is “judge not, that ye be not judged”.

But Scripture has a lot more to say on the topic of judging others than that single verse in Matthew 7. If we are to be mature Christians, we need to carefully weigh and study each of the passages about interpersonal judgement in order to understand what God calls us to do.

Some passages tell us not to judge others. But there are many other passages that teach us how and when we ought to judge others. No precept about interpersonal judgement should be taken in isolation. Each precept needs to be read in its context and weighed against the other passages about interpersonal judgement, so that we do not overbalance in any particular direction. If someone is giving so much weight to one passage that they are violating another passage, that tells us their interpretation is probably out of whack.

Here are passages that might help you chew the cud on this topic of interpersonal judgement.

We must not judge hypocritically; and if we do, our hypocrisy will judge us:

Judge not, that ye be not judged.  (Matthew 7:1)

The context of Matthew 7 makes it clear that what is being forbidden is hypocritical judgment, the kind where one’s competence to judge is hampered by one’s blindness to one’s own shortcomings. What is being forbidden is turning one’s personal opinion into a judgement, and / or projecting one’s own defects onto the person one is judging.

Another passage referring to hypocritical judgement, judging others for the very faults we have ourselves:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them, and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  (Romans 2:1-3)

We should not engage in judgement to slander or backbite others:

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it….There is only one Lawgiver, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you — who are you to judge your neighbour?  (James 4:11-12)

At this point in time, we do not have have enough information to make full and final judgement. We ought to refrain from making full and final judgement until the Lord comes:

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes….  (1 Corinthians 4:4-5)

However, when the Lord returns, we most certainly will engage in judging. We shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, we shall judge the world:

 ….ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  (Matthew 19:28)

Do ye not know that the saints will judge the world?  (1 Corinthians 6:2)

We may engage in judging civil disputes between believers. In fact, we ought to judge civil disputes between believers, so that they don’t have to resort to the secular courts for justice:

Do ye not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?….I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, (1 Corinthians 6:2, 5)

In the case of brethren who are sinning, we are commanded to to judge within the church:

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?  (1 Corinthians 5:12)

We are instructed to judge prophets:

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.  (1 Corinthians 14:29)

We are commanded to judge rightly:

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.  (John 7:24)

Peter judged doctrinal disputes:

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.  (Acts 15:19-20)

Jesus praised Peter for engaging in judgement:

….’You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.  (Luke 7:43; said to Peter when Peter was interpreting a parable.)

Peter and John exhorted the Sanhedrin to engage in judgement righteously:

But Peter and John replied [to the Sanhedrin], ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.’  (Acts 4:19)

Making decisions requires exercising sound judgement. When exercising sound judgment we must strive not to put up stumbling blocks that might be hindrances to fellow Christians:

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.  (Romans 14:13; stumbling block means ‘occasion of apostasy’.)

What is a right judgement? A judgment that God makes is a right judgment. The best way for us to make sound judgements is by using His Word as our guide. While only God can definitively sentence anyone to eternal condemnation, He does call us to discern and assess, and He expects each of us to do that — we can’t leave it to the Elders or the pastor. The Bible doesn’t say: “Elders should make a right judgement and the rest of the church can just follow suit with whatever they say.”:

But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no man.  (1 Corinthians 2:15)

We are commanded to test everything. In the following passage, the word translated ‘search’ or ‘examine’ is often translated ‘judge’:

Do not put out the spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.  (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. The KJV says, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”)

In Acts 17:10-11 the Bereans were declared ‘more noble’ for searching and examining the Scripture daily to see if Paul’s teaching lined up with Scripture.

Would we test Paul’s teaching if he spoke in our church today? Probably not; yet he would want us to! These days, if you question the teaching of many current ministries, you are likely to be told “Don’t touch God’s anointed!” or some verbal equivalent of that rebuke. Some celebrity pastors / authors, even those who come across with obsequious humility, are so venerated by their followers that it’s almost impossible to get the celebrity and his followers to open their ears to a reasonable critique of the venerated teacher.

Jesus is the Word (John 1:1), and He is the Truth (John 14:6). If someone does not acknowledge the Word, if someone does not love the truth, they do not love Jesus, no matter how much they may say or sing their professions of love:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  (1 John 4:1-6)

In Acts 20:30, Paul warned the Ephesian elders: “Also among yourselves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” False teachers can arise from within the visible church. In the very next verse Paul says, “Therefore, watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears.” Paul’s warning was no light matter. Paul had emphasised the danger of deceptive ideas to the Ephesians for three years, because he knew how serious it was! And note: Paul warned everyone, not just the elders.

Some people say that if a person is off track, you should just keep silent and pray and wait for the Holy Spirit to correct them. But this is unbalanced and potentially dangerous. While the Holy Spirit does indeed convict people of sin, the Bible is also full of accounts of prophets and believers who admonished others for their sins in no uncertain terms. E.g., Isaiah 58:1; Hosea 8:1; Micah 3:8; Acts 8:20-23, to name just a few.

Our Lord did not condemn the assessment of a person’s character, but the assassination of one’s character.
—Bob Deffinbaugh, The Fool (Proverbs 26:1-11) [Internet Archive link]

A variety of Bible translations have been used in this post, including NIV1984, NASB1977, NASB1995, ESV, NIVUK, The Pentateuch As Narrative: A Biblical-theological Commentary, Qur’anic Warners, KJV.

[September 21, 2023: Editors’ notes:

—For some comments made prior to September 21, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to September 21, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to September 21, 2023 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (September 21, 2023), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]