To Judge or Not to Judge

To Judge or Not to Judge.  Matthew 7.1-5

judge |jəj|

noun

   • a person 

verb 

  • form an opinion or conclusion 

  • decide in court

  • give a verdict on (someone) in court

  • decide the results of 

The word judge can refer to a person or an action, something we do.     As Jesus embarks on the last portion of his Sermon on the Mount, he makes a statement that is probably the most quoted passage of Scripture--

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”¹

While few of us have the occupation of judge or wear the black robe by day, we play the role of judge in greater or lesser ways all of the time. We observe how people look or act, and in our minds we make a judgment, right? Here in Matthew 7, Jesus makes a direct correlation between the way we judge other people and how we then will be judged. Wait, what?  ‘Reminds me of Jesus’ connecting our forgiveness of others and how we will be forgiven.²

I suppose the question is—do we make judgments with great grace, or something far less?  Fact is, when we meet someone, or see someone across the room, or even just in a public space, we never know what has come before in her life, right?  We hear her talk about her ‘struggling’ teen-aged son, offering just a snippet from their every-day existence… and we are quick to think, ‘well, I think he should be handled this way---uh, yeah, I definitely think you are being much too soft on him—you should be doing it this way!’  When really--we do not know enough to even give an informed opinion, much less pass judgment! 

So what should inform our judgments about other people?  How about the way Jesus treated folks?  Am reading a new book by my man, Lee Strobel,³ in which he captured a conversation between a Las Vegas minister and himself.  The minister said, “Think about the Samaritan woman who Jesus encountered at the well.⁴ Of all the people in the world God could have made an appointment with—the politicians, the celebrities, the military conquerors—he decides to meet with a woman who’s not a complete ethnic Jew and who’s a five-time divorcee who was currently living with a guy…”

“Jesus says to her, ‘Give me a drink.’  Offering a drink in those days was an act of friendship,’  ‘You can loosely paraphrase Jesus’ statement as, ‘Will you be my friend?’  To me, this says God loves broken people—and he loves to fix them.  Look at her: she was transformed.  So when I deal with people, I want to have Jesus’ attitude, which is why I try to err on the side of grace.’

“None of us knows the motivation in the heart of another person. We can easily misread them based on how they look or dress.  So if I’m likely to be wrong on my initial assessment anyway, why not give people the benefit of the doubt?  If I have a choice of being harsh or gracious, I choose to be gracious—because that’s the way Jesus has been with me.’

“Sort of like the saying, ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner,’” I said (Strobel to the Las Vegas minister). “Do you think that’s really possible?”

“Unfortunately, a lot of Christians hate the sin and the sinner, and it has given churches a bad reputation.  But C.S. Lewis made the point that we hate sin but love the sinner all the time—in our own lives.  In other words, when we’re judging ourselves, we always love the sinner despite our sin.  We accept ourselves, even though we might not always like our behavior.”⁵

Ah, tis more to be said, more to be garnered from the popular offering of ‘Judge not, lest you be judged,’ but for now … let us withhold judgment without knowledge, judgment without full awareness, and judgment in the face of these elements because we are all broken individuals looking for a safe haven. 

Christine

PastorWoman.com

1 – Matthew 7.1-5

^{2 – Matthew 6.14-15}

^{3 – The Case for Grace, Lee Strobel, 2015.}

^{4 – John 4.1-42}

^{5 – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity}