Scenario 1
Cop: You were doing 80 in a 60 zone.
"Christian": Judge not.
Scenario 2
Parent: Your room is messy, I want you to clean it up.
"Christian": Thou shalt not judge.
Scenario 3
Healthcare practitioner: You need to stop smoking.
"Christian": Who are you to judge?
Scenario 4
Judge: I find you guilty of speeding.
"Christian": Who are you to judge?
Yes, you might be laughing your heads off because the "Christian", or pseudo-Christian I should say, might be a total hypocrite but usually isn't a total idiot - he or she will only use such a retort against fellow Christians. It is very unlikely that they will use such a "defence" in the scenarios above because in any circumstance, it is a lame defence. They tend to get away with it in church when the majority of the church are as lukewarm as they are.
In any case, let us examine scripture and the context in which this text has been oft abused. If you have your bibles, turn with me to Matthew Chapter 7. Let's look at verses 1-6, which comes under the sub-title "Judging Others".
Matthew 7
Judging Others
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3"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? 4How 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? 5You 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. 6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
When Jesus said this to the people, he was in part rebuking the Pharisees of the day who had embraced legalism over intent, and have twisted mosaic law and even added to mosaic law, making it near impossible to live by their law, yet the Pharisees imposed this law on the people and judged them by it to run them down, even though they themselves could not adhere to it. Yet in His rebuke, He gave the Pharisees a way out, in that if they first got their act together, and stopped being hypocrites with double standards, then and only then were they fit to judge others.
Some people have the wrong idea as to the meaning of verse 1 which says "Do not judge, or you too will be judged". They think that if they do not judge i.e. keep quiet when they should have upheld scripture, they will then escape judgment for their sin, and they even keep on sinning, which is their underlying intent. This is of course, a total perversion of this verse, and also makes a mockery of God and His disdain for sin. What kind of judgment are these hypocrites hoping to escape? Judgment by men? Maybe, and this depends on how big their huddle of like-minded hypocrites flock together and how successful they are in thumbing-down true Christians. But there is no escaping of judgment by Jesus, and as Christians, we are to abide by scripture and to help fellow Christians abide by scripture. None of this "shh... let's not point out sin or uphold scripture so we too won't be held to this standard".
Verse 2 makes this clear: 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. As Christians, that measure is scripture, and it is this measure that we first judge ourselves, other Christians and everything else. It is clear that there can be no compromise of scripture to allow sin, but on the other hand, to add to scripture and/or ignore scripture in order to maliciously judge others is again, and should be, an obvious no-no. Why? A Christian who goes beyond or ignores scripture (this is itself a sin) when they judge others is demonstrating two things:
1. An unforgiving spirit, which is wrong, and they do this at their own peril because scripture states that we are forgiven to the extent we forgive others (Matthew 6:12, Matthew 18:21-35), and this ties-in nicely with verse 2 mentioned above, but also
2. a spirit of vengeance, which is again, wrong because vengeance is the Lord's (Deuteronomy 32:35). They want to attack and put their target down so badly that they have thrown all scripture to the wind. This is very bad testimony, and those who judge in this fashion do so at their own peril.
The pivotal verse here is verse 5, which says: 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. This verse is telling us that if we want to correct others, we must first ensure that we ourselves have also been corrected. If we want to impose certain scripture on others for their correction, we must first be already abiding by such scripture - our Lord Jesus does not tolerate double standards. The pharisees of Jesus' day were very good in putting on a facade of holiness and getting on their self-righteous high horse to persecute others. But Jesus saw their hearts and strongly rebuked them for their hypocrisy. Jesus' rebuke still applies to us - this means all Christians who talk the talk must also walk the walk and yet the church is often full of people acting holy and getting all self-righteous. It's even worse to say "Do as I say, not as I do" - that's sheer hypocrisy and very bad testimony if this is how you portray yourself as a Christian, yet some in leadership positions would say this. Thus, the pot cannot call the kettle black until the pot is polished to shiny perfection. But in calling the kettle black, the pot should also do so out of love.
Why love? Isn't the truth enough? Well, truth has to be tempered with love, and if you point out fault out of self-righteousness to run others down, you are wrong. Corroborating with Matthew 7:2, James 2:12-14 instructs us to: "12Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!" Bear in mind, mercy here means having a forgiving and loving spirit to help the trangressor back to the path of righteousness, NOT tolerance or even acceptance of sin. Now, what is irksome are the "Christian" prima donnas amongst us. Their delicate feelings (read: egos) demand that everything must be smothered with lurve, not love as the bible defines it, but lurve in how they define it, a love that does not uphold truth. These are the types who know they cannot deny their sin when it is pointed out, but still try to argue you are wrong to point it out because you did not point it out in lurve, as if this makes any difference to the fact they need to get their act together. After twisting the definition of love, they won't stop there and they will go to the extent of misquoting the bible, especially 1 Corinthians 13, which is disturbingly, often misquoted at weddings too.
In any case, such recalcitrance towards repentance by demanding lurve is of course, a sign of rebelliousness and unwillingness to stand corrected. Our Lord Jesus himself was sensitive at times and harsh at others, and He never babied His disciples. Many left Him because they found His teachings too hard (John 6:60-66). Did Jesus lack love? Of course not. Did Jesus change or twist His gospel to try to win back those useless disciples? No. Jesus wants quality, not quantity, and His tough stance of no-compromise is something many churches have compromised or rejected because of deviance from scripture or greedy intent. Churches these days need to take the stance Jesus did, and not chase after million-dollar church buildings, loud thrashy "worship" sessions that would do heavy metal rockers proud, or a mega congregation of brainwashed, eventually brain-dead sheep. Just like how many of Jesus' disciples left Him when they found His teaching too hard, it is actually scriptural to not compromise doctrine and inevitably have some people abandon the faith.
Now, if such recalcitrant sinners are not willing to abide by scripture, they should stop calling themselves Christians and get out or get kicked out of the church. This stops them to from hanging around church and messing things up with their rebelliousness, lukewarmness, hypocrisy, and twisted scripture. "But the church is for sinners" some argue, and usually, argue with little or no scriptural understanding other than the flawed logic of "If Jesus came for sinners, thus the church is for sinners". Well, is the church for sinners? Yes, but what sort? Recalcitrant sinners? No. Repentant sinners? Yes. The church is for repentant sinners who have a sincere desire to abide by scripture. Any sinner other than repentant, more so any sinner who will not stand corrected and repent by scripture should not be admitted and if found, should be expelled lest they defile the church and/or mislead those weaker in the faith (Matthew 18:15-17, 1 Corinthians 5:1-12).
In any case, between mature Christians, it is much easier to cut to the chase than to have to sugar-coat everything with lurve. Big egos need lots of lurve. Real Christians are willingly accountable and are able to accept tough love.
The ideal scenario is thus:
Christian 1: Hey brother/sister, I'm concerned about your *insert sinful activity here*. The bible tells us that *insert relevant scripture here*. I'll be happy to pray for you and assist you through the rehab.
Christian 2: Thanks for your understanding. I really need your prayer support and help.
Now, verse 6, which says "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces", might puzzle some of us, because some of us have the misconception that we are obliged to love. But our love for others is not a blind blanket love. We should be loving others unconditionally but at the same time do not ignore their sin. Once more, scripture is teaching us here to be good stewards, to be prudent with the resources God gave us, in that we are to test and discern by the Spirit i.e. you must judge with Godly wisdom when and who it is appropriate to offer help, or even, share the gospel lest we give them to people who are ungrateful and ignorant, who will reject your gift then verbally or even physically abuse you.
Furthermore, we are instructed in 1 Corinthians 6:1-5 that:
1If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2Do you 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? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! 5I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
Thus, we are further instructed to judge disputes between believers, and that the day will come when we will even judge angels. Usually, in a dispute, there will be fault to assign i.e. someone has wronged the other in some way. Now, if thou shalt not judge, how is one then going to resolve disputes, or even judge angels? Scripture does not contradict itself - it is no surprise that people who misapply scripture due to lack of understanding or malicious perversion of scripture will then find that scripture contradicts itself but this is their fault. Regardless, I hope that these salient points set the record straight.
Now, there will still be some who will use this phrase: "let God be the judge, how dare you question my faith". Most pseudo-Christians use this phrase to again justify their depraved actions when all they are trying to do is avoid accountability, shirk responsibility and cover up their sin. Also, they are often referring to God the Father as the judge. Not only is their rebelliousness unacceptable, their shallow understanding of scripture is also evident and comes as no surprise, because those of us who care to know scripture well, hopefully to abide by it, will know that John 5:22 states "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son," i.e. it is clear that judgment is reserved for Jesus even though the hypocrites who use the line "let God be the judge" are often referring to God the Father, and are thus wrong on two counts, in that they have twisted scripture on the matter of judging to cover up their sin, and also, on who it is who does final judging. And Jesus will of course judge us using the Bible as the benchmark. It's not as if we somehow permit Him to do so by declaring "let God be the judge". He WILL judge, like it or not. Better for a fellow Christian to judge me so I can repent of my sin than for Jesus to judge me because by then, it's too late. Now is the time to embrace the Bible, abide in its teachings, live, breathe, exemplify the Word while you have the chance.
Indeed, our Lord Jesus will be final judge on all matters, because not only does He observe the external - and all of us know how to appear "good" on the outside, but he also looks into our hearts and He has recorded everything we have thought, said and done. The judging our Lord Jesus does is to do with sending the wicked to eternal condemnation and rewarding the righteous with eternal life (Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 8:34). Now, no man can do this sort of judging, even if some of us would like to simply because we don't have the power to do so. Thus, even if someone judges another maliciously, it is simply a personal attack. This is of course wrong, but not in the magnitude some simpleton Christians cringe at under some naive supposition that a Christian can send another to Hell. Certainly, the mature Christian should expect to face persecution and personal attack if they truly stand up for Christ, and the church should thus teach us what scripture has to say as to responding to such persecution in a manner that is biblically sound, instead of contradicting scripture by decrying "thou shalt not judge" under false pretenses of being "nice" or practicing "lurve".
Thus, the judging we Christians are to do is to test everything by scripture for the purpose of correcting the issue at hand with love that the transgressor(s) might become better persons. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 makes this abundantly clear: 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
As for the psuedo-Christian telling you not to question his/her faith, this is another bit of non-biblical nonsense. One's faith should be based on and complete in Scripture - such faith is then sound, and can withstand any and all scrutiny. If one's faith is but a stubborn belief in anything but scripture, then one will of course be insecure and clam-up, or even react angrily and violently to anyone who "questions" his/her faith, as if it were such an affront. The Shield of Faith, as one's faith should be, is to be held openly to quench the fiery darts of the devil as part of the Armour of God we put on to be able to stand firm for God (Ephesians 6:10-17). What kind of soldier hides his Shield? Does a soldier go into battle without a Shield, or a faulty Shield? Is such a soldier able to stand firm for God? Is such a soldier fit to be a soldier? If your faith is faulty, it will eventually show even if you don't talk about it because scripture tells us that we will be able to judge if the Christian is indeed a Christian, or otherwise, by their fruit (Matthew 7:16, 20). And if your Shield is faulty, you will not be able to quench the fiery darts hurled at you by the enemy, and you end up a victim, not a victor.
Furthermore, scripture makes it abundantly clear that we are justified by faith. Now, faith that is based on and complete in scripture will justify you. Faulty faith based on distorted scripture and other rubbish will not justify you. This is vitally important because the last thing you want is to embrace a faulty faith, which results in living a faulty life that you thought was acceptable to the Lord, but when the time comes, you cry out to Jesus and He tells you to go away because He never knew you, that you are an evil doer (Matthew 7:22-24).
Regardless, any Christian should be able to give a good answer for their faith if questioned, as 1 Peter 3:15 says: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,...". So if you are unable to always give a gentle and respectful reason about your faith to fellow Christians whom you should be accountable and to non-Christian as part of your witness testimony, something is terribly wrong, and you really ought to judge your faith by scripture to see if your faith aligns with it. If it does not, it is not too late to repent and come back to the Lord. What should your faith be then? The same as every other Christian who bases their faith on scripture - belief on the Lord Jesus for forgiveness of sins to be saved and thereafter, living a life of striving obedience according to scripture to better answer Him when the Lord Jesus returns
Finally, if someone self-righteously points out your fault, he/she is right even for the wrong reasons. Truth is truth, and speaking it often hurts, and it is in the nature of our fallen state to want to hurt those who hurt us and ignore the truth of what they say, but the key here is to repent while you can regardless of who points it out to you. The hypocrites will have to answer for their deeds, and so do you - better they burn in hell than you. Don't make excuses to keep on sinning - this is a big no-no as a Christian, more so if you have been a stumbling block by doing so. Repent now, stop making excuses for sin, seek professional help if you must.
Thus, the bible is clear in the manner and circumstance we are to judge and be judged. Thou shalt indeed judge, as instructed by the bible in a manner pleasing to God for His glory. Hallelujah, amen.
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