Scripture Ripping
Matthew 7 ~ Judge not, that you be not judged
"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."
Judge not, that you be not judged: This is the Bible verse that seems to be most popular in our present day. But most the people who quote this verse don’t understand what Jesus said. They seem to think Jesus commanded a universal acceptance of any lifestyle or teaching. In fact, this verse is probably quoted by more unbelievers than believers in an attempt to show how “judgmental” ,usually in moral matters, that Christians are compared to the rest of the world, and that Christians don’t even follow Jesus’ own words. But Christians are just as guilty of misusing this scripture when it comes to questioning and discerning the doctrine and conduct of others. Lets look at the entire surrounding context and exegete the proper meaning of what Jesus was saying.
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."
We see here that Jesus is talking about judging hypocritically. For example, if you smoke cigarettes and you see a fellow Christian smoking a cigarette and then judge him for that you are wrongfully judging him because you are dealing with the same issue. Further, when Jesus says “judge not” he does not mean never judge anyone or anything. We must look at the whole of scripture and harmonize the concept of judging instead of ripping a scripture out of context and making it a biblical mandate. In John 7;24 Jesus said “Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment”. So in Matthew 7 we have Jesus telling us to not to judge and in John 7;24 he tells us we can righteously judge. What’s going here is Jesus is talking about two ways of judging, the “right” way and the “wrong” way, and not that we shouldn’t judge at all. The apostle Paul also talks about the subject of judging. In 1 Cor. 2:14 Paul says “He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one". Here Paul is talking about judging spiritual matters and that the natural man does not have the ability to judge spiritual matters because they can only be spiritually discerned.
In summary, we as Christians can judge things in spiritual matters such as Christian conduct (see Matthew 18 in scripture ripping) and doctrine. But we are not to judge the motives of someone who is say teaching a doctrine that is not consistent with scripture. We are to judge their doctrine and correct those who contradict sound doctrine (Titus 1:9, 2 Tim 3:16, 1 Tim 4:16) and study the scriptures to see what is preached is consistent with scripture (Acts 17:11). When I question a teaching by a preacher I often get the response from other Christians, “Oh, you don’t like him?”. I usually respond, I don’t know I never met him. You see, I’m judging his doctrine not his motives or him as a person. He may be a super nice guy but is teaching false doctrine. He may be very sincere in what he’s teaching, but can be (we all can, including myself) sincerely wrong. I am often baffled that people get upset when a preacher is questioned on what they are teaching as though it was a personal attack on them. In a sense it is because they have elevated that preacher to almost an idol status. See the article “Who’s your favorite preacher” for an in dept view on that subject.
Judge not, that you be not judged: This is the Bible verse that seems to be most popular in our present day. But most the people who quote this verse don’t understand what Jesus said. They seem to think Jesus commanded a universal acceptance of any lifestyle or teaching. In fact, this verse is probably quoted by more unbelievers than believers in an attempt to show how “judgmental” ,usually in moral matters, that Christians are compared to the rest of the world, and that Christians don’t even follow Jesus’ own words. But Christians are just as guilty of misusing this scripture when it comes to questioning and discerning the doctrine and conduct of others. Lets look at the entire surrounding context and exegete the proper meaning of what Jesus was saying.
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."
We see here that Jesus is talking about judging hypocritically. For example, if you smoke cigarettes and you see a fellow Christian smoking a cigarette and then judge him for that you are wrongfully judging him because you are dealing with the same issue. Further, when Jesus says “judge not” he does not mean never judge anyone or anything. We must look at the whole of scripture and harmonize the concept of judging instead of ripping a scripture out of context and making it a biblical mandate. In John 7;24 Jesus said “Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment”. So in Matthew 7 we have Jesus telling us to not to judge and in John 7;24 he tells us we can righteously judge. What’s going here is Jesus is talking about two ways of judging, the “right” way and the “wrong” way, and not that we shouldn’t judge at all. The apostle Paul also talks about the subject of judging. In 1 Cor. 2:14 Paul says “He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one". Here Paul is talking about judging spiritual matters and that the natural man does not have the ability to judge spiritual matters because they can only be spiritually discerned.
In summary, we as Christians can judge things in spiritual matters such as Christian conduct (see Matthew 18 in scripture ripping) and doctrine. But we are not to judge the motives of someone who is say teaching a doctrine that is not consistent with scripture. We are to judge their doctrine and correct those who contradict sound doctrine (Titus 1:9, 2 Tim 3:16, 1 Tim 4:16) and study the scriptures to see what is preached is consistent with scripture (Acts 17:11). When I question a teaching by a preacher I often get the response from other Christians, “Oh, you don’t like him?”. I usually respond, I don’t know I never met him. You see, I’m judging his doctrine not his motives or him as a person. He may be a super nice guy but is teaching false doctrine. He may be very sincere in what he’s teaching, but can be (we all can, including myself) sincerely wrong. I am often baffled that people get upset when a preacher is questioned on what they are teaching as though it was a personal attack on them. In a sense it is because they have elevated that preacher to almost an idol status. See the article “Who’s your favorite preacher” for an in dept view on that subject.
