To Judge or Not to Judge

Our scripture today will come from the book of Matthew:
Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. [2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. [3] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? [5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Today we hear this said a lot, “Don’t judge me” or “You can’t judge me!” however in these verses it does not say that we cannot judge others.  Let’s examine exactly what these verses are really saying!  The first thing is to establish what we can judge, obviously no one but God can judge a persons heart.

What we can judge is what we can see in a person’s life and then we can hold that up against what the Bible says.  And may I say the proper interpretation of the Bible!  So if I see a brother whose actions and words and manner of living are not in line with the Bible then I have an obligation to point out this to that brother.  If I have an opportunity to witness to a person who is not a Christian then I have an obligation to point out to them the sin that is in their lives.

But why should we do this?  The reason is to help the Christian to get their heart right with the Lord and for the lost person to help them to trust Christ as their Savior!  This is not to condemn them however when you point out the wrong in someone’s life many times they will fill condemned!  If your motive is to condemn and not to love and restore then your heart is not right!

First we must consider the consequences. Verse 1&2 say that when you set out to judge someone that we need to understand that we will be judged by the same standard that we are judging them by.

Second we must consider the conditions. Verse 3&4 say that when we notice something in someone’s life the first thing that we must do is get rid of the junk out of our lives first before we judge.

Third we must consider the challenge. Verse 5 says that the challenge is to get your life clean before you begin to talk to anyone else!

Fourth we must consider the cause. Verse 5 says that once I have cleaned up my life then and only then can I help someone else with their lives.

So to wrap this up the Bible does not say that we cannot judge, however the Bible does say that if you are going to judge then there are some requirements that we need to meet.  If you can’t follow these things then we should keep our mouths shut!  The whole purpose for the judging is to help the one who is being judged! 

Let me make this last statement: You will never accomplish the true purpose of judging if you are not filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit!

Until next week;

Bro. Roger