Skip to main content

Do Not Judge?

              For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17)

 

            “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  (Matthew 7:1)

 

                Some people love to quote Jesus’ command not to judge because we’ll be judged. They’re likely to have the same response to John 3:17,  in which Jesus describes Himself as not being here to condemn the world, but so that God could save the world through Him. And what they don’t seem to get is that in telling others not to judge, they are judging the others. In threatening, warning, or promising judgment upon those who judge, one must judge. And they also seem to miss that God’s sending His Son into the world to save the world means that the world is already condemned. Otherwise, the world wouldn’t need to be saved.

            The second tidbit about the passage in John is that Jesus makes it clear that the only way the world can be saved is though Him. So those who say “Don’t judge” and follow it up with the notion that everyone is going to go to heaven, or that there’s some other means to get to heaven are calling Jesus a liar. And if He is a liar about who gets to be saved, then there’s no reason to believe Him that not judging is the proper way to go.

            The goal here isn’t to say, “Go ahead and judge. It’s OK!” Jesus did tell us not to judge. It’s important that we understand what He meant. I looked up the Greek term translated as “judge.” It is transliterated krino. Here’s the definition as provided by Walter Bauer in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.

                “1. Separate, distinguish, then select, prefer…

                    2. judge, think, consider, look upon…

                    3. reach a decision, decide, propose, intend…

                    4. as a legal term: judge, decide, hale before a court, condemn, also, hand over for judicial punishment…” It goes on from there. In each case, the ellipsis indicates a long passage of quotes involving the use of the term, and the print is small, but I didn’t notice Matthew 7:1 in any of them. The point is, there’s judging, and there’s judging.

            Logically, if we separate ourselves from someone else, we are separated from them. How can we not be? If we distinguish (perceive or point out a difference), we cannot help but be seen as different. If we select ourselves, we are selected.

            Again, this doesn’t mean “judging” isn’t included. There are times in Scripture in which God uses the standard set by a person (often a king) as the standard by which that person is judged. One of the examples some people give of Jesus “not judging” is the story of the woman who was brought to Him after being caught in the act of adultery. Jesus wrote in the dirt, then said that the one without sin should be the first to cast a stone. People speculate about what He wrote. My own speculation is that it was Leviticus 20:10, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” To bring only the woman was a violation of the law – a sin. They were judged by the standard they set. And after no one accused her, He didn’t accuse her either, but told her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11). He may not have accused her, but He didn’t pretend that what she was doing wasn’t wrong. And neither should we.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more