Judge, or Judge not

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Judge, or Judge not Introduction

We here this thrown around a lot “Judge Not” or “Don’t Judge Me”.

I remember one of the kids saying “Don’t Judge Me.”

They went on to put pickles in peanut butter or something like that.

Well, I wasn’t going to let that go.

I used it as a teaching moment to tell them that it was my job as parent to judge them.

Our job is to teach them right from wrong.

Now, I know what they meant. It wasn’t meant the same way that it normally is.

Usually when someone says “Don’t judge me”, they are just doing something different or maybe strange.

However, there’s another variation of that saying. It’s “Judge Not.” It’s probably the most misquoted verse in the Bible.

When people say “Judge Not”, they are usually talking about doing something that the Bible tells us not to do and they say that to act like it is not our job to judge them.

We don’t want our behavior to cause someone else to not become a Christian. We want to make we are doing things right.

What we need to do is determine what the Bible is actually saying and see if we should or should not be judging.

This is important for us Christians because we are often called judgmental.

So, Judge, or Judge not. There is no try.

Or, To Judge, or not to Judge, that is the question.

Judge, or Judge not

Matthew 7:1–6 NKJV

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 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? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Are we supposed to Judge?

Let’s look at the passage to see what it says first.

The first verse says “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

This is the verse that people quote - however, they only quote part of the verse.

That means they don’t quote it in context at all.

We need to talk about the rest of it in order to understand what it’s saying.

The next verse says we will judged in the same way we judge.

So, do we judge, or do we not judge?

Jesus then uses hyperbole to tell us how to judge.

So he tells us not to judge and then he tells us how to judge????

The hyperbole he used goes like this:

Why are you looking at your brothers eye to get a speck out when you have a beam in yours.

Are we supposed to Judge?

The idea here is that when we judge, we need to do it without hypocrisy. We need to judge only when we have those things under control or we are working on it.

So imagine someone that used to be a drug user telling us not to use drugs. ????

No, they are speaking from experience.

So if I tell my kids about the dangers of alcohol, when I drank as a kid, is that hypocritical?

If I start talking to someone about whatever thing we call a sin and I’m doing something just as bad, I don’t have any credibility.

This is what Jesus is speaking to. This is what we need to stop.

But that brings up a question:

Who are we supposed to Judge?

Notice above Jesus uses the word “brother”. This generally means someone in the community.

In the case of Jesus, it means those who are Jews.

For us, it means fellow Christians. Is that who we judge?

Paul tells us this in

Romans 14:4 NKJV

4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

but we need to understand the context.

Romans 14:1 NKJV

1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.

Who are we supposed to Judge?

In Romans 6, Paul tells us about judging one another (fellow Christians), like in a court of law. In that he tells us we shouldn’t bring things like that to secular authorities, but instead to judge those things among ourselves.

There are some cases in which we do correct. Look at

Ephesians 4:11–16 NKJV

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Who are we supposed to Judge?

So we are to teach and correct in love through the authority that God set up.

I remember a story that Cristy told me of how an older lady at some church looked her up and down and shook her head at her. Cristy was dressed fine. The dress wasn’t too short.

That’s not how it’s supposed to work.

It should work by the preaching of the word of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit. Not from the direction of the Holier-than-thou.

So is there a place where we as Christians should judge those outside the church?

I think there is through our example. But we must be careful. We don’t want to seem judgmental.

Jesus was loving to those we would call sinners and he was angry and not loving toward those that claimed to love God.

So lets look at verse 6 real quick

Matthew 7:6 NKJV

6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

This is connected to our passage.

The the thing that is holy here is the Word of God as well as the pearls. The dogs and swine are an euphemism for those that weren’t Jewish - we need to equate that to unbelievers.

Paul tells us about judging others in

1 Corinthians 5:12–13 NKJV

12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

Who are we supposed to Judge?

Not the world directly - we are to be the light of the world, not the judgers of the world.

That’s God’s job.

If we are shining our lights, the world will see us and they will be convicted through us.

That brings up a question:

How are we Judged?

What’s our first verse?

Matthew 7:1 NKJV

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.

Then what does it say:

Matthew 7:2 NKJV

2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

So,

How are we Judged?

It says here that we judged by how we judge.

Can you live up to your standard?

Can you live up to the Biblical standard?

No

We can’t do it

God said there is none good.

We were just looking at how all of the commandments weren’t just what we do on the outside, but also what we do on the inside.

Do you want us to look on your inside?

I don’t want you to see what’s on my inside.

If you saw some of my inside thoughts, I would go running out of here and I wouldn’t come back.

So here’s the good news:

We aren’t judged for our sins if we believe in him.

It’s not what we did, but what HE did.

If we have obtained grace from God, then why don’t we apply that grace to others.

God is their judge, not us.

Listen I have enough stuff to try to take care of myself, I don’t need to worry about others.

So let’s shine our lights so that the world will see.

Are you with me?

Let’s be the light