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Here is a topic that might ruffle a few feathers as it were, but we really should be able to talk about it with Godly wisdom by referring to the Bible. Recently there was a discussion over the table about judgement. One person (for convenience sake her name will be Ezmerelda) quickly interjected with the well known phrase "Thou shalt not judge" taken from the principle written in Matthew 7:1 which says "Judge not, that you be not judged". Understandably people in the world love pulling this out of the Bible because they perceive judgement to be harsh and avoided at all costs though they do not bother with the rest of God's word. They really like this scripture as it seemingly gets them "off the hook" but they completely misunderstand what Jesus was actually saying. In effect what Ezmerelda meant by referring to no judgement was that people were free to live their lives in any way they pleased and nobody could tell them otherwise or had the right to make any unwanted negative comments in judgement at all upon their actions, whether living in sin for example by cohabiting while unmarried, having an abortion, lying to parents, friends, loved ones, or anyone else for that matter -- as long as they were happy, that is all that mattered. People could do what they liked, when they liked, and it was none of anyone else's business! Right? Wrong! Sin is sin and God's people have a duty of care to not turn a blind eye but to address issues such as these, however there is a right way to go about it using righteous judgement.
Where do we go to find this righteous judgement? We do not easily find it in the world. Come with me and you will see. Once we determine that we will follow Christ after conversion we become very conscious of sin. We strive to discern what is right and what is wrong by lining up everything we think, say and do with examples in the Bible. Gone are the days for us first generation Christians where we just did what was right in our own eyes in supposedly blissful ignorance of "live and let live" while believing we were good people by acceptance of others in mutual tolerance -- after all we did want to be liked so we compromised to the point we became so desensitized that we could no longer see what was wrong with what we were doing. We thought we were operating with love towards others but how wrong we were! Inevitably our minds became perverted as we chose sin and a sinful lifestyle as it felt so good. Thankfully God rescued us out of the world and from ourselves in order to completely change our ways and then we came to realise on some level the depths of our depravity at the hands of the wiley devil, the father of lies (Matthew 8:44).
Now here we are and we need to be able to know for sure by proving it to ourselves whether we are to judge others or not. Either way there is a choice to make and we must make the correct choice. Firstly, let us determine what we already know for sure. Christians realise that scripture interprets scripture and no scripture should be taken in isolation as that is not the way to go about matters written in a supernatural book full of God breathed inspiration of instructions for us to live by. Hopefully all can agree on this point. If we read the next verse from Matthew 7:2 we will get a little more of the context of just what Christ was teaching which says "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you". Alright then we can rightly determine that humans will judge to make sense of the world around them and Christ was saying the judgement we give is not necessarily right. Christ knew we would judge and He wants us to judge but righteously and that takes lifelong practice for the time ahead when the Firstfruits, God's Saints will be judging even the angels. Therefore we need to consider things a little more deeply by using wisdom rather than let our immediate thoughts and emotions take over, as these can be harsh in circumstances where we may not have all the information before us. This does not mean we compromise in any way, but this concept of judgement has more below the surface than first meets the eye. Of all people Jesus Christ was repeatedly judged wrongfully, so we must study how Christ judged others as we know we have a strong desire to become like Him. What I have come to learn throughout the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is that Christ would say to people "go your way and sin no more". This is righteous judgement. There is SO MUCH stated in that short statement. The statement has two distinct parts. “Go your way” basically tells the sinner to live life without letting guilt rip them apart. “Sin no more” tells the sinner that he/she was doing the wrong thing, and needs to change. In other words, a judgment has been made. A RIGHTEOUS judgment! This is how we love others, as we are our brother's keeper (Genesis 4:8-10, James 5:16). Christ let them know that what they were doing was wrong and sinful but He also let them know He loved them. Simple, effective, meaningful, and necessary.
Up until now I have wanted to helpfully reply to all those like Ezmerelda who is young in the faith and still on milk (1 Corinthians 3:1-2 and 1 Peter 2:2) when speaking about matters pertaining to judgement, but instead have been dissatisfied with my answers feeling like I have dropped the proverbial "hot potato" and it was not picked up as way too hot to touch. So it's back to the Bible where further along in the book of Corinthians we have Paul the Apostle writing matter-of-factly as he often does with a timely reality check in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 stating "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?" What does this scripture speak to but of judgement now in every day matters in order to prepare for judgement of the world. Surely you do not expect to go about just thinking of yourself because we are all certainly our brother's keeper. We must be kind and tender hearted with babes in Christ helping them to understand how to judge rather than react to Matthew 7:1 as the heathen do. Obviously we do not go about telling people in the world they are sinning, however when family or friends come to me asking what they should do when facing a dilemma, that is when the opportunity presents itself to inform them of what is right and then provide a simple explanation of why I gave this answer by referring to the Bible. The choice is up to them and prayers are said to God in support of loved ones.
Discerning rightly is our responsibility in all matters pertaining to judgement. We need to line up all issues against the pure filter of our Bible to determine what is the correct way to proceed and we take great notice of how Christ treated others when they sinned, when they had dilemmas, when they were faced with every day life choices. He prayed for them, He dealt with the matter at hand by lovingly caring about them and how they should live their life. He never said "Go your way and do as you see fit or do as you like and I will mind my own business because it is too hard to get involved and nobody should interfere in anyone else's life". To the contrary Jesus cared, He spoke with authority with succinct solutions leaving the final decision to those He directed in love. We are to do all that, including judgement in love. Of course we take all matters to God our beloved Father in prayer and seek His direction. We may also fast showing God how much we care for our dear brethren and those we love.
John 7:24 reveals "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgement.” This is the true template for judgement in order to be Christ-like for this is the high standard, God's standard. Eternal judgement is another matter reserved for God. The next time someone says to you "Who are you to judge me?" we should humbly look at ourselves first to determine whether we are hypocritical by covering up our own behaviour. This is referenced by the speck and plank standards of judgement written immediately following the initial verses quoted above in Matthew 7:1-2 -- then we continue on in 3-5. We can come to realise that we need to be led by God's Spirit of humility and sincerity exercising judgement with mercy and compassion, lining up with the 10 Commandments which are the standard, and not what we may think. We go to our brother or friend and tell them to stop their self destructive behaviour as we are truly bound to point this out otherwise we are complicit. We tell them we love them too much to be quiet or ignore what is going on (Proverbs 27:6, 28:23, Galatians 6:1). Righteous judgement is in no way anywhere near condemning a person. These principles are not the same, nor should we ever confuse them. The next time an Ezmerelda says to me "Do not judge" then I will ask "Are you talking about righteous judgement or God's eternal judgement?" because it seems as though people confuse these two.
Finally, have you considered that nowhere does Christ say anything in His warnings to us in the book of Revelation about the 7 Churches regarding our judgement of others. Notice that scripture does not say "I have this against you, that you tried to practice righteous judgement but failed, or indeed any type of judgement". Instead the admonitions are about different matters entirely and the first one pertains to loss of our first love in Revelation 2:4; then you can read for yourself the rest of the warnings in Revelation 2:14-15; Revelation 2:20; Revelation 3:1-3; and Revelation 3:15-16. We need to be very careful about how we read, learn, and study the Bible in order to be able to address all topics, even the misunderstood ones such as judgement, and yet we will be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us if we heed the words of Paul in Philippians 4:13.