One of the most famous of the several *“do not judge” *passages are found at Matthew 7:1-3
Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own…"
In this passage we see three kinds of judgment we are not to do:
- **Judgment of Condemnation ****: **
*“For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged…” *
Judgment in this passage is referring to condemning (that is, “pronouncing” judgment on a person’s soul). We are not the “Judge” to pronounce condemnation on anyone (not even ourselves). Only God can do that. The Church, for example, never pronounces “anyone” in hell. The Church can and does, however, make an assessment (or judgment) of a person as a Saint. This is declared only by special dispensation of the Holy Spirit granted to the Church by her authority of the “keys”. But even with this authority, we need to note that it is never applied to judging a person in hell. If the Church, who has the authority of the keys will not judge a person to condemnation, how can we? We are never to judge a person’s state of soul. Jesus tells us that we will receive ourselves the judgment of soul that we place on others if we attempt this usurpation of God’s sovereignty.
- **Judgment from Double Standards ****: **
*"…and the measure you give will be the measure you get" *
When we use double standards for judgment-apply one measure to others and a different measure to ourselves-we commit a sin. Jesus says that we will not get by with such hypocrisy. The standards we apply to others will be applied to us as well.
- **Judgment from Self-Righteousness ****: **
*“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own…” *
The last sentence of this passage refers to seeing sins in others but not in oneself. This is self-righteousness (another form of hypocrisy).
In this Scripture, Jesus does not say that we cannot judge. He says that we are not to judge in the manner of presuming condemnation on another or to make judgments borne from hypocrisy (double-standard or self-righteousness).
In verse 5 Jesus continues: *“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” *
Taking the speck out of our brother’s eye is not condemned in itself. Hypocritical judgment is what Jesus condemns.
We can immediately see that Jesus is not condemning judgment *in-and-of-itself *by reading the very next verse:
*“Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.” *
Dogs? Swine? How are we to know who is a dog or a swine? We cannot take Jesus’ advice, which is advice for self-protection (e.g. when Jesus said the swine will “turn to attack you”), if we do not judge a person, that is, to identify a person as a metaphorical “dog” or “swine.”
The trick, however, is to identify who are the dogs and swine?
- Verse 15 gives us one clue when it talks about false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing.
- Verse 21 Jesus talks about people calling to him, “Lord, Lord” yet some of these will not enter heaven. They will not enter heaven because despite their calling upon the name of the Lord, they are people who refuse to do God’s will.
- Verse 26 tells us more about these people. They are people who do not just fail to follow God’s will, but who actively disobey the teachings of Jesus and thus they build their house on sand (and that includes disobeying the Church, who has been given authority to speak infallibly and definitively in Jesus’ name to the faithful-when the Church speaks, Jesus speaks)…"
"…And finally, St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 that some people must be excommunicated-completely removed from fellowship and handed over to Satan. Paul specifically says:
*“I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing… you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” *
This form of judgment (excommunication), by the way, is one reserved to the Church and is not a personal judgment exacted by the faithful.
Jesus, Himself, calls for this formal judgment on the part of the Church in Matthew 18:15-18.
As we have seen, the idea that we are not to judge is a lie.
We cannot judge a person’s state of soul, of course. We cannot condemn him. We are also not to judge out of hypocrisy. But we are to make proper judgments, borne out of love, to admonish a sinner in order to encourage him to repentance. That is the goal, to save the sinner’s soul, to lead him to repentance.
We are to make judgments of behavior, attitudes, and ideas in order to protect our loved-ones and ourselves from danger. People who practice such dangerous and sinful behaviors, or have such dangerous attitudes and ideas, we are to avoid. We cannot follow this advice until and unless a judgment has been made that such people are of the type the Bible tells us to avoid.
The idea we are not to judge is a doctrine of demons.
Satan would love us to avoid making judgments. If he can convince us of this, sin can abound without criticism and we could continue in our sin without accountability and the philosophies of Satan can contaminate all of us with impunity unchecked and unchallenged.
Oh, how Satan loves those who think we are not to judge and those who think Jesus was a love-freak hippie from the 60’s.
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