On Judging

[preyoflove]

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye. Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces…” (Matthew 7:1-6)

This is one of the most difficult passages to me to this day. How does Mother Church interpret this passage? Exactly what kind of “judging” is our Lord referring to here and why is he forbidding us to judge in this way? Is there anything I can read elaborating this passage? Thank you already.

Shalom, amen.

 

[Christy_Beth]

I can speak of this only from my own point of view. Basically, the “judging” spoken of here is the derogatory kind. You know, when your nose is stuck up so far that when it rains, you have the risk of drowning. You see someone who has cheap clothing and think, “What’s THAT person doing in church? Don’t they have any pride? How dare they come here dressed like that!”

Or, sometimes it’s over someone’s behavior. Or maybe even their past. “Gee, did you know that (whoever) was in jail THREE TIMES?” “That woman there had a baby out of wedlock, what a tramp?”

I think you get the idea. We think we are better than those people. But we will be judged even more harshly by God when our time comes. But if we reach out for those people in love instead of judging them, then we will be shown more mercy.

There is a kind of judging that is allowed however. Say you see someone you know walking to his/her car drunk, with the keys in their hand, you should step in and not let them drive. That kind of judging will save that persons life. Or, say a woman with several children is left by her husband with an empty bank account a a huge pile of bills. In that case, it would be considered appropriate to hold him responsible.

Have I made any sense?

 

[Gerry_Hunter]

Most of the difficulty in the passage comes from an over-application of “judging.”

There is no call to abandon one’s judgement. But there is the definite denial of a mandate to pronounce judgement on others. We are always called to discernment, but never to indifference.

Let’s assume an embezzler joins the parish, just let out on parole. Judgement (in the passage) would be to shun him, and exclude him utterly from parish life. An abandonment of discernment would be to appoint him parish treasurer the day after he got there.

One popular Christian writer (not a Catholic) used this image. We are not to be judges, but we are appointed fruit inspectors. And an inspection of the above new parishionner’s fruit would indicate that it does not belong in the treasurer’s basket. However, we would have a duty, as Christians, to help him in any efforts he made to produce good fruit.

Blessings,

Gerry

 

[baltobetsy]

You have two excellent replies already, but I’d like to add a couple of thoughts.

We can judge actions, but not dispositions. In fact, we must judge actions; otherwise how would we form our own behavior? We know that some actions are good and praiseworthy and others are evil. If we observe someone committing an evil act, we may (must) say, “That is an evil act.” We may not say, “That person is a bad sinner and will surely go to hell.” We have no idea whether the person is in complete control of his faculties while he commits this evil act, or whether he even knows it’s wrong. We have no way of knowing whether he is responsible for the action, and therefore, cannot judge his dispositions.

I think the “judge not, lest you yourself be judged” warning is that, if we decide for ourselves, in the most negative way possible, that a person committing an evil act is a bad sinner, we have committed a sin ourselves, leaving ourselves open to God’s judgment. That sin is called rash judgment, by the way.

Betsy

 

[Teresa9]

2 [1] This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults of others, which would be hardly compatible with Matthew 7:5, 6 but against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one’s own faults.

3 [5] Hypocrite: the designation previously given to the scribes and Pharisees is here given to the Christian disciple who is concerned with the faults of another and ignores his own more serious offenses.

usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew7.htm

God Bless you and much peace to you xxx