To Judge or Not to Judge…

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another Proverbs 27:17

More frequently I’ve been noticing many Christians particularly through social media websites like Facebook mention that “we ought not to judge!” As if judgment is strictly for God to issue. It seems right though on a surface level, given that as Christians we know that God is holy, righteous and perfect in every way, therefore it does appear right for God to judge the sinner and the righteous one. Scripture does mention the topic of judgment and like all passages we ought to look at what it says of the topic in context.

“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. ² For with the judgment you use,^[a] you will be judged, and with the measure you use,^[b] it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. ⁶ Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces. Matthew 7:1-6

Now usually some Christians might stop at Matthew 7:1, but given that our God is not a God of confusion, He immediately explains what He means by the premise of His statement. Much like John 3:16 cannot be explained without the preceding verses nor can you explain Matthew 7:21-23 without the following explanation. So that said let’s examine what Christ is saying on the matter of judgment. From verses 1 – 5 Christ is mentioning that we ought not to judge hypocritically, that is for example to judge a brother whilst secretly engaging in the same sin. This isn’t to say we can’t judge at all, but that we shouldn’t judge hypocritically. An example of not judging hypocritically would be to say something like “hey brother, I love you and I need to tell you this. I noticed recently you’ve been engaging in lust. I personally know how difficult this is; let’s encourage one another in purity.” Now the person who engages in a judgment like this is not a hypocrite, rather someone who loves their brother and wants to encourage them in pressing on in the faith whilst using a biblical form of purity to strengthen one another.

So the bible doesn’t condemn the idea of using judgment altogether. In fact in the same passage I quoted, Jesus mentions in verse 6 “don’t give your pearls to pigs…” requiring us to make a judgment of who the proverbial pigs are and not to throw our pearls out to them. If we look further down the same chapter Jesus makes another statement about judgement.

“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. ¹⁶ You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. Matthew 7:15-20

Here Jesus is making a clear statement that false prophets are presently out to deceive people with their teaching. So Christ gives us a way to measure them knowing the fruit of what they produce. We’re called to make a judgment and to recognise good fruit from the bad.

The last form of judgment is possibly the most criticised of them all. That’s often because there’s generally a lack of understanding the biblical form of rebuking and what it means to rebuke in the first place. The one thing people ought to know about biblical rebuking is that it begins with love. The reason why anyone should come to a brother or sister and say “we need to talk about your sin…” should rest on the foundation of loving Christ and loving the individual. Christ himself gives us a model of what it means to rebuke.

“If your brother sins against you,^[h] go and rebuke him in private.^[i] If he listens to you, you have won your brother. ¹⁶ But if he won’t listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony^[j] of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.^{[k] 17} If he pays no attention to them, tell the church.^[l] But if he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever^[m] and a tax collector to you.  Matthew 18:15-17

Christ gives us a command to make a judgment on sin within the congregation. We’re called to be set apart and to be holy as our Lord is Holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). Therefore we as fellow believers ought to know this high calling by encouraging each other in the faith to press on in holy living. Now before anyone says “legalist!” so quickly I want to make it clear that we’re in the covenant of grace as Christians. But that in itself doesn’t give us a right to sin up a storm so to speak. Romans 6:1-4 is where Paul destroys that argument.

What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? ² Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way^[a] of life.

Our churches should be filled with biblically minded Christians who are ready to judge out of love for each other. These are Christians who are ready to call sin for what it is and to not be afraid to say “brother, we need to talk.” Let’s not leave judgment up to God on the final day; He’s called us to live a holy and pleasing life to Him. Let us sharpen each other as ‘iron sharpens iron’ and press on knowing that by judging one another out of love, we’re ultimately doing it all for His glory and to see a brother or sister repent.