To Judge or Not to Judge

Matthew 7:1 has surpassed John 3:16 as the most recognizable Bible verse in the world. It is a popular weapon that non-believers like to throw at believers when a Christian tries to point out that such-and-such a thing is immoral. "Judge not, that you be not judged." And, of course, it is equally true that the notion that this phrase means "Do not call into question any moral values" is utter nonsense.

Why? Well, most simply, the very next passages says, "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt 7:5). In other words, you do need to take the speck (error) out of others' eyes (and that obviously requires judgment). Jesus immediately goes on to warn "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you" (Matt 7:6). In other words, you need to judge two things: 1) what is "holy", and 2) who are "dogs" or "pigs". No, no, to suggest that Matthew 7:1 is a command to stop followers of Christ from recognizing sin when they see it is utter nonsense.

There is, however, a real need to avoid some other types of judgments that come so easily to us. James talks about an example of the types of judgment of which I speak.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4).

This is a distinction based on appearance. In this example, someone sees the rich guy and thinks, "This guy is more worthy of my attention that the poor guy." James calls it "judges with evil thoughts".

You have to admit ... we all do it. "Look how big she is! She must really eat a lot! Obviously she doesn't care about her appearance!" And she's shunned. Or "Did that kid really intend to look like that when he left the house? Doesn't he know how bad he looks with the tattoos and the piercings and the pants that ride below his boxers?" And he's shunned. Most of us routinely determine "He looks like a homeless guy; I think I'll avoid him" or "This girl looks like trouble." We also routinely do the opposite. "He looks like he takes care of himself and is well-dressed and well-mannered; he probably knows what he's talking about." "Well, I've seen her at church every week and she always seems to nice. I'm sure she knows Jesus." In both types of cases, we look at the outside and ascribe character traits and motives without genuine cause.

We all know "You can't judge a book by its cover" ... and we all do it. We all ought to stop. (I use "ought" there in the moral imperative sense.) You don't know the real reason why she is overweight or he is poorly dressed or she has a tattoo or he has been attending church all this time. We ought to avoid judgment (positive or negative) based on these things. (We really need to spend time with these folks to figure this stuff out -- hint, hint, nudge, nudge.)

It is foolhardy and arrogant when we withhold judgment of sin. God said it is sin; we would be idiots to disagree. It is equally foolish to judge on the basis of appearance. God doesn't (1 Sam 16:7). Let's see if we can work on judging rightly rather than stereotypically.