“Judge not!” It’s our culture’s favorite Bible verse catch phrase and is regularly used against believers who are standing up for what God’s Word claims as truth. Yet, do we really understand the implications of this or have we looked into what the Bible teaches about judging others? To “judge” simply means to evaluate someone or something against a standard. It is a means of measuring or grading a person’s knowledge or actions. While you may not think of it in these terms, nearly every facet of our lives is subject to judgment. In school, children are judged on tests as to whether the answers they give measure up to the correct ones. In social settings, we are judged according to our ability to live up to the social graces of our culture. Coaches are constantly judging the individual talents and abilities of those on the team to determine how they need to improve. We determine whether to buy something online based on the judgments (i.e. ratings) made about the product from others. Our employers judge us when they determine if we deserve a raise or promotion (or not). As you can see, we are surrounded by a system in which judging others, being judged and relying on judgments plays a vital role in most of our lives.

Making judgments is what the Bible calls us to do as well in the spiritual and moral realm. Here, God’s Word is the established and absolute truth and we are called to evaluate our own lives and the morality of our culture in light of that standard. In other words, we are called to judge!

Of course, the context of Matthew 7:1 continues with the Jesus developing this teaching further, saying – “How wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:3-4). The imperative is still to judge, but to do it with humility and without hypocrisy. So in judging others, we must first search our own hearts in humility. We must ask the Lord to show us our deficiencies and not have a hypocritical spirit in our judgment. Once we have done these things, having our own heart right with God, we Don “speaking the truth in love”, so that our brother or sister “may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). A humble, unhypocritical and loving spirit will not be about condemning someone – it will be about pointing them back to Christ.

A second principle for judging others comes from John 7:24 which tells us to “judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” In other words, we aren’t to make quick judgments about people on the basis of whether their personal style, preferences, or decisions are what we like or dislike. Judgment should not be based on personal preference, but upon whether the Bible commends or condemns what we see. While we don’t see the heart of people, the Bible does tell us that the heart produces words and actions that reveal it. “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19).

Finally, in 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 the Apostle Paul tells us that “it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment… he that judgeth me is the Lord.” While judging each other is a way to hold people accountable and encourage them to follow God’s truth, there is a higher authority – a righteous judge – who will settle the case once and for all. One day we each will give an account to Jesus for the inner thoughts of our heart as well as the outward behaviors we have endorsed. In light of this coming judgment from Christ, we need to view the judgments of each other as that which can encourage us to make the changes in our lives to prepare us for that great day of judgment.

So, making judgments is not only acceptable but it is commendable in the life of a believer. We are called to judge, but we are to do it biblically, humbly, unhypocritically, lovingly, and impartially in order to keep each other accountable before the Lord’s perfect standard of righteousness and true holiness. After all, He is going to hold us to that standard one day when we are accountable before Him. What are we not to do? Don’t be judgmental. This only produces resentment and division. We can be good judges, applying God’s Word to our own lives and to our culture without resorting to personal attacks or “holier-than-thou” attitudes which don’t represent Christ. As Christians, we are to hold the standard of God’s Word. That may mean that we sometimes have people resent us and we may even be accused of being judgmental, but we must never let that dissuade us from being the judges that Christ has called us to be.