“DON’T JUDGE. YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO JUDGE. THE BIBLE SAYS CHRISTIANS CAN’T JUDGE. IT’S WRONG TO JUDGE. YOU’RE NOT GOD. STOP FAITH-POLICING. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO JUDGE SOMEONE ELSE?”
That’s usually the go-to defense of atheists and people who don’t know any better (Christians included) when talking about morals, ethics, or behavior. The argument typically comes after you’ve told someone that a particular action of theirs is a sin when they yell out, “the Bible says you can’t judge me”. Where does this idea of not being allowed to judge another’s actions come from? Is it actually in the Bible? If it is in the Bible, is it understood in its proper context?
The phrase “judge not” is usually quoted in these conversations. They even quote the Bible, “Matthew 7:1 says that we aren’t allowed to judge others.” Unfortunately for atheists and other ignorant parties alike, that is NOT what the Bible says. Before I dive in, I want to split this discussion into three major parts. The first part is just a purely logical exploration of the idea that God commands us not to judge. The second part will be a cursory view of Matthew 7, where the “judge not” command allegedly comes from and seeing what Scripture really says. Part three will dive into specific scriptures that will show us what God actually says about judging and how we are supposed to understand righteous judging in relation to other people.
Part One – Logical Consistency
Let’s take the phrase “do not judge” the way that it is normally presented, as a command from God that no person is allowed to make any sort of moral, ethical, behavioral, etc. assessment of another person. In other words, let’s say the Bible really does say, “Do not judge”. We can test the idea of “not judging” by making an internal critique and asking a few questions.
Can a person have a friend? Obviously, a person can have a friend. How does one gain a friend, except by the evaluating of a person’s character and initiating a relationship with them. But if God commands us not to judge, how do we gain friends? How do we find spouses if we aren’t allowed to judge? If we aren’t allowed to judge, how would we even buy a car? We have to evaluate whether the car salesman has an accurate assessment of what he is trying to sell us, but if we aren’t allowed to judge a person’s character then we would be forced to purchase the car no matter the salesman’s character or his assessment of the value of the car.
Compare the “don’t judge” law against this Biblical passage:
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.”
2nd Corinthians 6:14-16a LSB
Paul, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us explicitly to NOT be yoked with unbelievers. How are we to determine if someone is an unbeliever if we are not allowed to judge them? If the “judge not” law is true, then it contradicts the command to not be yoked with unbelievers because in order to identify an unbeliever we would have to judge them by their character, morals, ethics, behavior, etc. The problem that arises is a plain contradiction between perceived commandments of God. In one way, we are commanded “not to judge” while also being told to judge. Since there is NO contradiction in the Bible and God would not contradict His own commands or character, then we can identify that there is something wrong with the “judge not” command. We can identify there is a problem with “judge not” because that’s not what the Bible is actually commanding.
Another problem with the “judge not” command that people throw around is also self-contradicting. They don’t want YOU to judge, but they are exercising judgment WHILE demanding that you not judge. They aren’t even internally consistent. It makes no sense, and you can safely ignore their demands.
Part Two – What Matthew 7 Really Says
The relevant section of Matthew 7 is verses 1 through 5. So I’ll copy it here:
“Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck our of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, 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.”
Matthew 7:1-5 LSB
Now, I would like to think that most people who read that paragraph understand plain English and realize that Jesus was not commanding us to not judge. Anyone who can read English will see the three magical words, “Do not judge,” but a careful reader will notice that the sentence isn’t completed yet which indicates there is more information relevant to the initial phrase. The second phrase of Matthew 7:1 (“so that you will not be judged”) and verse 2 make it painfully obvious that Jesus is NOT commanding us to not judge. He was telling us two things:
1.) He warns us that if we are going to judge, we should be prepared to be judged by that same measure. (7:1-2)
2.) Don’t be a hypocrite. (7:3-5)
It really is as simple as that. If you’re going to judge someone, make sure you’re not doing the very thing you’re critical of them doing. Jesus even says that if we remove the log from our own eye, we are then freed up to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. In other words, if you’re not a hypocrite then you can help remove the speck (read: judge) from your neighbor.
Jesus then tells us a few verses later IN THE SAME CONVERSATION in Matthew 7:15-20 to beware false prophets and that we will know false prophets by their fruit. If we are commanded not to judge, then assessing a false prophet by their fruit would be a contradiction. He tells us to judge righteously in Matthew 7.
We MUST read passages in their entirety and not cherry pick individual phrases and base our entire morality on something that Christ isn’t really saying.
Part Three – Should We Judge?
So after seeing that the “judge not” command isn’t in Scripture and doesn’t make sense logically and seeing that Matthew 7 literally is not telling us not to judge, what should we do when it comes to evaluating another person’s character, lifestyle, morality, ethics, and behavior? Are we allowed to? Should we?
The short answer is yes. However, there are a few guidelines that we must fall into in order to rightly exercise judgement.
First, when we “judge” others we must understand that we are not granting another person’s salvation. God is the ultimate judge and we can’t take His place as the One who grants salvation to someone. We should, however, ensure that when we judge others it lines up with God’s perspective so that we can guarantee a more accurate evaluation.
Second, when we judge others we must remember that we, too, once were sinners without salvation. The only thing that separates us from an unbeliever is that our eternity is secured in Christ and theirs is not [yet]. Judging is a skill that we must exercise to evaluate another person’s condition before God to exhort people to salvation. In other words, we are not judging others because we are better than someone else or trying to exercise some sort of superiority or authority over them. Our goal is their salvation.
The disciples and apostles and other believers all throughout the New Testament regularly judged the lifestyles of unbelievers in order to properly witness to them. Take Peter’s preaching in Acts 2:14-36. Peter judged those who were hearing him and rightly assessed them when he preached to them. It was that accurate judging of their sins that “pierced them to their heart”, leading to the salvation of three thousand people. But “judge not”, right?
Third, we must judge in order to ensure right theology, right doctrine, and right living amongst believers. The immediate passage that comes to mind is Jude 3-4. Jude exhorts us to “contend for the faith” and then spends his entire letter judging false teachers. When we contend for the faith, we are grappling with others on what the Christian faith really is, which requires the act of judging. When 1st Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready to “give a defense” for the faith, it requires us to judge what the real faith actually is. When 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” living according to the teaching, reproof, correction, and training requires an exercising of judgment. Paul himself says in Romans 16:17-18 that we should mark and avoid those who cause divisions and offenses that are contrary to righteous, Biblical doctrines. We can only identify those who we should mark and avoid when we judge people.
Conclusion
The fake “judge not” command is a symptom of just one of the problems with the average Bible reader: they don’t read entire passages in context. What they do is read one verse at a time, out of context, and expect the verse to speak for itself and present a standalone idea. Then they base an entire theology on something the Bible isn’t actually prescribing. The problem is that is rarely how ideas work. Ideas need expounding upon. Concepts need to be explained. And yes – I realize that I have used individual verses in this writing, but I challenge you to go read them in their literary context and see that those verses and passages still apply as I have presented them.
Today’s Bible reader does not have the necessary attention span or reading comprehension to rightly understand what is being said in passages like these. People are too caught up in “soundbyte theology” where they think entire doctrines can be summarized in ten words or less. Scripture demands more than that from us. God demands more than that from us. When the psalmist in Psalm 1:2 talks about how the blessed man delights in God’s word, he elaborates by saying that we should meditate on the Word – ‘mediate’ meaning a diligent and intentional study.
While I hear more atheists use the “judge not” command, believers and unbelievers alike get offended because they’re being corrected or challenged in their thinking or their beliefs or their lifestyle and are quick to whip out their “judge not” card. If only they were as quick to self-evaluate and see what the Bible really says.
Scripture References:
- Psalm 1:2
- Matthew 7:1-5
- Acts 2:14-36
- Romans 16:17-18
- 2nd Corinthians 6:14-16a
- 2nd Timothy 3:16-17
- 1st Peter 3:15
- Jude 3-4