What Does "Judge Not" Mean in the Bible?

Has anyone ever said to you, you shouldn't judge other people? And then they will read Matthew 7, verse 1, and it says, judge not so that you are not judged. Have you ever had that happen to you? In other words, who are you to judge others? And today, the slogan, live and let live and don't judge others, fits society quite well.

They say, oh, that's only your opinion about things. Many universities teach this attitude, saying, everything is relative. What you say is right only in your own eyes. It's like we are in the times of the book of Judges where it said in the last verse of that book, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 21-25. That's why it's so important to properly understand what Matthew 7, verse 1 really means and what it doesn't mean. Notice, for instance, that Jesus said something very different. In John 7, verse 24, he said, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. So which is it?

Do we judge not or do we judge with righteous judgment? So we have here what is called a difficult scripture. It's a biblical puzzle to solve. And I personally love difficult scriptures because it makes me do a lot of research. It's like a detective story that you're reading and all of these different changes and whether it's lots of twists and turns. Until finally at the end everything is resolved. You've found a solution. So judging is something very important in the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testament.

And so what was Christ actually referring to? It's such a fascinating subject and it applies to us. So somebody comes and says, oh, you shouldn't judge others. And that means that you should just step back and don't do anything. That's not the right way to do things. But let's look at four biblical reasons to properly understand this scripture in Matthew 7, verse 1. Judge not that you be not judged. So as we have biblical tools to be able to research, to examine these things, one of the first biblical tools when you have a difficult scripture is go and notice what Christ said about scripture.

So let's look at the overall view because it's not one of these detective Colombo type stories, right? Where everything is written out and solved at the end. Because human beings have many crimes that are unsolved. But this is the important thing, what Christ said about God's Word. In John chapter 10, verse 35, he said, scripture cannot be broken. That means that it can't be found to be false, can be found to be contradictory in its true sense with the rest of the scriptures. The amplified Bible has it scripture cannot be undone or annulled or broken.

Another translation, easy reading version, says scripture is always true. So Christ could bank on that. He could use God's Word because it was inspired by God. In the Bible knowledge commentary mentions about this verse, Jesus added to his argument the words quote, and the scripture cannot be broken. Close quotes. So no one could evade its force by saying an error was in the scripture. This important text clearly points to the inerrancy, which means the infallibility of the Bible. I would add in its original version, as it was inspired by God, copies, you're going to find some grammatical mistakes, sometimes copyists, but we have 5000 different documents over the years.

So you can compare and see, oh yeah, here's where the person misspelled this word. But in the original God made sure it was infallible, inerrant, which means without error. So secondly, let's look at the definition of this word, judge. And how broad is it? It's a very broad meaning in both the Old and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the word for judge is sapat, and it means to judge or govern. It expresses every function of government, executive, legislative, and judicial. So it talks about the judges in the book of Judges.

It didn't mean, oh, they just went and had a court. People would come and just he would decide. No, they actually governed. So sometimes in our modern world, we think everything is divided into branches. Legislative, executive, judicial. But in the Old Testament and the New Testament, God is the one in charge. And he doesn't need us to legislate or to pass the judgments. He put it down in his word. And that's where we use it as our basis for evaluating and judging things.

So there wasn't a democracy either in the Old Testament and New Testament. There was a theocracy. God was the ultimate ruler, and he could assign people to different functions, but he never withdrew from his responsibility. Now, in the New Testament, the Greek verb for judging is krino. K-R-I-N-O. Krino. And this is where we get the word critic or criticism. That C-R-I-T comes from this family of words, krino.

So it's a good word to remember. It can mean, according to the expository dictionary of Bible words, to judge, evaluate, or decide. With the context helping to determine if it's a process of judging or the outcome, the sentence. See, krino can be all of these things. So which one was it? The one that was applied to Matthew 7 verse 1. Very interestingly, there's a parallel passage. So Christ mentioned this twice in the Gospels. Let's go to Luke chapter 6 verse 37.

He said here, do not judge and you will not be judged. That's what's mentioned in Matthew 7. But here it says, and do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. So Christ clarified that he wasn't talking about judging as far as just don't evaluate things. No, he's talking about condemning. And that term condemning from cata di caso means to pronounce someone guilty.

Become a judge. To be judgmental, a harsh critic. Condemn. That is what Christ is talking about. Not applying discernment because the Bible tells us in the Old End, we have to discern. By their fruits you will know them. How can you do evaluate if you can't discern things? So only God can correctly judge all the motives that are going on. We can't. We can see some of the effects. But only God can see exactly what's happening. The motives behind the incident. In James chapter 4 verse 11, let me change here for a moment.

James chapter 4. Starting in verse 11. It says, The word of the term, crino, is used here by James. In the Knowledge Bible commentary, it says, The slander is sentenced by the law. The law judges it. The self-styled judge is jeopardized by the law. Only the humble person is honored.

True justice is rendered when a believer subjects himself to God in humility and obedience. So that's the proper attitude to have. It tells us in Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. I'd like to read that in the Passion Translation. Galatians 6 verse 1 is a warning on how to deal with a situation that's difficult. It says, The person is very judgmental. That's the term for harsh type of judgment.

Many times, a person is not looking at themselves. Well, I'm a sinner too. I make mistakes too. I'm being judged by God too. So it tells you, if you have to correct a person, do it with gentleness. Not like you're high and above them. You're this ultimate judge and all righteous. No, we're brothers. We have to talk with each other with humility, with care. So that's a basic definition that we have. Creo can apply to many different types. And Christ here was focusing on condemning a harsh judgment. Now, why was Christ introducing this in the Sermon on the Mount?

Because the Sermon on the Mount is chapters 5, 6, and 7. And here in chapter 7, Christ deals with this. Very important to see to whom Christ was primarily talking about in this Sermon on the Mount. He was denouncing a particular group who felt empowered to severely condemn others. Who was he mainly talking about? Well, let's look on the Sermon on the Mount. He was contrasting the difference of attitude of a person with God's Spirit and those who generally were pretenders. Mostly the unconverted but proud scribes and Pharisees who were persecuting him and his disciples.

Remember, he's showing the contrast. Notice some examples in Matthew 5, verse 11. He mentions the following. He says, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Well, we're talking about Israel in those days. Not talking about Gentiles. It was the Pharisees and the scribes who were attacking Christ and his disciples and attributing to him. In some cases, saying he has a demon or he's falsely.

See how they were judgmental and here Christ's healing people right and left. And there's, well, we can't believe him judgmental. See, they were looking at something so pure and good. And they looked at it and said, well, he's endangering our position. He's endangering our way of doing things. So we have to slander him. We have to create falsehoods and lies to get back at him. Notice in verse 17, he said, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. The word here means to fill to the fullest. So you see, if Pharisees, we don't know he's a lawbreaker.

He's not following this. So again, how were they judging? Wrongly. They weren't judging according to God's law, but according to their interests. He goes on to say in verse 20, he said, for I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. So that's a very strong judgment, Christ is saying. He's saying these men who are supposedly the leaders of Judaism, and they're there in the synagogues preaching and all of this, but actually they're still not converted people in the great majority, and they were attacking him.

So the righteousness that they had, just like today, and we know many rabbis and dedicated men, but would you say, well, do they have God's Spirit working in them? Because if they did, they would have understood about Christ. They would have accepted him. They've rejected him all this time, almost 2,000 years.

And let's go to verse 21. The next verse, he says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. In other words, the Pharisees said about the sixth commandment here, well, as long as you don't physically murder somebody, I mean, you can murder him with your thoughts, you can murder him with your words, but as long as you don't kill him, well, you're not in judgment.

You don't have to worry about that. And what did Christ say? In contrast to the Pharisees and the scribes and what they taught, he said, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. So again, what kind of verdict are you saying about that person?

Notice what this scripture is mentioned in the Amplified Classic Bible. It says, but I say to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice, in other words, enmity of heart against him, shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the court.

And whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother shall be liable to and unable to escape the punishment imposed by the Sanhedrin. And whoever says you cursed fool, you empty-headed idiot, shall be liable to and unable to escape the hell or gehenna of fire. And so it's not just talking about an off-remark. It's talking about intentional. You are looking at that person's heart, you're looking at that person's mind, and absolutely insulting him as a person.

Let's continue to look a little further in Matthew. In Luke chapter 18, let's go to Luke chapter 18 verse 9, we have a typical example of how a Pharisee looked at others and judged others. They thought they had a right to judge and condemn others. After all, they were so good before God.

In Luke chapter 18 verse 9, it said, Also, he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. And believe me, this hasn't changed over 2,000 years. Self-righteousness is still one of the worst spiritual diseases because it's one that people can't really see very well at all. But one of the things it does is it looks down on others, despised others.

He said, Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up in prayer thus with himself. And he was just looking at all his lists of all the good things he did. Of course, God was going to reward him for it. He said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

So here's this other man. He's having his issues, but that Pharisee looked at him. Oh, look at this man. What's he doing in the temple? God's not going to listen to him. This man's evil. He's bad. And then he starts with his list. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Be a difference. That man knew he was a sinner. At first, he thought he'd already overcome. He already was righteous. And Christ said, I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified. God listened. God forgave. Rather than the other. God looked down on that man with anger because of that self-righteousness. For everyone who exalts himself, as that Pharisee did, will be humbled.

And he who humbles himself will be exalted. So here we're coming to understand why Christ said, be careful. Don't be so ready to impute motives and to just be the judge to determine that other person's fate. Because it says, as we will see, Christ gives four illustrations right here on Matthew 7. After he says that, then he uses four illustrations to let you know exactly what he meant. So again, we've gone from definition. We've gone into the, well, first of all, the overall.

We can trust Scripture completely. And then we have the definition. Then we look around what this term means in other contexts. Now let's go into Matthew 7 to see the immediate context. So Matthew 7, in verse 2. See, we are letting God explain things instead of trying to give our own opinions of things. So verse 1 says, judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

So here, the illustration are the scales of justice. You know, the two plates hanging. And here, what happens when you condemn others is, boy, you're pushing that scale. Look at all the evil. And then you're pushing your scale up. Oh, I'm so good in comparison. See, you're changing the true scales of justice here. And if you are severe toward others and their judgment, God's going to be severe with you when you are judged. Keep one finger here because we'll go to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. In verse 12, it says, so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

God's law provides liberty, freedom from sin. It provides that abundant life with no repercussions. It says, verse 13, for judgment is without mercy to those, to one who has shown no mercy. And mercy triumphs over judgment. So if we don't tip it, we should actually do it the opposite, where when we judge others, instead of lowering it and putting more weight, just raise it up. The bar should be higher when we judge others. And with us, we should push it down. Remember who you are.

Remember how many times we were forgiven. Let's be merciful. We need God's mercy. That's the way it works. So continuing in Matthew after that first illustration, let's see the second one in Matthew 7, verse 3 through 5. It says, and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your eye. Hippogrid first removed the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

So here's the picture of having a plank in your eye and the speck of sawdust in your neighbor's eye. And we look at it and we think he's got the plank and we just got that little sawdust. And so again, yes, we have to judge. But the point is, don't judge harshly. Don't do like the Pharisees and the scribes did with their self-righteousness. And a self-righteous person, you'll think everybody else is much worse sinners than I ever am.

And so God's happy with me. He's unhappy with others. But let's not do that. Let's start completely the opposite. Thanks to God, we are here. And He's forgiven us. And to be merciful to the other. And then in Matthew 7, verse 6, here's the next illustration about pearls. It says, do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces.

So you see, all of these require judgments, discernment. I can't judge. So I should just try to convert everybody. Whether they want to be converted or not, I hear the pearls of truth. I'm just going to give them to the people. They're not interested. And all you're going to do is make them even matter. And so here's the type of judgment where it deals with discernment, evaluating things carefully.

And the fourth one is in verse 15. Another type of judging that should take place. He says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit, although you can fake it pretty well. That's for sure. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. So this is the fourth illustration about the tree. By its fruits, not by the appearance of the tree. Many of them very beautiful, very green and luscious, but the tree has poisonous fruit. And you will pay dearly if you trust it that way. So the Bible commands that we not judge others, which means not being judgmental, but it doesn't mean you can't show discernment. Again, in John 7, 24, Christ said directly from the Amplified Classic Version, it says, Be honest in your judgment, and do not decide at a glance, superficially and by appearances, but judge fairly and righteously. Now, did Christ's disciples, did they judge when they took over? And the Apostle John and the Apostle Paul, what did they do? Well, certainly they judged, but they discerned. They weren't being harsh. They were dealing with things, as God's Word says, with mercy, but at the same time with firmness. Notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 5. Here we have a case where there was this attitude of, oh, we shouldn't judge this other person. We should just let them be. Let's look the other way because of the sin involved. Notice 1 Corinthians 5 verse 1. Paul says, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality is it is not even named among the Gentiles. That a man has his father's wife. So probably the wife was not the mother of the man, but that the father had married, and there was a stepmother because it says a father's wife. And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. And so they were just being tolerant. Oh, don't be judged. You have to judge, but not be judgmental. And he's saying, this is wrong. And so he says, There's the same word, crino.

Notice it says here in verse 2 that this deed might be taken away from you. He who has done this deed might be taken away. So that's what it's talking about there. In chapter 6, we have another case of judging in the congregation. Paul says in verse 1, There any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints, the rest of the membership, do you not know that the saints will judge the world? The word crino. And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge, again, crino, angels? How much more the things that pertain to this life? And so he's saying, look, you have to discern. You don't have to be out here being judgmental, but you have to deal with things. And that not only applies in the church, it applies in our own home. Wherever we are, we have to discern. We have to see by the fruits what is happening, not by the appearance of things. And so the Pharisees had fallen into this false way of judging, being judgmental, self-righteous, skewing the judgment, favoring their own situation, and then being very harsh to the others. This is what Christ mentioned when he denounced the Pharisees and the scribes in Matthew 23. Let's go to Matthew 23 in verse 23 and 24.

Verse 23, he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Again, there were judges, but they were always protecting themselves, always tipping the scale to benefit them, and then pushing the others to make it worse for others. He says, for you pay tithes of mint and anise and come in, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. In Luke 6, the parallel verse, it says, and the love of God, which is important to remember, not just justice and mercy and faith, but the love of God.

These you ought to have done, tithing and other things, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. So you see, they're exaggerating things that were very picky, and they were focusing on those things, but then they were swallowing the camel, which means the big issue. That happened with their judging Christ many times, even resurrecting a young girl from death. And still, they could not say, yes, this is a sign of the Messiahship and His teaching.

No, they could not accept it. They were straining at the technical gnat, walking through the fields on the Sabbath day. They didn't sit down and cook a whole lunch for them. No, they were eating just the seeds of wheat to be able to stave their hunger. But they said, oh, you're breaking the Sabbath. So you see, you're going to find that inside the church, and you're going to find it outside the church.

And so you have to learn to discern what is the key and central thing of things, and what is the peripheral. And that's where a lot of people know the peripheral is a key, and that's where you have many discrepancies. To me, what's vital is to be able to discern between the core issues and true nature of a matter and what are just peripheral, insignificant points. In other words, of not straining the technical gnat while swallowing whole the spiritual camel.

So the fourth point is, let's look at something really encouraging. How judging will take place when Christ comes back. That's when true righteous government and judgeship will take place. Let's look in Isaiah 11. We need Christ to come. Not only as King, but Judge. Remember, it's all one package. In Isaiah 11, verse 1, it says, It says, A rod from the stem of Jesse, which was David's father, so Christ came from a family of David, And a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, talking here about God the Father, who Christ was always respecting, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes.

Christ was not that type. No, decide by the hearing of his ears what people tell you, secondhand. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rot of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his wastes. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with a young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Verse 9, And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the sea.

So the knowledge of God, how God wants us to be righteous in the way we judge and discern things, applying his word properly in a balanced way, being able to edify others. And notice in Revelation chapter 20, verse 4, when Christ comes back, very interesting, the word that we have been focusing on so much is mentioned here in Revelation 20, in verse 4. The reward of the saints, it says, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment, krino in the Greek, was committed to them.

And then it goes on to say at the end, And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. See why you can be judging and at the same time it's talking about reigning? Because it includes the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. People will be given that opportunity because they'll be spirit beings.

They won't have human nature to corrupt them or corrode them. In conclusion, the word judge in Matthew 7, verse 1, in the context of the Sermon of the Mount is mainly contrasting true conversion with false Pharisaic conversion. Those who were harshly condemning Christ and the disciples. But there is a right way to judge, and that is to discern by the fruits what a person produces and then take the appropriate biblical action. But always leave the final judgment of the heart to God.

As Romans 14, verse 10, last scripture in the New Living Translation says, Romans 14, 10, So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.