Isaiah Roman

Judge Not Lest You Be Judged

There has been much said on subject of judging; but, as the saying goes “when all is said and done usually there is a great deal more said than done.” (Ancient Proverb). The controversy among Christians comes from the verse which tells us “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Most people approach the concept of judgment from a defensive, or negative aspect. “Don’t judge me.” “You shouldn’t judge others.” This idea comes from a relativistic concept of right and wrong, where my “right” may not be applicable to someone else’s view of what is right.

The way to turn that around is to take the positive aspect, to go on the offensive. If you don’t judge, but rather discern judgments according to the judgments already decreed in God’s law (first in your own life, then in the lives of others) before daring to speak to others you will not be judging at all.

“Judge not, and in no way be judged1” does not mean that you shouldn’t make judgments. In fact, in order to remain free from judgment, you must judge which actions might lead to being judged. However, when judgment is made; certain that it is done “in love” and the object or intent of the judgment is not to justification, but the edification of the person on whom judgment is passed, that judgment is righteous.2

What if the intent of this discourse in scripture is not that you shouldn’t judge, but rather that if you judge, you should be prepared to be judged? What if it is intended to remind us that we should “first cast out the beam” from their own eyes before we “cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye,3” but yet still cast the mote out of our brother’s eye?

The Apostle Peter has written in the inspiration of the Spirit of God and Christ, “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17)

The answer to Peter’s question is simple. They that disobey the gospel will take the defensive position and effectually judge you while making accusations against you for judging them. Knowing that the best defense is a good offense, the unrighteous will attack before their opponent has an opportunity to expose them.

Here then is the crux; “obey the gospel of God.” If judgment falls on those who do not obey the gospel of God4 then what of those who do obey? You are then subject to the judgment of God (the long suffering, gracious, righteous, omniscient Judge), in the love of God, through the blood of the Son of God. This is the point of truth; “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.5” But, if each person judged himself according to God’s law there is a way to not be rightly judged unrighteous. Through your obedience to the gospel, the Judge of the universe has proclaimed you justified before His throne.

The sinner has already been judged by God at the inception of sin6. “The wages of sin is death.” There are two different words in the original language which are interchangeably called “judging” when translated to English. Each word represents both the legal aspect (as in a court of law) and discernment (to perceive or recognize righteousness). In the case of the Christian, God’s law7 is “The gift of God… eternal life through Jesus Christ” and “There is one that seeks and judges…8” (John 8:50b). God legally judges according to a righteous discernment. If you establish and keep the correct relationship with Him you cannot rightly be judged unrighteous.

“He [Jesus] said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.

Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mite” Luke 12: 54-59.

The letter from James is difficult for the Christian. Not many preachers use it for text without parsing it. Perhaps that is the reason for its harshness. Truth is harsh in that it is fixed; it can’t be changed, but only acknowledged and accepted. It can’t be argued or altered. The truth is softened however, when the Christ is taken into consideration. He bore the full brunt of God’s justice toward mankind. He paid the full price for its rigor.

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door”9 (James . 5: 1-9).

“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 
If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.10 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.11

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6).

1. Judge not, and in no way be judged. Do not condemn, and in now way will you be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37
2. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” Matthew 7:12).
3. Matthew 7:6-7
4. In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: II Thessalonians 1:8
5. I Corinthians 11:31
6. John 3:16-19, John 12:44-50
7. At times in scripture the word law refers to the whole of scripture at others to the law as it was recognized by Israel as Moses Law from Mt. Sinai. Contextual consideration must apply as to which is which.
8. “He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27).
9. “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lies at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” (Genesis 4:7).
10. If among those that judge there are some such as these described here, unless they repent and confess Christ they shall be destroyed in the final judgment. It would have been better for them had they never been born.11 “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church:(Ephesians 5:29)