Judge Not...

Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

¶ Matthew 7 : 1–2

This is one of the most well-known and quoted passages in the entire Bible. People that don’t even go to church know this verse, and most people use it as a defense against Christians being judgmental. There is a misunderstanding though with what this verse really means. Does this verse mean that we can’t tell someone when they are doing something wrong? NO! The Bible is always the standard, and if you are telling someone that what they are doing is wrong based on Biblical truth, then God’s Word has done the judging, not you. In fact, we are commanded to tell sinners of their need for repentance. Ezekiel 3:18 says, “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” If you fail to tell someone that they are sinning against God, and that they need to repent, then you will stand before God with their blood on your hands and answer to God why you didn’t tell them! You have a duty to tell everyone you know about Jesus, that is not being judgmental. If, however, you are basing your disapproval on your own judgment of right and wrong, then that is being judgmental. We tend to want to judge others more harshly than we want to be judged, and that is when it becomes a problem. We may speed down I-20 doing 90mph, but when someone speeds in an area that we don’t speed in, we think that they are crazy and deserve a ticket. This is why it is so important for Christians to live a life that is in accordance with what the Bible teaches. If our lives are no different from a person who is not a Christian, who never goes to church, and lives however they want to, if our lives are no different from theirs, then how can we tell them that they need to repent, they will simply look at us and say, you first!