Two Kinds of Judgment

Many parts of the Sermon on the Mount have entered our cultural lexicon. Sometimes phrases like “the meek shall inherit the earth,” “turn the other cheek,” and “a city on a hill” are quoted by people who have no clue of their origin in Jesus’ sermon. Perhaps the verse most cited by non-Christians is Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge.” In this case, however, many people do know Jesus said it and will quote the command back to his followers who often seem the least interested in obeying it.

The straightforward prohibition against judgment is a favorite because it fits the spirit of our age that sees all choices as valid and all values as equally noble. To those with only a soundbyte knowledge of Scripture, taking Matthew 7:1 out of context makes Jesus seem like a postmodern relativist with no interest in the behavior of others. Of course, anyone who has listened to his sermon up to this point would know that is lunacy. After all, in the previous two chapters Jesus had a lot to say about greed, lust, anger, divorce, hypocrisy, generosity, and non-violence. So, how can the command to not judge sit alongside Jesus’ many moral and ethical commands?

The popularity of this verse stems from a misunderstanding of what it means to judge. F.F. Bruce, a New Testament scholar, explains the problem this way. “Judgment is an ambiguous word, in Greek as in English: it may mean exercising a proper discernment, or it may mean sitting in judgment on people (or even condemning them).” Therefore, we must be clear about what kind of judgment Jesus forbids if we are to properly understand and apply this part of the sermon.

On the one hand, to judge can mean to discern or differentiate between things, as in “I judged the red car to be in better condition than the blue one.” If Jesus meant for us to avoid acts of discernment, it would render all of his teachings, not to mention all of Scripture, meaningless. Let’s remember that in the same sermon where he says, “do not judge,” he also calls his followers to judge between right and wrong and good and evil (see Matthew 7:15–20).

The second meaning of judge is to sit in a place of superiority to condemn, or to declare another person is worthless. This is the sort of judgment Jesus warns us against. Those who belong to the kingdom of the heavens are to see other people from God’s point of view. That means we are to recognize them as valuable objects of God’s love, never beyond the reach of his care or redemption. So, when Jesus says, “Do not judge,” he is forbidding us from dehumanizing condemnation. It is never our role to pass final judgment upon another person, or declare them to be irretrievably guilty and without any value.

What do these two kinds of judgment look like in practice? Our world is a very broken place, and sometimes we must identify injustice, greed, violence, and evils of many kinds, as well as the people and systems that perpetrate them. That requires the discerning sort of judgment. But we must not allow this to descend further into the judgment that condemns. That means seeing in those who practice evil a reflection of ourselves, and believing that, as someone made in God’s image, they carry inherent worth.

Daily Scripture

Matthew 7:1–5

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Weekly Prayer

From Ashton Oxenden (1808–1892)

God, I want your guidance and direction in all I do. Let your wisdom counsel me, your hand lead me, and your arm support me. I put myself into your hands. Breathe into my soul holy and heavenly desires. Conform me to your own image. Make me like my Savior. Enable me in some measure to live here on earth as he lived, and to act in all things as he would have acted.

Amen.