What does the Bible say about judging others?

Quite a touchy subject isn’t it? People are always telling us “Don’t judge me!” Or “Only God can judge me!” What I’ve noticed is the people making these statements are usually the ones that are living sinful lifestyles. Notice I didn’t say those that sin on occasion, for we all do, but those that practice sin.

Let’s see what the bible has to say about it.

The word judge in the Greek is the word Krinō which means to divide, separate, make a distinction, come to decision, to give one’s opinion.

WHEN WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE

Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5 commands us not to judge if we’re in the following situation, “Judge not that ye be not judged. For with the same judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged and with that measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why behold the mote in your brother’s eye and consider not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Romans 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable O man, whosoever you are that judges; for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself for you that judges do the same things.

The instruction is very clear. In this instance, it would be unwise and foolish for someone to tell his brother you can not engage in pre-marital sex while you’re committing adultery on your wife. That person making the judgment is a hypocrite and has absolutely no right to judge his brother even though his brother is in sin. Once he can resolve his own matter and conquer his own sin once and for all, then he’s in a position where he can lovingly, and humbly help his brother with his problem because he can now see clearly and no longer has sin impeding him to make a non-hypocritical righteous judgment.

WHEN WE SHOULD JUDGE

I Corinthians 5 records a heinous event where a man is sleeping with his father’s wife, his stepmother. Instead of dealing with the matter, the Corinthians celebrated it instead of being sorrowful of such a wicked thing going on in their assembly. The apostle Paul was unhappy and rebuked the Corinthians for not exercising immediate church discipline. The act was so scandalous that not even the pagan nations (i.e. Gentiles) were engaged in such gross behavior (vs.1). Verse 3 says Paul had already judged the man who committed the wicked act, “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (I Corinthians 5:5). That is the holy judgment of God being exhibited. Very serious. The man’s flesh was out of control and if he was to remain in sin, it would be better if God’s hedge of protection is removed, and he becomes fodder for the devil. If he dies physically, his spirit would be saved in the day of Jesus’ return if he was a true believer. In verse 16 of the same chapter, Paul commands Corinth to excommunicate the man out of the Church. The purity of God’s church must be maintained so swift judgment had to be made due to the man’s unwillingness to repent of his sin of fornication.

So in the first instance, a rush to judgment was made when it should have been withheld because the judging party had a bigger problem than his brother. In the second account, swift judgment should have been administered by the Corinthian church and it was not; so Paul who was not there physically made the decision/judgment to demand the man’s removal from the assembly until he repents.

One last thought, the Church is not responsible for judging the unsaved but to evangelize them. God is the judge of the unsaved (I Corinthians 5:12).

We are to judge within the Church for judgment begins in the house of God (I Peter 4:17).