Matthew 7:1 NIV

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Are You Opinionated?

It is one of the most natural of all human behaviors, judging others. We may not let people in on what we are thinking but we are constantly critiquing and evaluating. We make determinations regarding the lectures of our professors, the performance of our servers at restaurants, the job done by our hair stylists and the conversational skills of those we meet at parties. We judge the effort given by our co-workers, the intelligence of our doctors, the creativity of our friends on Facebook and the friendliness of the clerks at supermarkets. We give everyone we meet a quick evaluation…how well they have dressed, how they smell and how they look. Often we pride ourselves on how accurately we assess others…their honesty, skill levels and worthiness of our time and friendship. Fans who have never played above fourth grade baseball somehow know more about baseball than major league managers and millions watching football on TV believe they would not have thrown the “stupid” interception or made the bad pass the point guard made because they are smarter than the players they are watching.

A part of being human is the capacity to judge the skill and effort of others as well as ourselves. Adam, even before he sinned, was given the task of naming all the animals based on his evaluation of them. We see in the Bible a number of examples of judging, evaluating and assessing the motives and decision making of friends and co-workers. King Saul famously decided that young David, his general, was a risk to Saul’s throne and that David’s popularity among the people of Israel might go to David’s head. Saul came to the conclusion that David was greedy for power and could not be trusted so he tried to kill him. Was Saul right in his determination? Did Saul see something in David that warranted his concern? Perhaps there was a smirk on David’s face when the women of Jerusalem sang about his exploits in front of King Saul. Maybe David was not as respectful in the way he addressed Saul as Saul thought he should have been. Whatever evidence Saul had though for judging David disloyal and a traitor, the King later realized it was not sufficient to warrant his mistrust. He later admitted to David, "You are more righteous than I," he said. "You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.”(1 Samuel 24:17 NIV)

One of the problems with judging others is that we may be dead wrong in our evaluations and a friendship or alliance that could have been wonderful and beneficial might be lost. Family relationships can be destroyed by our judging. Absalom, one of David’s sons became enraged when his half-brother Amnon raped his full-sister Tamar. Their father David didn’t do anything about the crime though despite being king and having the power to punish Amnon any way he wished. After three years, Absalom gained his vengeance on Amnon and had him murdered. This did not settle the account fully though in Absalom’s mind. He decided that David was wrong in this for not taking up the cause of his sister and thus not competent enough to be king, that he was an unfair and unjust ruler. He began to gather evidence that David was not just in his other dealings. Absalom interviewed men and their families as they entered Jerusalem on visits and asked them what they thought about the justice in the land with David as king. “Did he treat everyone fairly?” “Did David play favorites, only advancing the careers of those from Judah but disregarding the needs of those from other parts of Israel?

For four years Absalom criticized his father’s fairness as king. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, "What town are you from?" He would answer, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you." And Absalom would add, "If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice." Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 15:2-6 NIV) With Absalom, the judgmental attitude toward his father festered into hatred that careened out of control. Not every critical thought morphs into disgust and loathing. Some just fade to ambivalence and disinterest. However, never does a critical and judgmental thought disappear from the mind. It always leaves its mark; always damages in some way our personality.

Two of the Disciples, James and John, responded with rage to the lack of interest in Jesus and His ministry shown by the leaders of a Samaritan village and they made a rather troubling request of Him. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village. (Luke 9:54-56 NIV) This was an extreme reaction to a mundane occurrence. It is not like these people were ripping into Jesus or wanting to stone Him to death. They just weren’t interested in hearing Him because He was going to Jerusalem. Was this the only collection of people who had some sort of reason for turning aside from Christ? Of course not! But James and John for some reason believed they were far worse than all the other critics and skeptics of Jesus. Our Lord rebuked them for their judgmental response to the Samaritans. We can be certain that there was a much bigger concern of James and John than that these poor villagers didn’t want Jesus lecturing them about religion. Perhaps racism was at the root of their criticism…perhaps it was their nationalism rearing its head in them…they were not happy that the Samaritans had a bad opinion of Jerusalem. Whatever the case nearly every time we become judgmental, there is something behind our criticism that fuels it. Something that runs much deeper than our sense of fashion, political beliefs or loyalty to God!

Jesus’ command during His Sermon on the Mount is unequivocal. We must not judge others! "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7: 1 NIV) Luke quotes Jesus almost exactly the same way. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.” (Luke 6:37 NIV) This is an astounding demand of God. We all are so good at judging others. Not only that, our criticism is always warranted or so we think. Yet it seems that our Lord does not care how smart we believe we are or how wise we decide our evaluations, we are not to judge others critically. Of course this is not saying judgments are never to be made. Those in places of authority are directed by God to make judgments when the law is broken. Murder, vandalism, theft; God puts it in the hands of those in authority to judge crimes and determine guilt or innocence. God has established Law as a protection for us from the evil in people’s hearts. Jesus is not dealing with authority judgement in these passages. He is commanding against personal judgment.

Let us be clear about this. There is never a time when a Christian, who is not in a position of authority under the law or as a part of his or her occupation, is given permission to judge the character, motives or actions of another person, whether that person is Christian or non-Christian, in this life. To do so puts us in direct opposition to God and His mercy. If you or I judge someone, the Lord will judge us and we would be hard-pressed to find an instance where God’s judgment was pleasant. Yet our Lord has made us judging people, with critical minds and discerning hearts. Why is it that, if we are not to use those skills unless we are circuit judges, we have the instantaneous judging mechanism up and running all the time?

Our mind is wired this way by God that we might be skillful at prayer, quickly seeing what we need to bring to God and able to join with the Lord in what He shows us. If you see an area of weakness in someone or a moral flaw, you take that to God as soon as you become aware of it. Your professor is giving a boring lecture, pray for God to help her. A friend has been gossiping about you, bring it to the Lord for Him to fix. Your parent prepared something for dinner that is not very good, pray for God to help your parent do better. A hotel clerk is snappy with you and it is irritating, rather than snap back at her or talk about her rude behavior with your wife or co-worker, bring her to the Lord for healing. One of your relatives clearly doesn’t like you and treats you disrespectfully and you want to “tell her off.” You cannot. You must talk only with God about her and ask the Lord to change her ways. The person of any use to God is the one who prays. God’s way for us to help people is by letting Christ work through us and He will never do so if we judge them or criticize them. Have we ever helped anyone with our criticism? We probably have often hurt them with our criticism, but helped them…most likely not! We can be certain we have never hurt anyone with our prayers, but we have most assuredly helped every one of those we have prayed for God to come alongside and build into perfection! Greatness in our Lord’s Kingdom is never determined by our ability to see the faults in others but by our faithfulness to pray for each person God brings our way.