Do not judge?

We have always been told to never judge people. However, we never take the time to understand what the word judging actually means. According to our good friend Webster, judging means to formulate an opinion about. If that is what judging means, people judge all the time. It's almost unavoidable to judge someone.

In the book I follow and read, it says "Do not judge, or you will be judged." The important concept in this passage is to realize it is not just saying to not judge. Rather, it is saying that unless you want to be judged the same way you judge others, do not judge. An important question to also ask is this: Who is doing the judging here after you judge someone? In the end, we all will be judged by YHWH for the things we have done. That in mind, I think the individual doing the judging is the one that we have judged. So basically, if you don't want to be judged the same way, don't judge anyone else by that standard.

Now their are a few stipulations I would like to add. The next part of the passage it talks about do not talk about the speck in your friend's eye when you have a plank in yours. It says to first remove the plank in your eye before you remove the speck in your friend's. What this is saying to me is that before you go and make a judgement about someone else's faults, you need to make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons, which are out of genuine humility, love and concern for the person. You also need to make sure that you have things set right in your own life or they will come up in the conversation. It may even be that if you struggle with the same thing, the last thing you should do is judge someone for the very same transgression that you commit. Instead, maybe confront the person about the transgression and tell them you struggle with the same thing so that you both can hold each other accountable.

Also, judging is something that should happen within the body of believers. This is called church discipline and is something that is rarely used today. You are to point out a brother's/sister's faults if they are slipping so as to correct them and put them back on the path to where they are more genuinely following Him. This does not mean that you should judge those that do not follow. After all, how can you hold them accountable to standards of the scriptures when they themselves don't even know or much less follow Yeshua?

Lastly, judging in this context, I believe, should only take place if you have a good, trusting, and loving relationship with that person. If I was approached by a person in my church about correcting something about myself and I did not have any kind of personal and deep friendship with that person, I would feel a little insulted. However, if I really knew the person and that they cared about me and that I trusted them, it would motivate me to try to change that part of my life.

What people are really saying when they say do not judge is that you should not condemn. This means that you do not know a person's heart so you have no right to determine that person's salvation or not. In that, people are right, because only condemnation can come from YHWH and we are not YHWH. So when someone tells me to not judge, I'm typically going to ask them what they mean by judge.

Judging is not forbidden, but condemning is...

Lyrics of the Week

Like sex when you're too young
Like youth when you've got none
Like home when you're too drunk
Like getting every you wanted with a line of bad credit
It's never quite worth what you give up to get it

Like style made by slaves
Like bribes to throw the race
Like women who know their place
Like an indian casino or a tank of unleaded
It's never quite worth what you give up to get it

Stand back
You love it now but it's too much

Like fame for what you're not
Like joy that you bought
Like pleasure that never hits the spot
Like security for liberty, you gotta admit it
It's never quite worth what you give up to get it