In his book, The Power of One Another, Bob Russell tells about a young woman who commented to her friends that she thought the lifestyle of a certain Celebrity was “wrong.” Well, she found out that was the “wrong” thing to say! Even though the Celebrity led an openly sinful lifestyle, her friends reprimanded her harshly for evaluating it. In fact, they were very judgmental about her judgmentalism! (p.11)
When Jesus said, “judge not,” he was talking about a “condemning judgment.” Jesus was NOT talking about discernment. In fact, Jesus taught that we need to use our judgment to know right from wrong … true from false, and wisdom from foolishness. Jesus encouraged this discerning type of “judgment.”