Paul is judging the Jews for being terrible for judging the Gentiles to be terrible sinners.
But if judging is always bad, then I can judge Paul to be terrible for judging the
Jews to be terrible for judging the Gentiles to be terrible, and you can in turn
judge me for being terrible in judging Paul to be terrible etc. You get the point.
Somewhere there has to be a judging that is valid and good, otherwise we are
caught in a vicious circle that has no end, and every time we make a value
judgment we are sinning and disobeying our Lord. Judging has to be a paradox to
make any sense of it. It has to be both good and bad, for if it is all bad, then
everything in life is morally relative, and we have lost all right to put labels on
things that are clearly out of God's will, and condemned by him. The issue then is
this: how can judging be both good and bad? How can it be sinful and also
righteous" Jesus who told us not to judge also told us to judge rightly in John
7:24. One translation has it, ""Do not judge according to appearance, but judge
with righteous judgment."
Leslie Riffe wrote, "A person’s actions often represent what is in the heart. "But
those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile
a man." {Matthew 15:18} Can any of us read another’s heart? Not unless the
person reveals that information to us. God alone judges men’s hearts. "But the
LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature,
because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man
looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." {1 Samuel
16:7} God has perfect judgment--men do not!" This means there are areas of life
where we just do not have any right to be judges of others, for we are ignorant of
the heart and all that motivates people.
Jesus was saying to the Jews of his day much the same thing that Paul is saying to
them in this Romans passage. In Matt. 7:1-5 Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you
too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged,
and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at
the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in
your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of
your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brother’s eye." Jesus is not saying the speck is not real, but
that it is arrogant self righteous pride to be judging that speck when you have a
log in your own eye. Jesus is saying basically that we are to focus our judgmental
spirit on our own life first of all, and make sure we are pleasing to God before we
try to set other sinners, and even lesser sinners, right.
Paul knew the words of Jesus that we are not to judge others, and yet there is no
way to avoid it. He has to judge these Jews for their judging the Gentiles, for they
are judging when they do the same things. This leaves them without excuse. Paul
is judging these judge rs, and so judging is valid when we are judging that
something is clearly wrong and inexcusable. This is a paradox, for it is
condemning judging, but by doing so it is doing the very thing that is being
condemned. Clearly there has to be a distinction between what Jesus is
condemning and what Paul is doing here, and what all people do when they say
something or someone is wrong and out of God's will.
To see the paradox clearly we can go back to Matt. 7 and see what Jesus said
after his words on not judging. In the very next verse, verse 6 Jesus said, “Do not
give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may
trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." One might be
tempted to say, "Wait a minute Jesus, how can we obey your words of not
judging others, and then turn around and judge that some are dogs and pigs, and
these are the people we are to avoid when sharing the precious truths of your
teachings?" Jesus said judge not, and immediately he adds, be sure you judge
who is unworthy to have you share what is sacred with them. Judge not, but be
sure to judge. Is Jesus guilty of mumbo jumbo, and meaningless statements that
cancel each other out, or is there a very serious way in which we need to be
judging people all the time in discerning who is someone to get involved with, or
someone to avoid? Just as you would not go to the stock yard and hang up the
Lord's Prayer in a pig pen, so you do not talk of your answers to prayer with the
mocker who is blaspheming the name of Christ. It is because you judge them to
be incapable of recognizing spiritual values.
Jesus goes on in verses 15-20 saying, “Watch out for false prophets. They come
to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their
fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs
from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
Jesus is teaching us to make judgments on all who come into our lives teaching
and preaching. There will be many who are false prophets who have a plan to
lead you astray from the truth of God's Word. How can we recognize them when
they dress in a way that makes them blend in as good people. They may be
ferocious wolves inside, but all we see is that nice coat of wool, so soft and
pleasing to the touch and eye. Jesus says you judge them by their fruits, and to do
this you need to evaluate the results of what they teach. If people are less godly,
and more and more forsaking the clearly revealed will of God, you know you are
dealing with a wolf in sheep clothing. You then make a judgment and avoid these
people. Life is a constant process of making judgments.
Judges are making decisions every day about the persons before them. They are
saying you are guilty of doing what is wrong, and you have to pay a penalty for
that wrongdoing. We all accept this as valid judgment, for there could be no
justice system without such judging. Christians judges, and all who are in the
world of law enforcement are making judgments all the time about people and
their character. They need to do this to protect the public and themselves. Clearly
this is not what Jesus was condemning when he said judge not. The paradox is
that we are to judge not, and yet be always in a mind set to be judging. It is not a
contradiction, but a fact of life.
Jesus is dealing with the hypocritical spirit of judgmental-ism that he sees and
condemns often in the Pharisees. They were judging him all the time to be a
Sabbath breaker for his compassionate healing on the Sabbath. They were
condemning him for being a glutton and wine bibber for his fellowship with the tax
collectors. They even judged him to be demon possessed. The
judging Jesus condemns is that which comes from the heart of pride and
arrogance that looks down on others and focuses on their faults, and has no eye
to see their own gaping defects, the greatest of which is their judgmental spirit.
Less serious, but still a defect in our thinking and action is when we jump to
conclusions and think badly of someone when the reality is that they are innocent
of what you think. A great example is the following: Arturo Toscanini, the great
symphony conductor, once told this as his favorite story. An orchestra was
playing Beethoven's Leonore Overture, in which there are two climaxes, each of
which is followed by a trumpet passage from off stage. The first climax arrived,
but not a sound came from the trumpet. The conductor was annoyed, but went
on to the second climax. Again there was no trumpet. This time the conductor
rushed into the wing of the concert hall, and he found his trumpet player
struggling with the house fireman. "I tell you, you can't play that trumpet back
here," the fireman was insisting, "There's a concert going on." Little did he
realize that he was the one disturbing the concert, and not the trumpet player.
This was not sinful behavior, for he was acting in ignorance, and this is the type of
thing not in the mind of Jesus. Jesus is condemning the deliberate condemnation
of the prideful man toward behavior that does not begin to match the degree of
evil that is in his own heart and mind. He is not talking about mistakes and errors
in judgment, which can also be harmful, but about a pattern of judgmental-ism that
will lead to severe judgment on the person practicing such negative behavior. If
you want to see how Jesus responded to this kind of judgmental-ism go to
Matthew 23, and you will see how severely Jesus came down on them with
scorching judgment.
Let me give you a little taste of their judgment. Matt. 23:13-17. “Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the
kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let
those enter who are trying to. 15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when
you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means
nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’
17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold
sacred?
Matt. 23:23-4, " 23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have
neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.
You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind
guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
Matt. 23:33-36, " 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape
being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and
teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your
synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the
righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to
the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple
and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation."
Jesus was extremely angry with the evil spirit that ruled in the hearts of the
Pharisees, and he blasted them in a way that revealed pure wrath that would lead
to their being destroyed. In the light of this, do we have the right and even the
obligation to also judge them as self righteous scoundrels? Of course we do, for
that is taking the Lord's words are revealed truth. Try to think they were alright
guys, and deserving of his forgiveness, and you are siding with Satan rather than
joining Jesus. You have to judge them as evil, and you have to judge all people
with their same attitudes and actions as evil.
Jesus hated the arrogance and pride that hindered the Jewish people from
moving on to receive the gospel that he was bringing that would change the
history of Judaism. In Prov. 6:16-19 we read, "There are six things the LORD
hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community."
All of these were a part of the hateful things we see in the Jewish leaders of the
nation that led to their judgment and destruction. All of these we see in how they
plotted to get Jesus crucified. Their judgmental spirit led to the worst judgment as
Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Jews
were killed by the Romans in 70 A. D.
Most will never be as wicked as these Jewish leaders were, but all of us are in
danger of letting pride and arrogance lead us to judge others with a desire to hurt
and defame people who we have no valid reason to injure, just as the Pharisees
had no valid reason to judge Jesus as they did. This is evil and condemned by
Jesus, and he condemns all such self-righteous hypocrites who have the audacity
to judge others when they are far more evil in spirit than any they condemn. This,
however, has no connection with making judgments about what is consistent or
inconsistent with the will of God.
In Acts 7 we read of Stephen, a great man of God. He was judged to have
blasphemed God by false witnesses, and this stirred up anger, and he was taken
and stoned to death. Nicole Johnson in Dropping Your Rocks wrote, "Almost
since the beginning of time, human beings have had a brutally simple way of
dealing with wrong: rocks. Someone would point out the offender in the camp or
the family or the clan, and everyone would come running. Picking up a cold, hard
ballot of stone, they would violently cast their vote against wrong, again and
again and again until it was gone. It was their way." Sometimes it was the right
way, for the crime deserved the punishment, but often it was cruel injustice as in
the case of Stephen. He was falsely accused, and lies were the basis for his violent
death. Do we make a judgment about these false witnesses? Of course we do, and
we know God will judge them severely for he hates false witnesses.
The world is filled with wicked people doing all sorts of cruel things, and we are to judge them for what they are, and pray that they are captured and pay a penalty for their crimes. It is right and good that we make such judgments. Stephen died with forgiveness in his heart, and he, like Jesus, said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. God did forgive Paul for being a part of that injustice, and he chose him to be his great evangelist, but the evils of this event are condemned all through the Scripture, and God holds those who do them accountable, and there will be judgment. When we see injustice like this in movies, we make moral judgments, and can't wait to see how the guilty are dealt with in the end. Almost every movie you watch calls for making a moral judgment as to who is evil and deserving of judgment.
Christians who lock themselves into thinking they should not make value
judgments create confusion in their minds. One blogger wrote, "Judge not lest
you be judged....is a hard one when you see a wrong and not judge it for what it
is....have to bite my tongue and think about me and who i am....a sinner myself.."
Here is a believer who feels she is sinning if she makes a judgment that something
is wrong. She sees a thief running out of the bank and shooting a guard as he
does, and she has to say to herself, "I am not to make a judgment that that man is
evil." Instead, she has to look the other way and admit she has stolen some things
in her life too. Her way of thinking leads logically to this-If it's wrong to pass any
kind of judgment on others then I guess we better let the murderers and rapists
run free rather than judging them by labeling them as murderers and rapists and
putting them in jail...
If we are locked out of making judgments, then we are being led into a culture
where everything is relative, and nothing is an absolute evil. You have to just
accept that some people like what is evil, and don't judge them just because you
don't, but hate it. Don't let them feel your hate, for that might disturb them. So
swallow your anger at evil, and avoid it the best you can, but don't judge those
who break all of God's commandments as being bad people. Such is the absolute
and literal view of the words of Jesus not to judge. This is nonsense and not what
Jesus intended for us to understand.
Gregg Griffin wrote, "Passing judgment is an important survival trait. E.g. I see
a person running down the street, stark naked, covered in blood, holding a large
knife, slashing at everyone he passes and screaming "I am going to kill you" - I
am going to judge that person to be a bit of a loony, amoral and not someone I
want immediate contact with." He is being radical in his illustration, but the
reality is that we all make judgments as to character for the sake of safety.
Strange looking characters may be wonderful children of God, but we teach our
children never to get in a car with a such a stranger, or even one who looks very
handsome and is friendly. We may be wrong in assuming that certain people could
be dangerous, but we still have an instinct to avoid certain characters. Often
people do not make that judgment and they end up raped or killed. It is not only
valid, but wise to make judgments about with whom you will develop any
relationship.
Even within the church we have a responsibility to make judgments about fellow
believers. An unknown blogger put it this way, "If a believer sees another believer
sinning, it is their Christian duty to lovingly and respectfully confront the person
with their sin (Matthew 18:15-17). This is not judging, but rather pointing out the
truth in hope—and with the ultimate goal—of bringing repentance in the other
person (James 5:20) and restoration to the fellowship. We are to speak the truth
in love (Ephesians 4:15). We are to proclaim what God's Word says about sin. 2
Timothy 4:2 instructs us, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of
season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful
instruction." We are to "judge" sin, but always with the goal of presenting the
solution for sin and its consequence, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6)." This is
not the role of the babe in Christ, or the superficial believer, or the hypocrite. It is
the role of the mature Christ honoring person who is living the life that pleases the
Lord. If the others do it that I listed, they are likely to be guilty of the very thing
Jesus is saying we should not do.
Paul on one occasion had to rebuke Peter and others for falling short of the ideal.
In Gal. 2:11-14 we read, "When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his
face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back
and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who
belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his
hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I
saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas
in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.
How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?" Peter was out
of line and Paul judged him as a backslider. It was the right thing to do. Paul
encouraged the churches to judge the prophets, and to put out of the church
those whose lives were a disgrace to the gospel. Some he even judged to be so
bad he turned them over to Satan for judgment. We could go all through his
letters and see the many times he taught the importance of judging, but I think we
get the point without endless illustrations.
Luke 3:19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done,
TITUS 1:10-16 For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”[c] 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Judging can be a dangerous thing that is out of God's will and damaging to both the judging one and the one judged. We need to think about what we are doing when we judge others, for we could be bringing judgment on our own head if we are exhibiting self-righteousness and hypocrisy, or because our motive is to hurt rather than help. A wrong attitude can make it a serious sin. On the other hand, it can be a just and good thing to avoid dangerous teaching and people who will lead us astray or do harm to the body of Christ. It can be a means of bringing backsliders back into fellowship, and a means of guidance to those on the wrong track to get them going the right way. Judging is a paradox because it can be both bad and good, and we need to know this so we can seek the Lord's wisdom in making sure we practice it for good only.
