The Paradox Of Judging

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