judgment

If God’s love is unconditional, and therefore our love for one another should be unconditional, then being tolerant, that is, completely non-judgmental, is a fundamental Christian value. Judging someone, then, shows a lack of Christian love. But the New Testament presents its reader with seemingly contradictory statements on judgment, so we need to take a closer look:

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”,

Jesus says (Luk 6:37, see also Mat 7:1), but at the same time you find him being rather judgmental himself, calling people dogs and pigs (Mat 7:6; 15:26, Mar 7:27-28), or brute of vipers (Mat 12:34; 23:33).

Paul urges his readers to shun fornicators, idolaters etc. (1 Co 5:11), and to deny false teachers entrance into their house (2 Joh 1:10), and also warns that who shows the fruits of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).

God doesn’t contradict Himself, however, He is not the author of confusion (1 Co 14:33) and does not change (Mal 3:6, Heb 13:8).
How then does all this make sense ?

The passages mentioned only appear to be contradictory if “judge not” is read to mean that any type of judgment is unchristian. But if that’s the case, no teacher can be identified as a false teacher, no person can be classified as a pig or a dog unworthy godly gifts or brotherly love, in short, no behavior can be called wrong and everything has to be tolerated. The bible does not call us to do that, on the contrary. It calls us to stay away from ungodly people, and by their fruits we shall know them (Mat 7:16-20), so we have to judge. The question is: By what standard ?

Jesus teaches by example that we should follow God’s assessment in every way, and not lean unto our own understanding when it comes to judgment (or any other moral and ethical, social and personal issue, for that matter, Pro 3:5-8).

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” (Joh 5:30)

For example, we can follow God in saying that homosexuality is an abomination (Lev 18:22, Rom 1:26-27), without being judgmental on our own accord. We can say that liars and cowards are going to burn in the lake of sulfur (Rev 21:8), and we can avoid the company of people who don’t accept God’s Law (2 Ti 3:2-5), without being judgmental: In all this, we are obedient to His word.

The call not to judge anyone ever and to associate with everyone equally, brethren and non brethren alike, violates God’s commandment of separation, of holiness (Lev 20:26) and ignores God’s own judgments. It means to be like a god ourselves, as in ignoring God’s assessments we determine for ourselves what is good or evil, right or wrong – we create our own standard, which is exactly what the nachash tempted Eve with. But instead of repeating Eve’s sin happily and blindly, we are called to follow God in His judgment, to go by His standard alone in everything, just like Jesus did, and not to fall prey to the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11).