“Judge not, lest you be judged.”
This oft quoted verse, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1), is a great verse, but taken in context Jesus is directing this to the Pharisees and Jewish religious leaders of the day. They were lording over people who did not live like they did, condemning them for not following their “righteous” example.
But
Paul says, “Do you not know that we are to judge the angels? How much more, then, the matter pertaining to this life? (1 Corinthians 6:4). Paul lets us know that we are to judge when it comes to disputes among our members, “When one has a grievance against another” (1 Corinthians 6:1).
We are to judge when someone in the church is sinning and is unrepentant. This is not fun sounding and is probably why it is avoided. Paul even says to “deliver this man to Satan” (1 Corinthians 5:5). Paul was talking about a man who was sexually immoral and his advice (command) was to kick the dude out of the church and “turn him over to Satan”!!! Wow. Lest anyone think this is not the example for today’s church but was only for this one instance in the church Paul was addressing. Matthew basically says the same thing in Matthew 15:15-18. He says to confront the sinner, confront the sinner with some witnesses, confront him again in front of the whole church – and if he is unrepentant – kick them out! Again, wow.
The Bible also says we are to judge pastors and deacons/elders. We are to judge the teaching of pastors to see if it is lining up with Scripture (Matthew 7:15-20; 1 Corinthians 4:29; Titus 1:10-16) and we are to judge the qualifications of those selected to be deacons/elders (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9).
We also are to judge ourselves. It is not part of the judging others theme here, but is a good practice to judge ourselves and see where we are in our walk with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:11:31; 2 Corinthians 13:5-7).
Judge not – well sometimes judge yes…
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