“Judge not, that you be not judged.” —Matthew 7:1
What better way to tell people to mind their own business than to quote Jesus?! People who seldom read the Bible are quick to quote it when they want to silence someone whose opinion they don’t like. “Judge not, that you be not judged,” seems like the perfect response. Hardly a day goes by without someone quoting this verse in the news. In fact, today when I searched news.google.com I found someone who used it in reference to a story about the former pastor of my church!
However, Jesus was warning against a particular kind of judging, not judging in general. The kind of judging he said we're to avoid is found in the previous few paragraphs of his sermon (6:19-34). Unfortunately, we seldom read it in context due to the disruptive chapter break. The human tendency is to judge ourselves and others on the basis of what we have or don't have. Those who have a lot are judged favorably; those who have little are not. But what we have is not an accurate measure of our spiritual condition. Those who have much often become proud; those who have little often become anxious.
Read in context, the passage indicates that we are indeed to judge; we're just supposed to avoid faulty judgments. Furthermore, our judgments are to begin with self. Jesus said that we should first remove the plank from our own eye, and then we will see clearly to remove the speck from someone else's eye (7:5). This certainly requires judging! He then said, "Beware of false prophets" (v. 15). This too requires judging—we need to be able to discern truth from falsehood.
Jesus used the metaphor of fruit to give us the proper criteria for judging. "By their fruits you will know them" (v. 20). We are to judge people (including ourselves) by the quality of the fruit they produce.
God doesn't judge us by what we have or don't have because he's the one who decides whether we will have much or little. Instead, he judges what we produce with what he's given to us. This fruit cannot be judged by earthly values; it must be judged by heavenly values. We need to use whatever we have to produce fruit that God values: love, joy, and peace (Gal. 5:22). That's how God will judge us, and that's how we should judge as well. —Julie Ackerman Link
Adapted/expanded from the 9 January 2009 Our Daily Bread.
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