Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
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?....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
— Matthew 7:1-5
Following the Call—Chap. 44: Judging Others
On judging well. On not “judging” at all. Your turn.
They who drink the juice of the Ethiopian herb Ophiusa imagine that they see serpents and horrors everywhere; and those who drink deep of pride, envy, ambition, hatred, will see harm and shame in every one they look upon. The first can only be cured by drinking palm wine, and so I say of these latter— Drink freely of the sacred wine of love, and it will cure you of the evil tempers which lead you to stand in judgment on others.
— Francis de Sales
On Judging Well
Jesus says, “Judge not….” But does that mean we are justified in turning a blind eye? “Who are we to judge?” we say. But Jesus’ saying, “Judge not,” has little to do with turning a blind eye. If this is what he meant, why then did he instruct his disciples, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone”? Why did he call out the scribes and Pharisees—“You brood of vipers! You hypocrites”?
Jesus is not against judging. We are meant to see things accurately, to know and discern what is true, to distinguish between good and evil and respond accordingly. What Jesus is against is judgmentalism—being critical of others and their faults, standing above them, and writing them off as if we are superior.
Roy Hession pinpoints what Jesus is really getting at. If you see a speck in another’s eye don’t stand in judgment but humbly go and help them remove it, but first remove whatever is in our own eye. But then go! Failure to do so, says Augustine, may be worse that not going at all.
He has done someone harm, and by doing harm he has stricken himself with a grievous wound. Will you then completely disregard your brother’s wound? Will you simply watch him stumble and fall down? Will you disregard his predicament? If so, you are worse in your silence than he in his abuse. Therefore, when anyone sins against you, take great care, but not merely for yourself. For it is a glorious thing to forgive injuries. Just set aside your own hurt, but do not neglect your brother’s wound. (Sermon 82.7)
What might it mean to not neglect a brother’s or sister’s wound? The following advice from François Fénelon is extremely helpful:
You know from experience the bitterness of the work of correction; strive then to find means to make it less bitter to others. You have not an eager zeal to correct, but a sensitiveness that easily shuts up your heart.
I pray you more than ever not to spare my faults. If you should think you see one, which is not really there, there is no harm done; if I find that your counsel wounds me, my touchiness demonstrates that you have discovered a sore spot; but if not, you will have done me an excellent kindness in exercising my humility, and accustoming me to reproof. I need this simplicity, and I trust it will be the means of cementing rather than of weakening our attachment. (Letter XXIV)
On Not “Judging” at All
“How easy it is to confess other people’s sins!” writes E. Stanley Jones. A critical attitude that finds or accentuates the failures of others is a sure sign of a declining spiritual life. “The moment my own spiritual life sags,” continues Jones, “in inverse ratio my critical attitudes toward others begin to rise and take possession. Spiritual high temper toward others is usually a sign of spiritual low temperature in ourselves.” (Philosophy of Life)
The question naturally arises: Why do we stand in judgment of others? One reason is that we project onto them the problems and faults we are unwilling to fight within ourselves. We want others to be what we can’t or won’t make ourselves to be. In short, we don’t want to change. But our resistance to change is actually rooted in our failure to grasp the nature of God’s love. We think that we (and others) have to become good enough to be loved. This obviously misconstrues what love is all about, not to mention how God brings about change.
God’s love is unconditional: “There is nothing any of us can do to increase God’s love for us and nothing we can do to diminish it” writes Brennan Manning. When we experience God’s love we cannot help but see others, including their faults, differently. They, like ourselves, are objects of God’s delight, even with their faults. We no longer have to judge or condemn.
Unfortunately, our pride too often gets in the way. By judging the weaknesses of others, we think we can feel better about ourselves. The problem with this is that harsh judgment of others is the worst form of self-judgment. The measure we use is indeed the measure used against us. This is because our sense of “self” is formed at the expense of others. What are we left with? Shame. Only God’s love can give what pride cannot deliver: a true self that is free of condemnation.
Our propensity to judge others is also due to our propensity to forget. Instead of looking at others as they truly are, as divine image bearers for whom Christ died, we see their sin. We look at them as if they were one big “speck,” and forget to see the “eye,” the child of God who has gone wrong. Jesus’ didn’t highlight the sin of the young woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). She wasn’t “harlot.” Jesus was moved with compassion and thus saw the unhappy, wayward child of God she was.
Finally, we judge others because we despair—we only see what is, not what will be. Eberhard Arnold explains:
It is just as Augustine once said: When a carpenter walks through the woods, he does not see the trees as they stand there in the forest, but as the beams of the house they will become. So God has joy in us, not as we are now but because he sees what we can be when we are incorporated into the kingdom of God….We do not see each other as we are now but as we are to be….The future determines everything.
God’s future determines everything. If we would but see each other in the light of God’s promise of redemption, we would have little energy to look down on each other. Instead, we would drink more freely, in the words of Francis de Sales, of the sacred wine of love, which alone cures us of our need to stand in judgment of others. And more than that, it fills us with a joy that brings us heart to heart with one another.
Your Turn
Why are we so quick to stand in judgment of one another? Just reply to this email to leave a comment.
Thanks Ed. The "old Adam" dies hard, but with the Spirit and one another's help we can experience a different kind of existence.
Thanks much, Sir Chas, for this post. Soooooo excellent. Love the sources you draw from. Sound Kingdom-of-God counsel on what judging is all about. Keep yourself in Abba's love!