As we have covered, it is a common belief that Christians have been instructed not to judge. But nowhere does Jesus say that, and nowhere is this said in the Scriptures. Some flawed English translations give the impression that Jesus said this when He talked about taking the log out of our own eye before trying to remove the speck from someone else’s eye. However, what He taught there and elsewhere is not to judge wrongly. He did not say not to try to remove the speck from someone else’s eye, but that we must be sure to remove what hinders us from seeing clearly before trying to do so.

         It is also interesting how those who tell others not to judge are usually the most judgmental of all. If they complain that we are judging them, are they not judging us by saying this? Consider this exhortation in I Corinthians 5:9-13:    

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you" (NIV).

         Here Paul instructs the Corinthians to judge those within the church. They must also judge those who are not in the church in the sense of evaluation, or otherwise how would we know that they are immoral, greedy, etc.? There can actually be no true relationships without judgment that is evaluation. We are judging others all of the time whether we realize it or call it that or not. What we must learn to do is judge righteously, or rightly. This begins with not trying to assume things we really don’t know about the motives of others. It also applies to judging those who are within our sphere of authority, as Paul is pointing out to the Corinthians in the text above.

         We have some great teaching opportunities with some of the great issues rising in the U.S. at this time in relation to racial conflicts, perceived and actual incidences of police brutality, and the rising conflict between the gay agenda and Christianity. We would be remiss not to use these teaching opportunities, so we will for the next couple of weeks.