Put Aside a Judgmental Attitude

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
For you will be treated as you treat others.
The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
How can you think of saying to your friend,
‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’
when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye;
then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
Matthew 7:1–5

The term to judge in Greek is krino, which really means “to separate,” but it has a much broader range of possibilities. It is a term from the ancient courtroom where a judge separated the facts and discerned or decided the truth. Occasionally the judge came to his conclusion and condemned the person on trial.

Obviously, Jesus is not telling His followers to stop being people of discernment. Throughout His mountain message He has been encouraging discernment as it related to the scribes and Pharisees . . . and He will soon warn them to “beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing.” Elsewhere in Scripture we are admonished, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1 NASB). Some judging is not only acceptable, but also mandated. We are never to suspend our critical faculties or turn a deaf ear or close our eyes to error. Few things will remove us from a walk of simple faith quicker than putting our discernment in neutral. A gullible spirit quickly leads to complications.

What, then, does His command mean? He is saying, “Do not be censorious . . . don’t conduct your life with a judgmental or negative attitude.” In that sense to judge means:

• to assess others suspiciously
• to find petty faults
• to seek out periodic weaknesses and failure
• to cultivate a destructive and condemning spirit
• to presume a position of authority over another

When we do these things, we have assumed an all-knowing role that suggests we are Lord and others are our servants—a position of enormous arrogance. Understand our Lord’s point, but don’t misread it. He is not saying it is wrong to help someone deal with a “speck” that needs attention. What is hypocritical is to do so while denying the log(s) in one’s own life. Only people who keep short accounts of their own failures, sins, and weaknesses have earned the right to assist others with those things in their lives. Vulnerable, humble, transparent individuals make the best confronters.