Thursday, July 8th  – Beware Of A Judgmental Spirit

What did Jesus mean when He said, “Judge not?” The word ‘judge’ often means to condemn, it means to come to a negative conclusion about another person and then condemn them.

Jesus is talking about looking at people and attempting to judge their motives and their real spiritual condition based on what we see in their lives. The idea here is that the judge presumes to know the condition of another person’s heart.  He sets himself up as judge and jury and proclaims the guilt and innocence of all those around him.  This is the attitude that Jesus condemns.

Jesus was not saying we should not confront sin, He was saying we must be very careful in making judgments. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:5 ‘love thinks no evil.” We are not to pass final judgment on any person; final judgment belongs to the Lord. We are not in the condemning business. If anyone needs to be condemned, God himself can take care of that. We should have no part in it.

We are not to judge the motives of others. The Bible says, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Often we are quick to come to negative conclusions about others based on why we think they did something. But try as we might, we see only the outside. God alone sees the heart. We can judge what people do; we cannot judge why they do it. We can judge what people say; we cannot judge why they say it.

We must give others the benefit of the doubt, recognizing our own limitations. And we must reject any feelings of spiritual superiority, less we also fall into sin. Confronting someone is a serious responsibility; we are to humbly confront fellow believers when we see them caught in sin. Judge yourself before you judge others.