“Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
“For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)
Words that I’ve heard for a long time and have tried to use and to guide and hold my on tongue. Words that the Lord of Hosts (Father God, Jesus Christ), Himself spoke over 2,000 years ago to His people, the Israelites, now handed down through the generations. Words we still try to honor and obey.
However, the lines of judging are now blurred because we are a people of personal and professional likes and dislikes and many times our actions are not based on scriptures of morality.
Moses was instructed to create a hierarchy to “judge” the people because:
- ‘9 “And I spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I alone am not able to bear you.
- 10 The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.” (Deuteronomy 1:9-10)
Here’s a better judging outline of what Moses instructed:
- 16 “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.
- 17 You shall not show partiality in judgment;
- you shall hear the small as well as the great;
- you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s.
- The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’
- 18 And I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do. (Deuteronomy 1:16-18)
An individual’s behavior is ruled by his/her morals. Break those morals and be ready for the consequences of judgment.
So what are morals?
| Main Entry: | morals |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | personal principles, standards |
| Synonyms: | behavior, beliefs, conduct, customs, dogmas, ethic, ethics, habits, ideals, integrity, manners, morality, policies, scruples |
| Antonyms: | amorality, disrespectable, immorality, indecency, unethical |
- “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, (Deuteronomy 25:1)
Dispensing the punishment (as a result of judgment) against the wicked, if found guilty:
- 2 then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows. (Deuteronomy 25:2)
That doesn’t sound too far off for what happens today if charges are brought against an individual, found to be guilty, and then issuing instructions to “punish” the offender.
However, the one scripture that is being misconstrued in its effectuating judgment is “Judge not, that you be not judged.” The scripture is correct but people are watering down “sin” or diluting wrong doing.
People refer to this scripture in an effort not to look at or dispense an opinion involving doing wrong. For me, it reflects a lack of responsibility for not stopping a wrong, a lack of accountability.
So what is judgment?
| judgment or judgement | |
| — n | |
| 1. | the faculty of being able to make critical distinctions and achieve a balanced viewpoint; discernment |
| 2. | a. the decision or verdict pronounced by a court of law |
| b. an obligation arising as a result of such a decision or verdict, such as a debt | |
| c. the document recording such a decision or verdict | |
| d. ( as modifier ): a judgment debtor | |
| 3. | the formal decision of one or more judges at a contest or competition |
| 4. | a particular decision or opinion formed in a case in dispute or doubt |
| 5. | an estimation: a good judgment of distance |
| 6. | criticism or censure |
| 7. | logic |
| a. the act of establishing a relation between two or more terms, esp as an affirmation or denial | |
| b. the expression of such a relation | |
| 8. | against one’s better judgment contrary to a more appropriate or preferred course of action |
| 9. | sit in judgment |
| a. to preside as judge | |
| b. to assume the position of critic | |
| 10. | in someone’s judgment in someone’s opinion |
- “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)
Jesus’ judgment is two-fold in Matthew 7:1-5 scriptures:
- a. Jesus will judge us in the same way or measure that we judge someone else;
- b. Jesus was also trying to stop unrighteous judgment. These are the accusers who accuse without looking at themselves and their own state of unrighteousness, (the hypocrite, the double minded), the rampant, the thoughtless, the lawlessness (sometimes just downright pettiness) when man goes against man, either in a social setting or within the private limits of morality within the family structure out of viciousness or vindictiveness, sometimes repeated so many times that the first wrongdoing of who wronged who first is forgotten and buried because everyone was wrong.
Now about the sin of adultery and Jesus’ judgment:
- 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (John 8:3-5)
In this particular case, a woman was caught in the act of adultery and the people were willing to take action against her by stoning. However, Jesus Christ (our Judge of Righteousness), judged her right on the spot and stopped stoning punishment:
- 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. 7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. (Matthew 7:6-9)
However, Jesus did judge the woman, forgives her, and He leaves her with an instruction to sin no more:
- 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (Matthew 7:10-11)
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians to refrain from knowing sexually immoral people and the state of the saints’ worthiness to judge:
- I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. (1 Corinthians 5:9)
- Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? (1 Corinthians 6:2)
Father God/Jesus Christ was pretty specific in judging His house:
- 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. (Zechariah 3:7)
- The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Revelation 11:18)
- And I heard the angel of the waters saying: “You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. (Revelation 16:5)
Jesus, God’s Righteousness Revealed
sung by Keswick praise
Blessings,
___________________________________
SeashoreMary
