"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37-38)
One memorable experience of helping people with the bad kind of judging was when I was talking with a young couple about how they were doing. The wife began presenting some complaints against her husband and I listened to try to understand what was going on. I soon realized that I was seeing a 2-column page in my mind with “subjective” on the left and “objective” on the right. Each of her statements were subjective so I mentally put them in the left column and kept asking her to go deeper.
After a handful of complaints were added to the “subjective” side, she suddenly said something objective that had happened to her long before they had even met, and it had to do with her Dad, NOT her husband!
Suddenly, the couple was united in addressing an unresolved experience of childhood trauma instead of wasting time and attachment on things that either weren’t happening at all or weren’t happening to the degree that was imagined.
Since then, I have witnessed many instances of the contrast between the unrighteous judging that weaponizes perceived faults or failures as reasons to join the enemy's work of “stealing, killing, and destroying” (John 10:10), and a few instances of the righteous judging where objective sin was handled as Jesus instructed in Matthew 18:15-20.
The part that ministered to me the most in my time with God this morning was simply that I must agree with my Savior that letting my mind wonder, or evaluate, or imagine what might be going on with someone when nothing is visibly presenting itself for my participation is wrong. It isn’t just the concluding that someone must be doing something wrong when I haven’t seen it, but letting my mind spend time trying to figure out if someone is doing something wrong is what is forbidden.
The “out of sight, out of mind” adage is the way I will remember this. Do I see objective sin going on with someone? No? Then stop thinking about them and turn my mind to, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Do I see objective sin going on with a fellow believer? Yes? Then I must go and talk with the person in private and follow Jesus’ instructions with the aim Paul added, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).
I know that worldlings love to misquote Jesus about his “do not judge” teaching as if we are not allowed to call their sin what it is. But Jesus himself always called sin to be sin while “in God’s kindness” always working “to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4) so he can restore us and forgive us.
Now, here is a thought: what would happen in Jesus’ true church if we would judge the sinful judging done by our own people in the way Jesus taught us to confront sin, and required our people to avoid any kind of unrighteous judging where no one even saw anything happen at all?
© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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