Summary
Non-Judgement?
"Don't judge me." It is one of the defining slogans of our age, captured neatly on a bumper sticker that reads, "Non-judgment day is coming." The sentiment sounds Christian on the surface, and people often reach for Matthew 7:1 to back it up: "Do not judge so that you may not be judged." James adds his voice in James 4:11-12, and Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:5, "Do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes."
But the same Bible, and even the same chapters, also command us to judge. Just fourteen verses after "judge not," Jesus says in Matthew 7:15-16, "Beware of false prophets… you will know them by their fruits." That is plainly a judgment. Paul, who warned against premature judgment in 1 Corinthians 4, turns around in 1 Corinthians 5:3 and declares, "I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus" on the unrepentant man in the Corinthian congregation. So which is it?
The key, drawn out in “Non-Judgement?” 7-23-23, is a distinction between the inward and the outward. When the scribes silently accused Jesus of blasphemy in Mark 2:6-8, Jesus knew their hearts because He is God. We do not. We cannot read motives, intentions, or the secret thoughts of another person, and Scripture forbids us from trying. That is the judgment Jesus, James, and Paul prohibit—judgment of the heart, which belongs to God alone, who "will disclose the purposes of the heart."
What we are called to judge is what is outward, evident, and apparent—measured against the Word of God. Jesus does not stop at "take the log out of your own eye"; He continues, "and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye." False prophets are known "by their fruits." Paul rebukes the Corinthians not for being too judgmental, but for refusing to address the open sin in their midst. Looking the other way is not love; it is arrogance.
How is this judgment to be carried out? Galatians 6:1 gives the pattern: "If anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." This is the heart of what Luther teaches in the Small Catechism on the Office of the Keys—to declare forgiveness to the repentant, and to withhold it from the unrepentant, for the sake of restoration. Speaking honestly to a brother or sister about manifest sin, gently and humbly, knowing we too are sinners, is not cruelty. It is love. Silence in the face of evident sin is not love either, no matter how often our culture claims otherwise.
The most sobering reality remains: judgment day truly is coming. 2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans 14:10, and 2 Timothy 4:1 all confirm we will stand before Christ. And here is the gospel: Hebrews 9:26-28 tells us that Christ has appeared "once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself," and will appear a second time "not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." For all our failures—judging what we should not judge, and ignoring what we should—the verdict in Christ is "not guilty." In the meantime, by His grace, may we live the distinction faithfully.
Video citations
- “Non-Judgement?” 7-23-23 — Let us pray. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. We praise you, gracious God, that as you gather us today in this your house, you gather us together as your…