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Matthew 7 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
Judge not so you will not be judged. What was Jesus getting at here?
This is a quote that is so often misrepresented, in my opinion. Was Jesus saying we should lower our standard of morality? Was He advocating that judges and juries cannot and should not do their job? What about our bosses? Should Christian supervisors pass on holding their employees accountable for their actions?
This can’t be what Jesus is communicating. We long for justice in this life. It’s difficult to go one day without wondering when evil and wickedness will be destroyed forever.
The problem we face today is that people interpret Jesus’ words here as meaning that judgment is always wrong, but that’s not the point of His teaching. The key here is not blind acceptance, but hypocrisy. If you are judging others without taking an honest look at your own behavior, that’s a problem.
Jesus himself didn’t avoid judging, but He did it with tremendous grace and love. He did it with a mentality of encouraging growth. Jesus will certainly judge everyone in the end, but He offers grace through His sacrifice for those who trust Him.
We need to be careful not to misrepresent Jesus’ words in this passage. We can’t throw judgment out the window and just use His statement flippantly to approve all types of behavior. But we also can’t go around in a spirit of hatefulness, judging others without taking an honest look at our own issues. When we consider what Jesus has delivered us from, the way we hold others accountable will come through as love instead of judgment.