Theological Digression: Judge Not

Have you ever heard it said that we shouldn’t speak against sin in someone else’s life because Jesus commanded us to not judge each other? I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard that said more times than I can remember. This paper was written to compare this idea to the Scriptures and see if it has any merit.

In Matthew 7 Jesus said this in his famous Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine own eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?”

On the face of it that looks very conclusive. Jesus does indeed say “judge not” and goes on to state in verse 2 that we will be judged in the same way that we have judged others. The passage even condemns the hypocrisy of those who judge others when they themselves are committing the same sinful acts.

But Matthew 7 has more than just four verses in it. Christ goes on to say this in the very next verse:

Matthew 7:5: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

What does Christ say here? Does He end by saying “And so, whatever you do, never, ever tell someone else about their sin”? No. In verse five He says to clean up your own life so that you can then see clearly to help other people. The focus of this passage is not “don’t judge people no matter what” but “don’t judge people for sins that you yourself are committing“. The Lord wants us to help each other overcome the sin in our lives, but He doesn’t want us to be hypocritical about it. That, in fact, is the whole point of these five verses.

That alone should put to rest the idea that the Lord wants us to be silent about the sin we see, but let’s look at other passages as well. James had this to say:

James 5:19: “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

Notice first that this passage is aimed at brethren who err from the truth. James is talking about believers here. And how do you ‘convert the sinner from the error of his way’ after a brother ‘errs from the truth’? Is this accomplished by refusing to say anything to the erring brother for fear of being seen as judgmental, or does this happen when one brother takes the other aside and corrects him in love? For that matter, is saying nothing and allowing the brother to continue in sin really the most loving thing to do? This passage actually places high value in those who turn others away from sin – and you can’t do that by ignoring the problem.

But how did the apostles deal with this problem when they encountered sin in the lives of others? In Acts we find this exchange between Peter and two members of the church:

Acts 5:1: “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

So here we have two members of the early church telling a lie, saying that they were donating all of the proceeds from a real-estate sale when in fact they were just donating a portion of it. How does Peter handle this situation? Does he refuse to judge them? Not exactly:

Acts 5:3: “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.”

Not only did Peter harshly rebuke Ananias (and later in the passage, Sapphira), but Ananias actually died. That doesn’t sound like Peter refused to pass judgment on them and just went on about his business. Peter saw sin and he confronted it – and the results weren’t pretty.

Even more striking is what Paul had to say to the Corinthian church. First he told them that he had learned there was sin in their midst:

1 Corinthians 5:1: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.”

Apparently some members of the Corinthian church were guilty of incest – a sin so awful that even the pagan unbelievers around them abhorred it. Does Paul refuse to pass judgment on this? Does he say that we should just live and let live, and the most important thing is to mind our own business? See for yourself:

1 Corinthians 5:2: “And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

This may come as a surprise to many modern Christians, but Paul actually condemns the Corinthian church for not removing this person from their congregation. (The person does seem to be a Christian, for verse 5 mentions the spirit being saved.) In other words Paul doesn’t stop at just condemning the sin; he actually tells the Corinthians that since this person has refused to repent they should not allow him be a part of their church. In fact, the sin is so awful that in verse 5 Paul actually turns the Christian over to Satan so Satan can kill him. (Notice the bit about “the destruction of the flesh” – that sounds an awful lot like death to me.) That is about as far from “don’t be judgmental” as one can possibly get.

But Paul is not done. He has a lot more to say about this:

1 Corinthians 5:6: “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.”

Paul is comparing the sin in the church to yeast and points out that if you add a little yeast to a loaf of bread it causes the entire loaf to rise. Likewise, having a little sin in the church leads to problems and temptations that affect the entire church body. Think of it this way: if Person A is leading a sinful life and it seems to be fine for them, then what kind of example does that set for others? How long will it take for other, weaker Christians to decide to give into sin as well and follow their example? Once the church leadership establishes that a certain sin is acceptable, how long will it be before the congregation decides that it must really be ok after all?

That is why Paul was so adamant that this person be evicted from the church – he didn’t want his appalling behavior to poison the rest of the body. Sin cannot be tolerated among Christians; it has to be dealt with, or else it will have fatal consequences.

But Paul is still not done. He goes on to say that we shouldn’t even associate with Christians who are living sin-filled lives:

1 Corinthians 5:9: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 Yet not altogether the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat.”

Paul doesn’t even want believers to have dinner with Christians who were doing the things he listed in verse 11. Please note that he is not talking about Christians who fall into sin and then repent and turn from it. His focus is on those who have been confronted with their sin but refuse to turn from it. Such people we should avoid. This doesn’t mean that we should ignore them entirely but that we should not have fellowship with them; they’re not to be our companions. Why? Because, as Paul pointed out in verse 6, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Your goodness isn’t going to rub off on them, but their sinfulness will rub off on you. If there is one rotten apple in a barrel of good apples the good apples aren’t going to convert the rotten one; instead, the rotten one will ruin them all.

There are a whole lot of other examples I could list, but let’s end this by going back to Jesus. In Matthew 18 Jesus said this:

Matthew 18:15: “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”

Does Jesus say “If your brother sins against you, don’t judge him”? No. In fact, Jesus commands us to go and tell him his fault. And why are we do to this? So that we can turn the brother around and win him back.

What happens if this doesn’t work? Christ goes on:

Matthew 18:16: “But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.”

So Jesus said that if talking to the brother privately does not work, we should bring along a few more people so that they can correct him as well. If that fails then we should bring it before the church. However, if he doesn’t listen to the church then we should consider the brother to be a pagan. Why? Because he was repeatedly corrected of his sin but he still refused to repent of it. In other words, he decided he would rather knowingly live in sin than live in holiness. This is a truly horrible thing for a believer to do, and we aren’t to hang around such people – for if we do, their sin might rub off on us.

Of course, these days churches would never, ever dream of doing any of this. Churches aren’t going to kick members out because they have deliberately chosen a sinful lifestyle and refused to turn from it. Likewise Christians aren’t going to refuse to associate with a fellow believer who is living a sinful life and refuses to be sorry about it or change his ways. As a body we have decided to not judge one another. As a result, our churches are full of sin and the body has been devastated. Holiness is hard to find these days, but that’s to be expected. After all, Paul did warn us that a little sin goes a long way.

Christ warned us that this would happen. In Matthew 24 the disciples asked Him what the signs would be that His return was just around the corner. This was one of the things He said:

Matthew 24:12: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”

What Jesus is saying here is that in the last days the amount of sin will be so staggering that many people will lose their love – both for God and for one another. It’s easy to see why. After all, if one Christian is refusing the path of holiness and has completely given their life over to sin then why shouldn’t other people do the same? After all, the church isn’t doing anything about it! So the sin of one person spreads and soon whole congregations have simply stopped caring. For many people today a passion for Jesus has been exchanged for a passion for the world. We no longer care about holiness; we’d much rather have all the pleasures that sin has to offer.

So, in reality, the path of “not judging” other people actually leads to rampant sin and apostasy. Far from being “the right thing to do”, it actually destroys people’s lives and kills their love for the Lord. It can even destroy entire churches, as the whole congregation becomes corrupted.

But, sadly, that is the path that many churches have chosen. Jesus recognizes this and He is not happy about it. In Revelation He had this to say about it:

Revelation 3:15: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wast cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of thy mouth.”

In other words, the carnal nature of these churches actually makes Jesus vomit. That’s putting it pretty strongly, but Jesus isn’t done yet. He went on to say this:

Revelation 3:19: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Verse 20 is often used a verse of comfort but it’s actually very frightening. Notice here that Christ is addressing a lukewarm church that couldn’t care less about their Savior. In that church, where does He claim to be? Outside, knocking on the door. Christ is actually outside, asking to be let in! He will forgive them, if they will turn and repent, but right now they don’t have Christ at all – and a church without Christ is not a church.