Examining Matthew 7:1
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” — Matthew 7:1 (NRSV)
I have often called this little verse the most violated verse in the New Testament. Christians regularly take it upon themselves to judge one another and also to judge non-Christians. At the same time, this is one of the most misinterpreted verses on the New Testament, and perhaps those two factors come together. When we cannot be sure just what a text means, it’s quite possible we’ll find it hard to obey.
Some Christians treat this as a command to shut down their brains. No judgment, no opinion, no decision can be criticized, especially when made by someone else who claims to be a Christian. In the eyes of this group of Christians it is especially wrong to judge whether someone is or is not a Christian. Thus if a politician claims to be born again, they are likely to provide support. How can you question this person’s sincere testimony? It is also wrong, according to this view, to make a judgment about a ministry and whether it is serving God or not. Any form of criticism is called “going against God’s anointed” and is regarded as a dangerous sin.
Under this view, church pastors and leaders of ministries can often get by with very dangerous teachings and grievous sins because the membership feels that they cannot come to a decision, cannot judge, and cannot come to a verdict. Often people will continue to support a ministry concerning which they have serious questions because they are afraid of violating the command not to judge.
On the other hand we have a group of folks who go straight to Matthew 7:15-20. “Not so,” they say to the first group. “You can’t judge, but you can inspect fruit.” And it turns out that in this view there is really nothing that is actually forbidden; you just have to rename it. Am I judging a pastor when I accuse him of heresy? No, I’m not. I’m just inspecting the fruit. Is the church board judging when it removes someone from a church office because of an offense? No, they are just exercising their job and inspecting the fruit. Is the church congregation judging when they hound someone caught in sexual sin out of the church? No, they just inspected the fruit and then made sure that the body of Christ in their congregation was pure, that the sin was eliminated.
Many readers will likely complain at this point that I have mixed good and bad examples together on both sides, and I do believe that I have done precisely that. The point is that we have two ways in view here of missing the point. The first group makes Matthew 7:1 an absolute, irrespective of other commands, and if they carry their view to its logical conclusion (fortunately few do), they can make it impossible to act either as individuals or as a church congregation. The second group really can’t live with Matthew 7:1, so they have found a ready made excuse in “fruit inspection.” The result in their case can be dissension and destruction of spiritual lives, and may even extend to the destruction of physical lives.
I’d like to recommend my essay on wisdom literature, and particularly the part about the toolkit. I recommend that when you find two passages of scripture recommending radically different courses of action, you check to see if the toolkit metaphor will help untangle the situation.
Those who try to solve the problems of Matthew 7:1 by using Matthew 7:15-20 as an exception have some difficulty here. If you look at the context of Matthew 7:1 by reading on into verse two, you find the reasoning behind the command in the first verse. You’re going to get judged in the way that you judge. So how do you want to be judged? But you could apply the same reasoning to fruit inspection. According to the standards you use in fruit inspection, you’re going to have your fruit inspected. Do you like this second possibility any better than the first?
Then you might consider the skeptical position. Isn’t Matthew 7:1 an example of moral cowardice? If you just don’t pass judgment on anyone else, they’ll let you by with everything too. Do you think that is what Jesus was aiming at here? Especially considering the rest of the chapter, I think not.
That’s why I brought up interpreting proverbs, even though this isn’t precisely a collection of proverbs. A proverb states something briefly, but doesn’t have time or space to deal with all the circumstances, the possible exceptions, and the nuances. It provides a general rule. When we come upon this, we have to first consider the precise meaning of the statement, then look at the circumstances, and then see what task this tool fits.
Now if you’re following through on some of my study methods, this would be a good time to read through the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) a couple of times, and then also to compare several translations of Matthew 7:1. The CEV and The Message both have interesting perspectives on this verse. I have looked at the uses of the Greek word for “judge” in this passage, but I’m not going to use them in my discussion.
I think we can get what we need simply by using the context and being careful with our definitions of English words. Let’s start by looking at the word judge. What options does this word bring to mind? What are the various things we migh call “judging?” What we’re doing here is getting the range of meaning that the word has. Amongst the common uses you may think of are:
- Acting as a judge in a court.
- Making decisions between different actions or courses of action
- Criticizing
- Condemning
- Passing out punishment
- Discriminating
- Choosing
We should notice that item #1, acting as a judge, generally involves all of the activities I listed.
So what is it that Jesus is telling us not to do? If we continue reading verses 2-4 we’ll find first that we are going to receive judgment in the way that we judge. Then in verse 3 and 4, we are pointed to the odd situation of how small our own defects can seem beside what appear to us huge defects in our neighbor. Jesus very quickly provides the context for his short, pithy statement. He’s talking about criticizing and condemning one another. So we eliminate the options of simply acting as a judge or making decisions about one’s life; these are not what Jesus is talking about. We’re specifically concerned with how we relate to one another in our community.
That still leaves some questions. We get to verse 15, and we find that we are to be wary of false prophets. OK, in this case, if someone in the community claims to be a prophet, and they are not, then there is an action that we must take. We are now required to be critical–use critical judgment on–a member of the community and keep away from them under a particular set of circumstances. If I might call in an Old Testament context here, Deuteronomy 13 comes to mind, in which one is commanded to pass judgment on a false prophet, defined there as one who tells you to worship other gods, and to condemn such a person to death. Jesus doesn’t specify any penalty here, other than to be wary of them.
He also tells us how we are to locate them–by their fruits. The specific example of false prophets is used, but do you think this might apply to other people who are bringing a false message? Jesus is telling us that there is a need to be wary. In fact, if you continue through the chapter, verses 21-23 tell us that there will be people who show signs of being followers of Jesus, and who turn out not to be followers. Their fruit does not include obedience to Jesus.
Time to bring out the toolkit again! I think we can all recall circumstances in which the ministry of a church was severely damaged by either extreme that I’ve mentioned. But I would suggest its not merely an extreme; it’s not merely that you need to find some sort of balance between forgiveness and criticism. What’s needed is wisdom and discernment to appy the right tool at the right time. And I would suggest that Matthew 7:15-20 provides us a way to discover which tool is to be used. Simply ask the question, which is going to produce the best fruit?
It may be that sin needs to be removed from the congregation in order for the kingdom to be built. But beware of using condemnation to make your life more comfortable. What will forgiveness accomplish? What can be done by taking a stand? To belabor my point about definitions, before you decide whether your tool is tolerance (judge not) or fruit inspection (be very careful), you need to judge the situation wisely.
God has given you a toolkit, but you have to judge the right tool for the job.
