WOW--Writing On the Word: Does the Bible Teach Us Not to Judge? By Gail Purath

I wrote a devotion about the harm of reading immoral books and when I put it on Bible Love Notes Pinterest page, a woman commented: “The Lord also said 'judge not.' have you read it?”

Her misunderstanding is common. Many people think that the Bible prohibits us from judging anything beyond our own sins.

But the "Judge not" passage (Matthew 7:1-5), when read in context, actually teaches us these points:

Don’t judge others with a different standard than you judge yourself.
Judge your own sins first, because unrepentant sin alters your "vision" (perspective).
If you appropriately deal with your sins, you’ll be able to appropriately judge others' sins.

This passage prohibits hypocritical judging, not judging in general.

So why have we so easily accepted this false notion?

Because Satan has been twisting Scripture from the beginning of time to confuse us and make us soft on sin.

But we can refuse Satan's counsel by checking everything, even out-of-context Scripture passages, against the full truth of God's Word.

Matthew 7: 1-5: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Some other examples in Scripture where we are called to judge: 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 1 Corinthians 15:33-34;
For extra info on this, read Who Are We To Judge, a Christianity Today article.
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