Among many of today's professing Christians, it is commonly believed that judging the sins of others violates the teaching of the Bible. “Judge not that ye be not judged” (Mat. 7:1) seems to be one of the most often quoted Scripture verses in modern Evangelicalism. But isolating one verse in the Scriptures and interpreting it not only outside of its immediate context, but also outside of the context of the entirety of the Bible, almost always produces an erroneous doctrine and such is the case here.
In order to determine what God really says about judgment, let's look at Mat. 7:1 in the context in which God has placed it. Then we shall proceed to see what the rest of the Bible has to say about judgment.
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 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.” (Mat. 7:1-5)
In this passage, is Christ telling us that we are to make no judgments at all about anyone, or is he telling us not to be self-righteous by judging others without first judging ourselves and not to be hypocritical by judging others with a different standard from that with which we judge ourselves? Obviously, the latter is the case. It is self-righteousness and hypocritical judgment that is being condemned here, not all judgment. We have to judge others with the same judgment and by the same measure that we use to ...