Reference: Judging
Hastings
The subject of ethical judging meets us frequently in the NT. 1. It is the right and duty of a moral being to judge of the goodness or badness of actions and qualities; and Christianity, by exalting the moral standard and quickening the conscience, makes ethical judgments more obligatory than before. In cases where our judgments are impersonal there is no difficulty as to the exercise of this right. As possessed of a conscience, a man is called upon to view the world in the discriminating light of the moral law (Ro 2:14 ff., 2Co 4:2). As possessed of a Christian conscience, a Christian man must test everything by the law of Christ (Php 1:10 Revised Version margin, 1Th 5:21). 'He that is spiritual judgeth all things' (1Co 2:15).
2. So far all is clear. But when we pass to the sphere of judgments regarding persons, the case is not so simple. It might seem at first almost as if in the NT all judgment of persons were forbidden. There is our Lord's emphatic 'Judge not' (Mt 7:1). There is St. Paul's demand, 'Why dost thou judge thy brother?' (Ro 14:10), his injunction, 'Let us not therefore judge one another' (Ro 14:13), his bold claim that he that is spiritual is judged of no man (1Co 2:15). There is the assertion of St. James that the man who judges his brother is making himself a judge of the law (Jas 4:11), i.e. the royal law of love (cf. Jas 2:8). But it is impossible to judge of actions and qualities without passing on to judge the persons who perform them or in whom they inhere. If an action is sinful, the person who commits it is sinful; indeed, the moral quality of an action springs from its association with a moral personality. In condemning anything as wrong, we necessarily condemn the person who has been guilty of it. And when we look more closely at the teaching of the NT, we find that it is not judgment of others that is forbidden, but unfair judgment
See Verses Found in Dictionary
'Judge not, that ye may not be judged,
And why dost thou behold the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and the beam that is in thine own eye dost not consider?
and he having turned, said to Peter, 'Get thee behind me, adversary! thou art a stumbling-block to me, for thou dost not mind the things of God, but the things of men.'
'Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut up the reign of the heavens before men, for ye do not go in, nor those going in do ye suffer to enter.
And Jesus having looked upon him, did love him, and said to him, 'One thing thou dost lack; go away, whatever thou hast -- sell, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, be following me, having taken up the cross.'
and he said to them, 'Having gone, say to this fox, Lo, I cast forth demons, and perfect cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am being perfected;
Jesus saw Nathanael coming unto him, and he saith concerning him, 'Lo, truly an Israelite, in whom guile is not;'
Jesus answered them, 'Did not I choose you -- the twelve? and of you -- one is a devil.
judge not according to appearance, but the righteous judgment judge.'
'Ye according to the flesh do judge; I do not judge any one,
Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man -- every one who is judging -- for in that in which thou dost judge the other, thyself thou dost condemn, for the same things thou dost practise who art judging,
For, when nations that have not a law, by nature may do the things of the law, these not having a law -- to themselves are a law;
And thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand at the tribunal of the Christ;
And thou, why dost thou judge thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand at the tribunal of the Christ;
no longer, therefore, may we judge one another, but this judge ye rather, not to put a stumbling-stone before the brother, or an offence.
and he who is spiritual, doth discern indeed all things, and he himself is by no one discerned;
and he who is spiritual, doth discern indeed all things, and he himself is by no one discerned;
so, then, nothing before the time judge ye, till the Lord may come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of the darkness, and will manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then the praise shall come to each from God.
and conscience, I say, not of thyself, but of the other, for why is it that my liberty is judged by another's conscience?
but did renounce for ourselves the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor deceitfully using the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth recommending ourselves unto every conscience of men, before God;
for your proving the things that differ, that ye may be pure and offenceless -- to a day of Christ,
all things prove; that which is good hold fast;
If, indeed, royal law ye complete, according to the Writing, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' -- ye do well;
Speak not one against another, brethren; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, doth speak against law, and doth judge law, and if law thou dost judge, thou art not a doer of law but a judge;
Speak not one against another, brethren; he who is speaking against a brother, and is judging his brother, doth speak against law, and doth judge law, and if law thou dost judge, thou art not a doer of law but a judge;