You Should Not Judge Others | Rapp Report Weekly Wrap-up 0006 | Striving for Eternity

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Judging Others by the Right Standard

As we wrap up this week, I want to play all the episodes of the daily podcast that we had for you on The Wrap Report. I hope that you subscribe so you don't miss a single one. But we do want to go through and just help you to understand that this week we talked about the issue of judging other people.

Many people in our culture say that's wrong. You know, when I'm challenged with the idea that we shouldn't judge others, I like to point out that the person is judging me. I will also point out that I don't think there's anything wrong with judging.

The way I like to do it is I will say, I'm married. And then I go silent for a little bit because it gets people wondering, what in the world does marriage have to do with judging? And what I do is then explain that I judged many women not appropriate for me to marry and one that was right for me to marry.

You see, even in the issue of marriage, we judge. We judge all the time. We can't get through life without judging. The issue is, how are we going to judge? What's the standard that we're going to judge?

And as we look with the weekly wrap-up, you're going to see that we're going to provide the answers from Scripture and show you that you're actually commanded to judge not only others, but specifically believers.

The one unbreakable rule in our culture is, you should not judge. Have you ever spoken to someone and said something is wrong or someone is doing something wrong? And someone will say, you shouldn't judge.

Or maybe they're going to even quote a Bible verse and say, judge not, least you be judged. We have a culture that says, you should not judge other people. Now, we're going to deal with this. And we realize that immediately, what are they doing when they tell you that you shouldn't judge others?

Well, if we put our critical thinking hat on, we recognize they are judging us. So they obviously think it's okay to judge as long as they're the ones doing it. And that's the first thing you want to point out to people.

When someone says, you shouldn't judge other people, my response typically is, then why are you judging me? I usually have to explain it because they are so trained to think that they cannot be judging others by giving in to the cultural norm.

And yet the reality is, they judge without even recognizing it. So the first thing I want to do is point out to them what it means to judge other people. The fact is that when they make a judgment that I'm wrong for judging others, that's their judgment.

And it needs to be pointed out that they are judging. And if they think it's wrong to judge, then they should stop it. I don't believe it's wrong to judge other people. The question I always have is, what's the standard that you use to judge others?

That's the issue. You should not judge other people. That is the claim that our culture loves to make. And they'll even quote Matthew 7 verse 1. And Matthew 7 verse 1 says, Judge not that you be not judged.

And that is correct. That is what that verse says. Except they don't continue reading. Never read just a Bible verse. Keep reading to get the context. Judge not that you be not judged. For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but do not see the log in your own eye? The whole issue that you see Jesus raising here is not that we should not judge other people.

He's actually going on in verses 2 and 3 to explain the standard of judgment. That would make absolutely no sense if he's telling us that we shouldn't judge others ever. No, he's raising the issue that when we judge others, it is the question of the standard.

You will never find a Bible verse anywhere that says we should not judge other people, other than by the standard that we judge. It's always an issue of the standard of judgment. So judge not that you be not judged is referring to the Pharisees that were judging the lost sinners and judging them by a standard that they don't hold themselves to.

And Jesus is saying by the standard you judge others, that's the standard you judge yourself. As we start to look at Matthew chapter 7 verse 1, the verse that so many use to say that we shouldn't judge other people, they say judge not that you be not judged.

And yet they ignore that in verse 2 he goes on to state how to judge others. And the issue he's raising is not that we shouldn't judge people, but we shouldn't be hypocrites in the fact that we hold people to a standard we don't hold ourselves.

He makes it really clear in verses 3 to 5 where he says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your eyes so you can see clearly, and take the speck out of your brother's eye.

The issue he was addressing is the Pharisees that were so quick to measure everyone else as being wrong and sinful and unrighteous, and yet they refused to look at themselves and hold themselves to the same standard that they're holding others.

The issue that Jesus was raising in Matthew chapter 7 is not the issue that we shouldn't judge other people. No, he's actually saying we should judge other people because he goes on to give us the standard of judgment.

He's saying that we shouldn't judge as hypocrites. When we judge others, we should be holding ourselves to the same standard that we hold others to. It's very easy to see wrong in other people, even though we may do far worse than they do, because we don't look at what we do as wrong and we accept what we're doing.

This is what he's addressing, the hypocrisy that he sees in the Pharisees. Don't judge as a hypocrite. As we've been discussing this week, the issue of judging other people, it's one thing our culture says we're not supposed to do, as they feel the complete liberty to judge Christians all the time.

What they really are trying to say is that Christians should not judge anybody else, ever. Because Christians state that people are wrong, and the culture doesn't want to be told that. But they have no problem telling Christians they're wrong.

That's the hypocrisy of it. The very thing we talked about yesterday with hypocritical judgment. But here's the question. As Christians, are we commanded to judge others? In fact, the answer to that is yes.

Yes, we are. In John 7, 24, Jesus is speaking, and he says, Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Now, the word judge there is an imperative in the Greek. That means it's a command.

Jesus is commanding us to judge with a right judgment. What's the issue? He's saying, in an imperative, do not judge by appearances, but in an imperative, judge with right judgment. He does command us to judge by right standards, and does command us not to judge by wrong standards.

In other words, we don't judge by the appearance of things, but we judge according to the Word of God. So we hold up the Word of God and say, thus says the Lord. It is okay to judge what others are doing, because we're looking at what they're doing and comparing it to God's Word.

That's the standard that we're commanded to judge by. This week, we've been looking at the issue that comes up constantly for Christians, is when non-believers will tell us, you should not judge. In fact, we hear this often.

And the issue is, is that many people want to believe that we are not allowed to judge other people. Now, we've already looked at this this week, and seen that we are actually commanded to judge by the command of Jesus Christ.

But the thing is, is that when we have people that tell us that we shouldn't judge others, typically what we find is that they don't want us to judge them. That's often the issue. And what we have to do is recognize that we are commanded to judge, and we have to do so rightly.

Now, when Christians tell us this, then we're in a different situation. If a Christian tells us we should not judge, then we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and start reading in verse 12, where it says, for what I have to do with judging outsiders, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. So Paul is saying that we are commanded to judge within the church. Those that try to say we shouldn't, well, they don't have Scripture on their side.

According to Scripture, we should be judging those that say they're of the body of Christ. So we are commanded to judge, and we should judge those in the church according to Scripture. So please judge rightly.

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