Judging And Criticizing Others

by Don Hite

In the Gospel of Luke there are some marvelous passages from Jesus dealing with how we as Christians should judge others.

In simple terms - Jesus said that we are NOT to judge others!

In other words we are not to be critical but show love and compassion for one another as we do for God which is the greatest of all the commandments as Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Here Jesus is quoting scripture and is using Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18 respectively. To judge someone means that you are analyzing or evaluating them looking for faults in them and Judging others is not for us to do but for God to do.

Jesus says in Luke 6:37 that we are not to judge or condemn others or we will be judged and condemned. We must also forgive others so that we will be forgiven by God.

"Do not judge and you will not be judged Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

In the next verse Luke states in verse 6:38 that if we do forgive others - As God forgives us when we repent of our sins - forgiveness will be placed in our laps or in our lives until it overflows.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

When we judge someone we are finding faults in them. As flesh and blood it is easy for us to not see the faults or shortcomings in ourselves but we can see the same faults and shortcomings that we have in others.

Elsewhere in the Gospel of Luke he tells us how to handle this:

Luke 6:41-42 - NIV

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?
How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Here Jesus is simply saying that you must worry and deal with the sins in your life and not in others.

Only then can you help others if you see sin or fault in them. As Jesus said to the adulterous woman who was about to be stoned:

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." John 8:7 – NIV

Here Jesus uses the plank and speck analogy to illustrate his point much like he used parables as he was accustomed to giving.

This is rather humorous but it does get the point across. How can you see clearly a little imperfection – a little speck of sawdust - in someone’s eye when you have a giant one obstructing your view - the entire log plank – stuck in yours?

To see the speck in the others eye you have to remove the plank form yours so that you can see clearly.

On the other hand this does not mean that you are not to ignore the speck of sin in others.

If you so see a speck of sin in others help them to remove it and you will be saving them from death as James tells us:

Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. - James 5:19-20 – NIV

Then heaven will REJOICE because as we see later in the Gospel of Luke that:

Luke 15:7 – NLT

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

So Jesus is telling us that if we are mature spiritually we can detect and help cleanse sin in ourselves and in others and don’t be a hypocrite.

As we are merely flesh and blood we can and do fail from time to time in our walk with God but that does not make us - or them - a hypocrite. A hypocrite in this context is someone who seeks to gain attention or admiration from others by putting on a “I am better than you” attitude.

Paul also tells us in his epistle to the Corinthians that we are to judge nothing not even ourselves for the Lord is the judge:

1 Corinthians 4:5 – NIV

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

We must therefore take on the Law of the Prophets and treat others as we would want them to treat us. We do not want to be judged so don’t judge others. If we have sin in our lives we would also want a fellow Christian who is mature to point it out in our lives and help us to defeat it and be dead to sin.

Matthew 7:12 – NIV

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.