A common phrase heard these days, in various forms, among professing Christians who seem to have swallowed the ‘tolerance’ mantra that doesn’t allow criticism of others’ beliefs, no matter how ‘interesting’ they might be, is this:

“I know some Christians who go to church a lot more than I do and have tons more Bible smarts, but don’t know anything about love, forgiveness or humility. All they know is how to judge others and they have no right.”

Aside from the fact that the above statement, and others like it, are in themselves judgmental, the commonly held belief that we are not to ever judge anyone about anything is simply unbiblical.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. . . . You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”. – Matt 7:1, 5.

Our favorite passages for never judging is first of all speaking of the Pharisees’ practice of judging hypocritically. And concerning logs and eyeballs, notice the “then you will be able to see clearly”, telling us to judge ourselves before judging others.

You could say that what we have in a short passage in Matthew is Jesus’ passing judgment on improper forms of judgment, not a commandment to never judge anything or anyone.

If it isn’t sufficiently clear, consider the following:

Mat 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

Mat 24:11 “And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”

Mat 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

In order to ‘beware’ of false prophets, you have to be able to suspect something might be amiss, apply a standard of judgment, and make a judgment!

While we are not to pass judgment in certain matters, we are to discern between true and false teachers/prophets. We are even given at least one very specific area of judgment in Paul’s letter to the Galatians concerning false teachers:

“As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” – Gal 1:9

In cased you missed it, we should be ‘experts’ in the gospel and be able to spot ‘false’ gospel messages, which means those who would preach/teach a false gospel are false ‘prophets’, who should be treated according to their judged ‘status’.

There are most certainly areas in which we should not be in the ‘judging’ business, but there are other areas where we are commanded to judge, chief among them the gospel message itself.