Judging judgment … (01/20/17)
NOTE: While it is true that Jesus DID call out the sins of others — most often the sins of our callousness and our hypocrisy — and while he DID tell us to “judge with divine judgment” (in John 7:24), he ALSO said — over & over & over again — that we cannot attain the Kingdom of Heaven unless we choose to become “humble as a child” (Matthew 18:3-4 & Matthew 23:12 et al), to be loving towards even our enemies (Matthew 5:40-48), and to NOT judge others (Matthew 7:1-2) … So, either Jesus has contradicted himself here (and is himself the very hypocrite he loathes) OR he is speaking of two very different kinds of “judgment” — one he supports (John 7:24) and one he rejects (Matthew 7:1-2).
Fortunately, when we look to the actual words used in the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures, we can see that the latter is indeed the case … The first major distinction has to do with the difference between the “judgments” we make against who others ARE (i.e. the judgments prohibited by Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5) and the “righteous judgments” we make against what others are DOING that is causing third parties physical &/or emotional harm (i.e. the judgments encouraged by Jesus in John 7:24). Importantly, the actual Hebrew word found for “judgment” in the Old Testament is mishphat (Strong’s #4941) – a term which actually meant “justice”, NOT “condemnation” or “correction” … So, we are to call out the specific behaviors of others that are causing innocents to be harmed and we are NOT to judge those sinners themselves in any way. That is not our affair, and we cannot remain “humble as a child” if we do so.
Just as importantly, krsis was the Greek word (Strong’s #2920) that has been translated in English versions of the New Testament as “judgment”. And this word (which does indeed imply the passing of a sentence upon another) and its derivatives are the ones used in both Matthew 7:1-2 and John 7:24 … And most importantly of all, this “judgment” in John 7:24 is MODIFIED by the Greek word dikaios – a term which means “just” or “impartial” or “correct” more than its more common translation of “righteous”. And here is where the distinction lies – for those who criticize the beliefs or the values or the non-harmful behaviors of others are not passing “correct judgment” on them at all. Instead, their open and cowardly denigrations of entire subsets of the American population are actually UNRIGHTEOUS judgments, and are therefore a direct violation of BOTH Matthew 7:1-2 & John 7:24!
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