John 7:24 … Judging the judging (04/14/17)
“Avoid judging by appearances.
Discern instead with Right Vision.”
~ Jesus (John 7:24)
First & foremost, please note that I have Purpose-fully altered the wording of this verse – a verse which normally reads “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment”, and I have done so very good reason; namely, to make the verse more accurate, to make the verse more understandable, to make the verse more applicable to the everyday lives of its readers, and to make the verse more harmonious with The Way of Christ.
Please allow me to explain …
It has been my experience that this particular verse is frequently used by conservative Christians to justify their bigoted condemnations of others – be those others homosexuals, transgenders, “sinners,” non-Christians, or even non-evangelical Christians. This interpretation not only seems to specifically contradict the very clear wording of Matthew 7:1-2 (“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”) but it also seems to generally contradict the essence of Jesus’ entire ministry of humble Love as well (see Matthew 18:3-4 & Matthew 23:12 & John 8:7 et al).
Of course, when we take a step back and have the wherewithal to examine the ancient Greek of these two verses, a reconciliation becomes readily evident. For, as it turns out, the major misconception here has to do once with the difference between the “judgments” we make against who others are (i.e. the judgments prohibited by Jesus in Matthew 7:1-5 – like what bigoted believers do to those who trigger their particular prejudices) and the “righteous judgments” we make against the deeds others do that cause third parties physical &/or emotional harm (i.e. the judgments encouraged by Jesus in John 7:24 – like what animal rights activists do to get animal abusers to stop enslaving, abusing, & murdering innocent animals) …
Accordingly, the Hebrew word for “judgment” in the Old Testament is “mishphat” (Strong’s #4941) – a term which actually meant “justice”, not “condemnation” or “correction.” Of course, far more important for the discussion at hand, “krisis” 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 in John 7:24. Most importantly of all, the latter “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 this is where the distinction lives – for conservative Christians who use John 7:24 to justify their bigoted beliefs are not passing “correct judgment” on others at all. Instead, they are hypocritically opening their mouths to publicly condemn states of being that are not even listed as sins. As such, their denigrations of others is actually an unrighteous judgment of others, and therefore a direct violation of both Matthew 7:1-2 and John 7:24 …
And this is why I altered the language of John 7:24 above, for while we are most certainly not to condemn others for their beliefs or their cultural affiliations or their gender or their race or the sexual orientations (Matthew 7:1-2 et al), we most certainly are to “discern” the actions of others “with righteous judgment” — that we can thereby identify actions that are causing the innocent to suffer, so that we might interfere and prevent the same.
Amen … Let it be so.
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