If You Accuse Someone of Judging, You’re Judging. Period.

No one likes a judgmental Christian. But most people are more than happy to snap out an instant judgment that someone else is judging them.

They do exactly what they accuse others of doing by assuming someone else is doing it. “I disagree with you,” isn’t powerful enough without being punctuated with, “because you’re looking down on me, you hater!”

Judging is the ultimate insult. But it’s ironic. Only judgers accuse people of judging.

It’s the same way only people who cause drama complain about drama. People who start drama complain about it. People who don’t never have to.

This is a fact of life, along with other intellectual absolutes like “He who smelt it dealt it.”

But you might be surprised what God really says about judging.

Because God wants people to judge.

Jesus says,

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7.24

Sure, a national media frenzy paints Christians as hate-filled, black-robed municipals for spoiling the world’s fun, but the truth is God wants you to judge. Not by how things appear like every other person who calls out “hater!” or “judgmental!” at the slightest deviation from a social norm on Facebook, but with “right judgment.” And here’s how:

Five Reasons God Wants You to Judge

1. God wants you to judge spiritual discernment.

Here’s a shocker:

The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. (1 Corinthians 2.15)

If you’re a Christian, God gives you discernment into life situations, and he wants you to see with spiritually discerning eyes. Unfortunately, that’s not something your friends who haven’t accepted Jesus’ teaching are going to see:

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2.14)

Don’t leave truth for a social norm. That’s what it means by using “right judgment.” Jesus only says it because wrong is easy.

2. God wants you to judge truth using the Word of God.

You’re going to be hated for this — whether on abortion, alternate lifestyles, women in ministry, or gettin’ Krunk. But so was Jesus by the people of his day.

Please listen carefully, because this is essential.

Jesus wasn’t hated because he judged people. He was hated because he judged truth.

And that’s okay. He calls you to that same kind of judgment.

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4.2

You can’t preach, reprove, rebuke, or exhort if you don’t discern, weigh, or judge. But you can do it so people know you love them as much as what you’re saying.

3. God wants you to judge your advice to fellow Christians with humility.

Jesus says,

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7.5)

If you aren’t careful about recognizing sin that clouds your judgment, you’ll never see properly to help anyone else.

This is a fascinating truth.

It reveals your issues are what blind you to see truth in others’ lives. And it also implies God does want you to be able to see clearly to help them, just not with a critical spirit.

4. God wants you to judge teachers of truth using wisdom.

Jesus warns you to judge the behaviors of false Bible teachers.

“Beware of false prophets….You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Matthew 7.15-19

This is to protect you, not to hate people. You have to judge matters of truth to know what will set you free.

5. God wants you to judge sin in the church to protect innocent people, NOT to judge people in the world.

Paul tells us to judge unrepentant sin inside the church:

A man is sleeping with his father’s wife…. I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled… hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5.1-4)

He sums it up,

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5.12-13)

This is to protect people, not to hate them.

Jesus didn’t hold up a sign or demean people on Facebook. Because he knew they stand condemned already.

Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3.18)

Jesus died to set you free from sin, not to judge you by it. But he will not change the meaning of sin. That’s impossible for him, a rock immovable enough he had to die to overcome it. But Jesus’ LOVE is the irresistable force that overcame. If you simply repent and follow him.

Jesus says,

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8.31-32)

Judging with “right judgment” doesn’t condemn you. It sets you free. It brings you to the WAY who gives you everlasting life. But there’s one kind of judging God warns about.

God warns you to run as fast as you can away from judging another person’s heart.

Jesus says,

Judge not, that you be not judged. (Matthew 7.1)

For,

The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16.7)

God wants you to judge with “right judgment,” but he doesn’t want you to judge another person’s heart.

Ironically, that’s the type of judging people do when they accuse you of judging them.

And that’s the one kind of judgment God hates.