Judging

My serious concern about judging began after an unusual encounter. I was walking with two others on the streets of Portland Oregon doing an assigned street ministry from a conference there. A homeless man was before me and it was my turn for sharing the gospel tract we were supposed to practice. I greeted him, visited with small talk and then began the questions that were on the back of the tract. The untidy, long haired gentleman answered them but he always seemed to be one question ahead of me in his answers. This unsettled me. I tried to regain control of the conversation but I couldn’t. Eventually I put the paper away because he said he believed in Jesus. In fact he pulled out of his ragged backpack a great big used leather Bible! He plopped the Bible on top of the nearby city garbage can and opened to Matthew 7. He looked me straight in the eye and gently preached to me about judging. He read the passage to me. I respectfully listened to him as he seemed to have taken the lead and was teaching me. He quietly explained how serious a thing it was to judge a person. Eventually the talk waned and we parted ways with blessings. I was quietly pensive while walking with my two team members. After about a quarter of mile, I turned to them and said, “Oh my word! That guy was an angel! His eyes were so clear, and pure blue! That was an angel giving me a message!!” I’m not sure they believed me but they believed that I knew it. That experience is when I got serious to beware of judging people! It comes so easily to me and I have to pray often about it. Here’s the scripture passage the angel gave me:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “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, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 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 7:1-5

What exactly is judging? Judging is a statement we speak out loud or think in our thoughts that expresses an opinion of ‘guilty’ on a person. This opinion and statement could be true but truth is not the issue in judgments. Making judgments is more than just acknowledging that a person did something or said something. Judgments assume that we know their character and we deem them as wrongdoers. We decide their motives and declare the actions as wrongdoing.

If the concept of judging is still confusing to you, click on the arrow for more explanation:

Let’s say Jon cheated you out of some money and basically stole it from you. Here’s some judging statements, so easy to speak in this difficult situation: Jon’s a swindler. Jon’s a thief. Jon should be put in prison because he’s a cheat. Jon should get what he deserves because he’s a double-crossing, con-man, scammer.

How can we express and comment on what Jon did when we are so angry? Why can’t we just vent our anger we feel about him? It is because God loves mercy rather than judgment. (James 2:16; Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:7) Jon sinned, yes, but we have sinned too. So in putting lost money as priority rather than sadness for the destructive path Jon has begun to walk, we are in danger of idolatry and worshipping money rather than God. It is a heart issue–we love what God loves–mercy, people.

Here’s some non judgmental statements: Sadly, Jon has cheated us and taken our money which wasn’t his. Sadly, Jon defrauded us and absconded with our funds. Sadly, Jon conned us and stole our money. Regrettably, Jon deceived us and misappropriated our funds. Unfortunately, Jon tricked us and stole money that wasn’t his to take. Sadly, Jon swindled us, making off with money that rightfully belonged to us.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
“Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”
“Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”

Luke 6:37-38; Rom. 2:1; Rom. 14:4

So besides disobeying Jesus who has said not to judge, what are the consequences of judging other people and making ungodly judgments? Sadly, they are very nasty. Here are some listed:

• When we judge others we get judged by God–disciplined for disobedience.
• When we judge others we get judged negatively by other people. If we only judge a little, then we receive only a mild condemnation from others. If we judge harshly and continuously, we will receive large amounts of the same from others.
• When we judge others, some type of negativity will come into our lives in that same area that we judged someone else. Even the world has acknowledged that this happens through the colloquialism: “What comes around goes around.”
• When we judge others with a condemning statement, we can be assured that we are doing the same thing in our own lives. Otherwise we wouldn’t have noticed their errors. This is the plank and sawdust principle of Matthew 7.
• When we judge others a similar thing to what we judged will happen in our own lives but most likely in a different area of our lives than the area of the person whom we judged.
• When we judge sadly we tie up our physical and spiritual lives. Often we are pained and suffering without even realizing the source. As children we judge our parents because we are angry or upset and we don’t understand. However Jesus has given us a life principle for this world. Judging goes somewhere and does serious negative things whether we know it, believe it, deny it and it doesn’t matter how old we are.
• Judging is so serious because it eventually opens doors in our lives for evil spirits–evil religious spirits to enter. This was the problem of the Pharisees in the Bible. They judged Jesus, did not repent and opened doors for evil religious spirits. Due to these evil demons, judging grew to hatred and hatred to murder.

However it is important to deal with the past judgments that we have made about others. We want to untangle and untie any consequences of these that are evident in our lives.

I have put it into a sheet format you can download and use in ministry.

But again, the main thing is to pray and listen to what the Holy Spirit says to do.

Thanks to Laurie Gross for help in creating the sheet “I want to Break Ungodly Judgments!”

If you connect with this blog episode, and desire a freedom in the area of finances, we encourage you to go to Amazon and purchase our book with personal activations and engagements to help you heal and deal with these issues. Financial Healing: A Spiritual Journey by Richard and Jackie Nalos is available in soft cover or Kindle on Amazon.

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