When Some Roman Catholics Say "Judge Not and You'll Not Be Judged"
Matthew 7:1-5
“Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, 2 for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. 3 Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? 4 How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Luke 6:37
37 “Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others, and God will forgive you.
Let me get this straight - I'm not here to be the final judge. In fact, the Scriptures also command to judge righteous judgment. The judgment talked about is to be discerning.
John 7:24
Stop judging by external standards, and judge by true standards.”
This is really where I want to tell Catholics that I'm not here to be their final judge. I'm here to judge righteously the doctrine that has caught them in error. To judge by true standards is to measure what Catholicism teaches with what the Bible says. That is, to really see the context. I'm not judging them. Rather, I'm presenting God's righteous judgment as the standard to tell them that they're wrong and that their practices are unbiblical. It's a call to discern and not a call for me to damn or condemn people.
First, Matthew 7:1-5 says that the problem is not judging but being judgmental. We're told that before we're to judge others for their mistakes - we ought to judge ourselves first. The problem is when you see only the faults of others but never your own faults. Isn't it very typical that happens? I'm not saying I haven't been guilty of being judgmental. To be judgmental means to have the tendency to judge harshly or often unfairly - which is something Jesus is forbidding. Jesus is saying not to judge others but to rather judge their actions instead.
In short, we're warned about being judgmental and not having judgment itself. It's good to have judgment but only when it's a righteous judgment. When Jesus said don't judge - He didn't mean that judgment is wrong. It's all about being judgmental that would be very wrong. This isn't about judging people - it's about judging their actions, telling them they're wrong as a friendly warning. It's judging false doctrine as false based on God's standards - not judging people as the final judge.
If you're a Catholic reading this - please note I'm not here to judge you. I wrote this blog to give righteous judgment to help you see the truth. I can't be your judge but I can certainly judge right and wrong based on God's true standards. I'm just here to tell you that you're wrong, that you're stuck in error and to tell you what the Bible really says for your sake.