Monday 24/09/12

Matthew 7:1-2 ESV

Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Judge here means rash, hasty, opinionated condemning others. Christ didn't talk about legal judgement of the magistrate here, for it is right and necessary. Christ also didn't discourage evaluating & forming opinion on the good & evil of other people's conduct, it's impossible and dangerous not to do so. But rash, harsh, opinionated judgement causes strife and break peace within the community.

A rule of thumb Jesus gave to distinguish between right judgement and wrong judgement is whether we find it fair and comfortable if we are under the same judgement. Even then, we need to have grace and mercy to ready to forgive others as God has forgiven us in our other sins.

So we need to be merciful, graceful and self evaluating before we evaluate others. The goal is not to condemn, but to help them understand the bad consequences and sin no more.