Many Christians tend to shy away from taking a strong stand for God. They defend their position by quoting Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” But continue reading.
Matthew 7:2 states, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” These two passages aren’t telling us not to judge, they’re telling us to make sure we do it according to God’s rules.
In Matt 7:15-20 Jesus himself tells us to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. He says we’ll know them by their fruits. How are we to find the wolves among us if we don’t evaluate (judge) a person’s actions (fruits)? God gives us a long list of rules in Leviticus and Deuteronomy precisely so we can judge each other. He even set human judges over Israel before they had kings. It’s our duty to judge each other, as Paul says in 1 Cor 6:2 “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” The trick lays in the measuring stick we use.
If we judge by our own rules, our own feelings, our own opinions, then we are not following God’s rules and we endanger ourselves (according to Matt 7:2). But, if we use God’s rules when we judge, then we judge righteously and we use a measure we’d gladly have used on us. God’s rules are sound and trustworthy. He gave them to us with the expectation that we’d use them to judge ourselves. Saying that we should never judge negates God’s purpose for giving us the rules in the first place.
Judging by God’s standards allows us to take a strong stand for God and assures us that we’re standing on solid ground. Any other ground is sinking sand.
