Judging People

Perhaps, the biggest misunderstanding of God's ways that people have today is about judging. Many people are quick to quote Matthew 7 and point out that Jesus said not to judge, so we must refrain from all judging all the time. That is not what the Bible says.(Ezekiel 22:1,2) It is not even what Jesus says in Matthew 7, if you keep reading. He says to go ahead and talk with the other person about their sin, once you make sure you are right with the Lord. Let me explain.

There are two types of judging. What Jesus forbids is being critical of another person by being negative and putting them down. We are not to do that. However, you can say that a murderer is a murderer without putting him down. You are stating a fact. That is the other kind of judging. We are supposed to judge our own actions and the actions of others to discern if we are sinning or if they are sinning, so we can eliminate sin. If we do not judge in that way, people just continue down the road to destruction.

That is why God commanded Ezekiel to judge the people of the city of Jerusalem for their sins. Once he did that they could repent. Without pointing out the sins, they might not know what to do. We can and should do the same thing, when God lays that on our hearts today. The Bible is full of passages that tell us to do just that. We do it in love, and we do it to help people. In that way, judging people is a good thing.

Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 23-26.