“Only God can judge me.”
“Only God knows my heart.”
If you’re online a fraction of the time I am, you’ve heard these phrases. I see them used, to my alarm, by a lot of Christians. These phrases can express a legitimate concern about self-righteousness and the limits of human judgment. But I’ve increasingly seen them used to shut down legitimate criticism of wrong or harmful behavior and to avoid difficult conversations.
I think this way of thinking is far from biblically correct, and thus very dangerous for Christians. It’s a conversation worth having about judgment in the life of the Christian, which is what I’m aiming to do here. I’ve been chewing on this topic for no less than two years, and I think I’ve finally got the words right to express my thoughts.
Strap in.
To communicate properly, let’s start by defining some terms. When we use the word “judge,” what does it actually mean? Setting aside the courtroom context, Merriam-Webster defines it as forming an opinion or “to think about evidence or facts carefully to reach a conclusion or make an assessment.”
As Christians, we are actually commanded to judge in this way.
“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)
“Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:20)
“Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.” (1 Corinthians 5:12–13)
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)
“Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3)
These are only a handful of verses, but from them we can draw a few basic conclusions:
- Christians have the responsibility to judge the behavior and fruit of their fellow believers.
- Christians are expected to confront one another about sin. This requires judgment to discern whether sin has taken place.
The Bible is clear: Christians have been given the responsibility to judge.
The deeper issue behind these disagreements, I think, is what happens after we’ve made that judgment. We have not been given the responsibility to judge for the purposes of resentment, slander, or gossip.
I’ll lay my cards on the table and tell you the point I’m hoping to convince you of: Christians have been given the responsibility to judge their brothers and sisters for the purpose of restoring one another, reconciliation, and mutual sanctification. This is a sacred and vulnerable task that we must handle carefully in Christ, so that the end result is reconciliation and restoration, as much as it depends on us.
Truly biblical judgment is not antithetical to Christlikeness or Christian love, but one of the ways that love can be expressed.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t address Matthew 7:1, where Jesus famously says, “Judge not, lest you also be judged.”
Taken out of context, this verse seems to contradict the commands we’ve just examined about how to judge. Read in isolation, it seems to command Christians not to judge at all.
This is why context matters.
In this passage, Jesus talks about removing the log from your own eye so that you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Jesus is not simply prohibiting us from recognizing sin in another person. Rather, He warns against condemning someone for their sin while remaining blind to our own.
Jesus is warning against hypocrisy and condemnation.
And I think that’s what people are often trying to escape when they say, “Only God can judge me.”
It is entirely true and Biblical that only God knows the innermost state of a person’s heart, motives, and passions.
But the same Bible that acknowledges this gap in human knowledge also tells us to judge and restore one another.
Which brings me to my closing argument: if we judge that a brother or sister has sinned and then use that knowledge to slander, gossip, or create division, we are sinning ourselves and failing to exercise judgment rightly.
And I think that’s the point.
What we do next with our judgment is what matters: restoration and sanctification, or more sin and damage to the body of Christ?
As I’ve been digging into this topic, my own soul has been convicted about how I respond to the sin of my fellow Christians. I hope you’ll think through this topic with the Lord as well. Only good can come from wrestling through hard topics like these with Him!
In closing, I’ll leave you with this passage:
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone, and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.”
Galatians 6:1–5
—M
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