To judge or not to judge.
Broad prohibitions on judgment contrast with commands to judge fairly and exercise judgment within the religious community.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Absolute-sounding bans on judgment meet explicit duties to judge, but scope, grounds, and timing distinguish many cases.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
People are told not to judge others or judge before God's arrival
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
People must judge rightly and the community judges its members
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
Understanding the contradiction
Matthew 7:1 says not to judge, and Luke 6:37 pairs that instruction with avoiding condemnation. Some other restrictions are narrower: Romans 2:1 targets a judge committing the same offense, and 1 Corinthians 4:5 forbids judgment before hidden motives are disclosed by the Lord.
Leviticus 19:15 commands righteous judgment without favoritism. John 7:24 explicitly substitutes righteous judgment for judgment by appearance. In 1 Corinthians 5:3, Paul says he has already judged, while 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 directs the community to judge insiders and remove an offender. The differing kinds, grounds, and timing of judgment prevent every example from being a direct contradiction. Still, an unrestricted reading of do not judge cannot stand alongside explicit duties to judge. The collection requires distinctions that its brief absolute formulations do not themselves state.