"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)
This was my pre-loaded response for any one who ever uttered Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” Weak christians thought that verse meant you aren’t supposed to judge people. I knew better. In our bible studies, sermons, and conversations we often condemned people. We weren’t cruel, we used scripture (so we judged scripturally), it’s a very common thought process… you know the drill. Nothing new here.
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)
However, I have to admit, my early bible study was not very transformative, it was an apologetic for the things I already did. I viewed the Bible as a book about moralism, among other things. A guide to behavior, and with that a license to judge everyone’s behavior who didn’t match with my understanding of the Bible.
I was asked to teach a youth class when I was 17 years old. In the particular church that I grew up in the tradition that was handed down to me, for the purpose of our public teaching, was to defend the way we did things and condemn other groups who did things differently than us. Are you seeing the same two birds one stone moment that I was? The idea popped into my head, a lesson on judging! I could defend the way we did things, and show how other people were too soft for not having the backbone to judge. As embarrassing as it is, the way I prepared lessons back then was by deciding what I wanted to teach and then finding a lists of proof-texts. So as I looked through a concordance, I flipped to the section on judging. I found my answer, after skipping some verses that weren’t so helpful to my cause. My apologetic in one easy response. The permission to judge! Right there in red letters, our Lord giving the command to “judge with righteous judgement”.
What didn't yet occur to me until much later in my spiritual maturation, is that maybe this verse doesn’t mean what it “appears” to mean. See what I did there. I judged the verse according to it’s appearance. I don’t know when this occurred to me. I think it was when I was reading through John and had forgot to put up my defenses. I had no idea this verse was sneaking up on me and up until this point I had no idea the reason that had Jesus said it. Imagine how puzzled I felt when I realized that Jesus wasn't using the phrase like I was. It wasn't primarily permission to judge, it was a critique of our common practice of condemning people with an underwhelming proof-text. Ouch!
Imagine how puzzled I felt when I realized that Jesus wasn't using the phrase like I was. It wasn't primarily permission to judge, it was a critique of our common practice of condemning people with an underwhelming proof-text. Ouch!
Read it for yourself in John 7:19-24, Jesus reveals that the present crowd of Jews sought to kill him, and this for healing a man on the Sabbath. This reference jumps all the way back to John 5:1-18. You won’t find Jesus judging in John 5:1-18, but healing. In all appearance, Jesus had sinned because this healing was on the sabbath. This is so clear that John adaptively calls what Jesus did “breaking the sabbath” (John 5:18).
Imagine how much more puzzled I was as this text worked on my heart. If I were there, and placed my own judgment on the situation in the way that I thought you were supposed to, then I would be one of the ones condemning Jesus. I mean in appearance he had sinned. Jesus told an ill man to pick up his pallet on the sabbath. The Jews weren’t just being mean, or ignoring scripture, look for yourself. Their own scriptures, outside of a blanket condemnation of sabbath work in the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:8), also included precedent. The precedent to which I am referring is the time the people of Israel found a guy picking up sticks in the wilderness (Numbers 15:32-36). His judgement was to be put to death. It somehow seems ironic that picking up sticks is work, but picking up throwing stones is not. That’s the text though. Says what it says.
Yet, Jesus commanded this guy to pick up his pallet, and then says both the Father and he was working (John 5:17). WORKING. On the SABBATH just to be clear.
I’m not saying ignore the nuance of the text, I’m sure there are 100 things that I don’t know about it. That’s actually the point. Are we really ready to sit on thrones of judgement and be as ignorant as we are. If so… yikes.
So really how different is their condemnation than our attempt at judgment today? Do you use scripture before you condemn? So did they. Do you have a long standing precedence, or tradition, of what a text means? So did they.
This will be humbling to seekers with honest eyes and honest hearts, but the truth is even honest eyes can’t see hearts.
Turns out maybe this text is more like Matthew 7:1-2 than we realize. Turns out maybe we should leave the judgement up to Jesus. As ol’ king James read it: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)