When Can a Christian Judge?

The topic of judgment seems to be a widely misunderstood one in the contemporary Body of Christ. I myself have experienced some confusion concerning when and what it is appropriate to judge. Most Christians probably know Matthew 7:1 -- "Judge not, that ye be not judged." -- and Matthew 18:15 -- "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone..." There is a very popular notion today that promotes the idea that we should never say anything negative about anyone or anything. (First of all, negative and positive have nothing to do with it; what should matter to us is the truth.) This idea is, I think, is based mainly on these two verses. Yet we are also told:

• Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. (John 7:24)
• Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. (1 Cor. 14:29)
• 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? (1 Cor. 6:2)
• Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Cor. 6:3)

It is evident that there are times when it is appropriate and necessary to judge a matter and other times when we are forbidden to judge. Most of our admonitions to judge actually involve discernment. This is something that is very much lacking in the Church today. But we are told in Hebrews 5:14 that we need to have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil by being skilled in the scriptures.

Every believer needs to diligently study this for themselves, but here are a couple of points I have come up with:

• We shouldn't judge motives; we cannot know a person's heart.
• We should judge doctrine. So while we shouldn't judge a preacher or teacher, we can and should judge and correct their doctrine if it does not align to the Word of God. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
• There are times when people should be mentioned by name as in the case of someone teaching false doctrine. Paul named names in 2 Tim. 2:17-18. He also rebuked Peter publicly (Galatians 2:11, 14).

For a much more in depth look at this subject, I recommend Pastor Bob DeWaay's article "Discernment in an Age of Deception".