Do Not Judge Is a Call to Humility

It happens more often than we’d like to admit. A well-meaning post or testimony is shared online a reflection on someone’s faith journey, a word about a worship trend, or perhaps a moral conviction. Then, without fail, the comments light up. Bible verses are thrown like darts. Accusations of being judgmental or lukewarm follow. Passive-aggressive “praying for you” replies abound.

And eventually, someone posts the mic-drop of all mic-drops: “Do not judge.”

Matthew 7:1 arguably one of the most quoted and least understood verses in the entire Bible is pulled out like a shield, meant to silence disagreement or confrontation altogether. But this single sentence from Jesus wasn’t a conversation ender. It was a heart check. It wasn’t meant to mute our voice. It was meant to purify it.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” Jesus says. But He doesn't stop there. “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1–2). This isn’t a ban on discernment or correction. It’s a warning about how we do it and why.

A Misunderstood Command

The Greek word Jesus uses here, krinō, can mean anything from evaluating to condemning. It’s about more than noticing someone’s sin. It’s about how we respond to it. Jesus wasn’t forbidding Christians from engaging in hard conversations. He was warning against doing so with arrogance, hypocrisy, or a sense of moral superiority.

In fact, the New Testament calls believers to judge rightly. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:12, “Are you not to judge those inside [the church]?” He wasn’t advocating condemnation. He was describing a family dynamic of mutual accountability. The goal isn’t to shame, but to restore.

That’s exactly what Jesus emphasizes next. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? … First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3–5). The problem isn’t calling out the speck. It’s doing it blind to your own.

Humility Before Confrontation

Jesus’ point wasn’t to stop us from seeing sin in others. It was to stop us from using that sin to elevate ourselves. The Pharisees judged to showcase their superiority. Jesus calls us to judge in humility, with eyes wide open to our own need for grace.

This is the essence of Gospel-shaped correction. We don’t confront people to win arguments or build platforms. We do it to help them see what they might be blind to just as we hope others will do for us.

Oswald Chambers captured it beautifully “It is impossible to enter into fellowship with God when you are in a critical mood. Criticism serves to make you harsh, vindictive and cruel... Jesus says that as His disciple you should cultivate a temperament that is never critical.”

Judging Like Jesus

Jesus didn’t shy away from truth. He called sin what it was. He rebuked religious hypocrisy. He wept over rebellion. But even when confronting, He always did so with mercy. He told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more” but only after saying, “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11).

John 3:17 reminds us, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Yet in John 5:30, Jesus says, “My judgment is just.” These aren’t contradictions. Jesus didn’t come to write people off He came to call them back. That kind of restorative judgment is what we’re invited to practice: not judgment that crushes, but judgment that cares.

The church isn’t called to silence or to outrage it’s called to love, and love sometimes includes confrontation. But that confrontation must be drenched in humility and rooted in relationship.

Before You Type That Comment

Before we rebuke, before we quote Scripture at someone else, we must ask ourselves: Have I examined my own heart? Is my tone humble or haughty? Am I seeking to restore or to prove a point?

Jesus doesn’t ask us to avoid hard conversations. He asks us to approach them in a way that reflects His own posture: truthful but tender, bold but brokenhearted.

“Do not judge” is not an excuse to disengage. It’s a summons to check your motives, your method, and your heart. It’s a call to remove your own plank before reaching for someone else's speck.

This is not the easy way. It’s the Gospel way.

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