Judgmental vs. Judging

One of the seven lies that Elizabeth Urbanowicz exposes is „A loving God would not judge“. She recounts how one day she pointed out to a second-grader that she had written her letters J the wrong way round. The girl looked up at her and said sternly „Don’t judge me!“ Having talked with the class before about objective truth and subjective preferences, Elizabeth then asked the girl whether there was an objectively right way to spell the letter J, to which the girl agreed.

This is both funny and enlightening. In our society, we have increasingly allowed subjective preferences to override objective truth. To suggest to someone that their view or their way of doing things might be wrong, is perceived as an unqualified overstepping of boundaries, and as arrogant judgmentalness.

Jesus did say (Mat 7,1) „Do not judge, lest you will be judged.“ I have struggled with that. What exactly did he mean by that? Because in the parable of the weeds, or when he admonishes us to beware of the Pharisees etc, he asks us to judge. As teachers, as parents, as responsible citizens we do have to judge between right and wrong, good and bad.

I believe „Do not judge“ actually means „Do not condemn“. (In German it’s the difference between „urteilen“ and „verurteilen“). In condemning, we put a chasm between ourselves and the culprit. I believe Jesus asks us to have compassion with the culprit - because we ourselves are culprits/sinners, and we need God’s compassion. When we need to judge someone (maybe a little girl writing false Js - or maybe a neglectful colleague), our attitude must be one of forgiveness and willingness to continue together. 

Lord, help us to judge with love!