What is Judging?

It seems often that Christians get accused of judging others, so I thought I would share a few thoughts on the topic.  Let us consider the common verse used to accuse of judgment. 

^{Matthew 6:25} “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

⁶ “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

Before we look at the "judge not" portion, let us consider the context of what Jesus is saying here.  First Jesus is instructing that we should not worry and fret over life and the provisions of life.  We can spend so much time concerning ourselves with the basics of life that we miss those things that are really important.  Jesus tells us that the Father already knows that we need the basics of life and none of us can change our stature or position by worrying.  So, 6:33 instructs us to seek first the Kingdom of God and all the things and needs will be added.  Each day brings enough troubles that we don't need to waste our lives worrying about tomorrow.  

So, Jesus is establishing the importance of the Kingdom and stressing not being drawn away by other things.  Then, He addresses judging.  Most often we hear 7:1 quoted in terms of passing judgement on others and putting others down.  In context, however, what I hear Jesus saying is that we need not spend all of our time and energy worrying about or focusing on the things we think are most important or those things that we think we can do or handle.  Instead of spending our time saying, "I need to fix this and you need to fix that," it would be better for us to focus our attention on what God is doing and the advancement of His Kingdom.  Out of that, everything else will fall into place.  

When our focus is on God's Kingdom and what He is doing in our lives and through our lives, it enables and allows us to see clearly to be able to help others in their own journey rather than coming across as being know-it-all judgers.  Most of what gets accused of being judgmental is true because we can often become guilty of making our focus and intention about improving someone else at the expense of God's Kingdom in our own lives.  Judgmental attitudes usually stem from our own desire to justify what we are doing in light of what we perceive others are doing.  

 I find in my own life that when I am not allowing God to work in me then I do have a tendency to become quite judgmental.  In some ways I assume I can avoid or bypass the dealings of God by helping others deal with the issues I perceive they have.  That is when we work on the speck in the eye of someone else while trying to avoid the beam in our own eye.What God has called us to, however, is to allow Him by His Spirit to bring us more in line with His plan and His Kingdom and then put us in positions, places and opportunities in which we can be a blessing to others in the way that we help them find truth.  When we are able to see and realize our own lack and allow ourselves to be changed, then it produces in us the compassion necessary to help others along in their journey as well. 

By following this pattern and work in our own lives, we begin to fulfill these words of Jesus:

 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. (John 7:24).  

As we allow God's Spirit to work in and on our lives, we are able to rightfully see and understand to judge righteous judgment; because we will no longer be approaching the issues from our perspective or perception, but will rather be seeing from a Kingdom perspective.