A few months ago, I was selecting a jury with a judge and opposing counsel. The time came for any person to say why they couldn't serve on the jury. Did they have an issue? Childcare? Job demands? Disability? One young man said he couldn't do it because "The Bible says, 'Judge not, lest ye be judged'"! If people would keep reading Matthew 7, they would see that in verse 6 Jesus tells us not to give what is holy to dogs and not to cast our pearls before swine. He isn't talking about animals, but about people. Obviously, we have to make some judgments to obey that command! And in verse 15 Jesus warns about false prophets, who come to us as wolves in sheep's clothing. Again, to spot a wolf in sheep's clothing, you have to make some careful judgments. So Jesus was not telling us that we should not make any judgments. Rather, we should judge ourselves by taking the log out of our own eye before we help our brother with his speck. But, having said that, there is still the danger that we wrongly judge one another, which can lead to all sorts of problems in the local church. A younger believer might come into the church and his appearance is very different than that of the older believers. If they judge him so that he feels unwelcome, he may never come back to the place where he should have felt loved and accepted, where he could grow in the things of God. In the church, we are to accept and not judge one another when we differ on matters where the Bible does not give specific commandments or applicable principles. "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
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David Bodanza is the pastor of Mission of Grace Church in Westborough, Massachusetts. He is also a practicing lawyer. He holds an M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a J.D. from New England School of Law. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, four...
