What Did Jesus Mean When He Said, "judge Not, That You Be Not Judged"?
1) Direct Answer
Jesus forbade a harsh, condemning, hypocritical spirit that sets oneself up as the final judge. He called us to judge ourselves first, then help our brother in meekness by the Word. He did not forbid righteous judgment; He forbade self-righteous condemnation.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Matthew 7:1-5: “Judge not… for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.” Then He says, “First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” Now notice, He didn’t say leave the mote there; He said get yourself right first, then you can see clearly to help.
- Luke 6:37-38: “Judge not… condemn not… forgive… for with the same measure… it shall be measured to you again.” The issue is the measure and the spirit.
- John 7:24: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” You see, Jesus Himself commands judgment—righteous judgment—according to truth, not appearances.
- Matthew 7:15-20: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Recognizing fruit requires discernment.
- 1 Corinthians 5:1-13: Open sin in the church must be judged inside, not ignored. “Do not ye judge them that are within?” The Word is the standard, and the goal is purity and restoration.
- Galatians 6:1: “If a man be overtaken in a fault… restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself.” That’s judgment with mercy and humility.
- Romans 14:4,13: Don’t set yourself as judge over doubtful matters; don’t put stumbling blocks. God is the Master of His servant.
- James 4:11-12: There is one Lawgiver and Judge. We don’t usurp God’s throne.
- 1 Corinthians 11:31: “If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” Self-judgment comes first.
- Matthew 18:15-17: Private correction, then witnesses, then the church. That is righteous, ordered judgment for the purpose of winning a brother.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- If “judge not” meant never make any judgment, you could not obey “by their fruits ye shall know them,” nor protect the flock, nor correct error. So Jesus is not banning discernment; He is banning hypocrisy and condemnation.
- The standard we use will be used on us. If we deal in mercy and truth, we will meet mercy and truth. If we deal in hard, fleshly criticism, we invite the same on ourselves.
- We never pronounce the final sentence on a soul—that belongs to God. But we do discern doctrine, conduct, and fruit by the Scripture for restoration and protection.
- Start at the mirror. Clean the beam out first. Then, with meekness, help remove the mote. The Word is the measure; love is the motive; restoration is the aim.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Judge yourself by the Word, walk in mercy and truth, and when judgment is required, let it be righteous—Scripture-based, Spirit-led, humble, and aimed at redemption, not destruction.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Church Ages, part 9: The ten virgins, and the 144,000
60-1211M §108
And to the sheep, they stood the judgment. They had to be judged, and the saints had to judge them. God is not unjust. If a heathen's yonder in the land, and we are building eight and ten-million-dollar gold shrines here in America instead of taking the message to them over there, God's going to hold us responsible, but spare them. Sure. God is not unjust. You here, if you never seen this before, you may not be held responsible. But you're responsible now, see. You're only responsible... And we're responsible for t...
Jehovah-Jireh
56-0224 §32
And there was Lot walking right along with Abraham who was a believer, too. But he didn't have that constant abiding Presence of God. So, when the herdsmen got to arguing, Abraham said, "We're brethren, let's not have any argument." And said, "You take the east, I'll take the west. Or if you take the west, I'll take the east. Which way you go, I'll go vice versa." That's the way to make a decision. "God, You do the leading." Amen. I hope that sinks way down deep. Look. "You do the leading, God." And Lot, of course,...
God doesn't call man to judgement without warning
63-0724 §12
I've had people stand before me and ask me questions, I know exactly, but I wouldn't tell them, because I just felt constrained not to do it. You remember, I believe it was last Wednesday night I preached on A Prisoner, see. See, you want to tell that person but something says, "Don't do it." The Spirit says, "Don't do it. Don't do it." Yet a gift is looking right at it, see. "Don't do it. Don't do it." See, so you better not do it; then you're in trouble with God.
Standing in the gap
63-0623M §16
But He'll not judge it by any church, to my opinion, because there's too much differences and too much confusion. But He'll judge it... The Bible says, "He'll judge the world by Jesus Christ." Now, that's Scriptural. Now... And the Bible said that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us... The same yesterday, today, and forever." So, He is the Word. And this is Christ in letter form. And in the Book of Apocalypse to the Catholic...
Hearing, recognizing, acting on the Word of God
60-0221 §41
Did you notice Jesus, in his speaking of the coming, second coming, He said as it was in the days of Noah, they'd be eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage. But when He spoke of the days of Lot, He never said nothing about it. "As the days of Lot," that's for revelation. Watch what happened in the days of Lot. There was Lot down there in Sodom, well settled down, intellectually become one of the big men of the city, the judge, sat in the gates and judged the people. His wife belonged to all the societie...