What Does "Do Not Judge" Mean?

The only Bible verse many people know is Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge, so that you won't be judged."  It is also one of the most misunderstood.  Many people think it means you should not condemn another person's behavior, but that's not it at all.  The Bible is replete with examples of condemnation and rebuke. 

• Nehemiah harshly rebuked the nobles and officials for their greed and oppression against their Jewish brothers (Neh 5).  
• Jesus often rebuked people and spoke against sin.  Just read His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  He called Peter "Satan" for trying to stop Jesus from fulfilling His mission (Mt 16:23).  He denounced the towns where He did miracles because they did not repent (Mt 11:21-24).  He told the woman caught in adultery to "go and sin no more" (Jn 8:11).  He reserved His harshest condemnation for the Jewish leaders, calling them hypocrites, blind guides, blind fools, snakes, brood of vipers, and whitewashed tombs who look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of every kind of impurity (Mt 23).  
• John the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees a "brood of vipers", and told them to repent of their sins (Mt 3:7-8).  He told the tax collectors to stop cheating people (Lk 3:12-13)."  He told the soldiers to stop stealing and lying, and to stop being discontent (Lk 3:14).  He rebuked Herod for committing adultery with his brother's wife, and for all the evil things he had done (Lk 3:19).
• Stephen harshly condemned his Jewish listeners. "You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised heats and ears!  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51)."  He accused them of betraying and murdering the Messiah (Acts 7:52).   
• Paul repeatedly rebuked the churches in his letters, ordering them to stop sinning.  He told the church in Ephesus to "put away lying"; "Don't let the sun go down on your anger"; "Let the thief no longer steal"; "No foul language should come from your mouth"; "Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice" (Eph 4:25-31).  Paul also rebuked Peter publicly for his hypocrisy (Gal 2:14).  He instructed Titus to silence and rebuke sharply those church members who were sinning, and to "reject a divisive person after a first and second warning (Titus 1:5-13; 3:10)."

When you tell someone that they shouldn't speed through a school zone, or park in a handicap spot, you are not judging them, you are informing them of the law and warning them of the consequences.  Telling someone that their behavior is sinful and calling them to repent is not "judging", it is an act of love.  It is proclaiming the Judge's decrees, and warning people of the coming Day of Judgment (Mt 12:36).  

Try to imagine a world in which no behaviors were condemned or rebuked.  We condemn and rebuke sinful behaviors all the time, and rightly so.  Is it judgmental to condemn a man for selling crystal meth?  Is it judgmental to condemn a man for hitting his wife?  Is it judgmental to denounce rape, murder, stealing, lying, and pedophilia?  If so, then we are all guilty!  

The very people who cry out "Don't judge" when Christians condemn homosexuality, transgenderism, pornography, and abortion, are usually the first and loudest to condemn racism, sexism, white privilege, pollution, income inequality, and corporate greed.  So the reality is that they are not against all condemnation, only the condemnation of their own sins.

So then what does "Do not judge" mean?  To judge someone is to play God.  It is to put yourself in the shoes of the Judge and to do what only God can do.

1. To judge is to condemn behaviors that God has not condemned, such as drinking alcohol, or dancing, or playing cards, or shopping at Target, or driving an expensive car.  In other words, it is to pass judgment on an issue of Christian liberty (Col 2:16-18).
2. To judge someone is to condemn a person's motives, something that only God knows (1 Sam 16:7).
3. To judge people is to discriminate against them because of their outward appearance rather than their heart (2 Sam 16:7).  
4. To judge someone is to be hypocritical, condemning people for sins which you also practice, or condemning people when you commit much greater sins (Mt 7:4-5).

Is it wrong to say that abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism are sinful behaviors that will incur the wrath of God?  Absolutely not.  Just as it is not wrong to say that murder, rape, incest, and pedophilia are sinful.  In this case you are not judging a person's behavior, but heralding the Judge's decrees.

So do not judge.  At the same time, proclaim God's judgments.  Psalm 119:13 says, "With my lips I proclaim all the judgments from your mouth."  Don't be politically correct; be biblically correct.  But remember to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), always with gentleness and respect (1 Pt 3:15).