Am I judgmental of others in a condemning or hypocritical way?

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” 39 He also told them this parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

INSIGHT:   Unbelievers and “Christians” alike often love to quote the “Do not judge” of Mat 7:1 or v. 37 above, to justify staying in sin, while Satan whispers in their ear, “to each his own”.  And yet Jesus said things like “make right judgments” (Jn 7:24) and that we will “recognize them by their fruit” (which requires judgment).  Paul said things like, “The spiritual man makes judgment of all things” (1 Cor 2:15), and says, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?  God will judge those outside.” (1 Cor 5:12). 

From these and many other verses, we learn Jesus is not telling us to not call sin “sin”, or not to warn others in their sin.  He is commanding us not to be like the Pharisees who would mercilessly judge and condemn people caught in sin (even stoning them), and all while harboring secret sin in their own hearts.  This is horrendous hypocrisy.  We are to warn others, if we are living a godly life, and our motive is to see them turn from it, not to simply judge them.  Because of my public ministry, I have had to make judgments about thousands, and thousands have also judged me.  Let us remember that all of Christianity boils down to one thing, us becoming more like Jesus Christ.  As a minister, I cannot interact with people and remain indifferent to what I recognize by their fruit, when good leads to heaven and evil leads to hell (Jn 5:29).  To do so, would be a total contradiction of what it means to be a minister of Christ.  I have also seen in the comments, where people say in defense of me that others have no right to judge me, but that is a total contradiction to what it means to be a discerning Christian, testing the spirits, and recognizing your ministers by their fruit.  To distinguish between good and evil, we must all make judgments (Heb 5:14).

The evil comes in when we judge incorrectly, perhaps because we don’t have the spiritual eyes to see below the surface (Jn 7:24) or we are judging based on human standards (Jn 8:15), or with wrong motives, or in hypocrisy. 

If you are in my life and I see you doing something foolish, ungodly, or sinful, according to the Word and Spirit of God, or I discern you have a false Jesus or a counterfeit faith, and I myself am not guilty of doing the same thing or of living in any known sin, it is not unloving or sinful for me to point that out to you.  If am correct in my observation and you make the correction, you will be better off in the Lord than you were before.  In that case it would be unloving and sinful of me, not to correct you. (Eze 3:18)   I have lost many friends by telling them the truth (Gal 4:16), but I have made many more loyal brothers and sisters who thanked me for rebuking them sharply so they could be sound in the faith. (Tit 1:13)

Scripture is clear; we are to correct each other (Pro 27:5-6, 1 Cor 15:4, Gal 2:14, Col 1:28, 2 Tim 3:16-17, 4:2, Tit 2:15). However, we should avoid judging disputable matters such as movies, food, wine, worship styles, education, dress, child rearing, etc.  If there is not a clear Biblical mandate on the subject, we should leave those to the Spirit and keep some of them between just you and God (Rom 14:1, 22).