Living God’s way: Judge Yourself Before Judging Others

Carlton G. McPeak Guest Columnist Jesus shifts topics in His sermon from teaching about our priorities to teaching about how we judge people. Jesus is not saying we should not judge other people, but rather He is pointing out that we need to judge ourselves before we judge others (Matthew 7:1-5). Many use this passage to say that one person should not “judge” another person. They emphasize the first three words, “do not judge,” but then ignore the remainder of the verse and the context of the following verses. The word “judge” in the original language (and ours also) is an action word, meaning the reader is to do something. The statements in verse two expound upon what is sai