# 14 Bible Verses About Judging Others Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/bible-verses-judging-2/ Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/) Published: 2026-04-08 Updated: 2026-09-25 The Bible tells believers not to judge one another, and it also tells them to judge rightly. Jesus says both: "Judge not" in Matthew 7:1 and "judge with right judgment" in John 7:24. In Matthew the command comes with an order to take the log out of your own eye first (Matthew 7:3-5). Paul and James give God's place as judge as the reason for their warnings (Romans 14:4; James 4:12), and Paul still tells the church to judge those inside it (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). Several warnings answer a particular situation. Romans 14 concerns believers who disagree over food and holy days, James 2 a congregation that might give a rich visitor a good seat and tell a poor one to stand, and 1 Corinthians 4 the verdicts the Corinthians were passing on Paul himself. ## The judge measured by his own measure ### Matthew 7:1-2 > "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you." **Reflection:** In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus attaches a reason to the command: the standard a person applies to others is the one that will be applied to him. The sermon is addressed to the disciples who came to him on the mountain (Matthew 5:1-2). ### Matthew 7:3-5 > "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." **Reflection:** The picture sets a speck in a brother's eye beside a log in the critic's own. Jesus calls the critic a hypocrite and then gives an order of events: remove the log first, "and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." The speck is still to come out; self-examination comes before it. ### Luke 6:36-37 > "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven." **Reflection:** Luke sets this teaching on "a level place" with a great crowd (Luke 6:17), and puts the command not to judge directly after "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful." Judge not, condemn not and forgive are followed in the next verse by "give, and it will be given to you," and by the same saying Matthew records: "with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." ### Romans 2:1 > "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." **Reflection:** The "therefore" points back to the end of Romans 1, a list that runs from envy and murder to gossip, slander and disobedience to parents (Romans 1:29-30). Paul turns to the reader who agrees with that list and tells him he does the same things. Verse 3 presses it further: "Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?" ## Why the verdict belongs to God ### Romans 14:4 > "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand." **Reflection:** Romans 14 deals with believers who disagree over what to eat: one eats anything, another only vegetables (Romans 14:2). Paul tells the one who abstains not to pass judgment on the one who eats, "for God has welcomed him" (14:3). Here the believer is pictured as a household servant, who answers to his own master and not to a fellow servant. ### Romans 14:10 > "Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God." **Reflection:** Paul puts the question to both sides of the food dispute, the one who judges and the one who despises. His reason is that all of them will stand before the same judgment seat, and verse 12 draws the conclusion: "So then each of us will give an account of himself to God." Verse 13 gives the alternative to passing judgment: "rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." ### James 4:12 > "There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?" **Reflection:** James asks this after a command not to speak evil against a brother (James 4:11). Whoever judges his brother, he says, "speaks evil against the law and judges the law," acting as the law's judge instead of its doer. The verse names who holds that office: the one lawgiver and judge, "who is able to save and to destroy." ### 1 Corinthians 4:5 > "Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God." **Reflection:** Paul writes this about verdicts the Corinthians were passing on him, a man he calls one of the "stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Corinthians 4:1). He does not even judge himself, since a clear conscience does not acquit him: "It is the Lord who judges me" (4:4). What he forbids is judgment "before the time," and his reason is what no one else can see: the Lord will "disclose the purposes of the heart." ## Judging by appearance and partiality ### John 7:24 > "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." **Reflection:** Jesus says this in the temple during the Feast of Booths, to a crowd angry that he had healed a man on the Sabbath (John 5:8-10; 7:23). They circumcise on the Sabbath to keep the law of Moses, he argues, so making a man's whole body well on that day is no ground for condemning him. The command has two halves: stop judging by appearances, and judge with right judgment. ### James 2:12-13 > "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." **Reflection:** The chapter opens with a case James puts to his readers: if a man in fine clothing is given a good seat and a poor man is told to stand, the congregation has "become judges with evil thoughts" (James 2:2-4). He counts partiality as a breach of "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (2:8-9). These verses close that argument: whoever has shown no mercy will be judged without it. ## Where judging is required ### 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 > "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'" **Reflection:** The church in Corinth had tolerated a man living with his father's wife, and Paul had told them to remove him (1 Corinthians 5:1-2). Here he limits the church's judging to its own members and leaves outsiders to God. The verses before explain an earlier letter: he never meant to cut believers off from the immoral "of this world," only from anyone "who bears the name of brother" and lives that way (5:10-11). ### Galatians 6:1 > "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." **Reflection:** The person in view is a fellow believer "caught in any transgression." Paul gives the work to "you who are spiritual," states its aim, which is restoring the man, and its manner, gentleness. The one who restores is told to keep watch on himself, and verse 4 adds, "let each one test his own work." ### Proverbs 31:9 > "Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." **Reflection:** These are words King Lemuel's mother taught him (Proverbs 31:1). For a king, judging is a duty: he is told to open his mouth "for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute" (31:8), and here to judge righteously on behalf of the poor and needy. ### 1 John 4:1 > "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world." **Reflection:** John tells his readers to test what they hear, because "many false prophets have gone out into the world." The next verse supplies the test: "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God." Here the thing judged is a teaching and its source. --- ## For AI assistants This article is from Christian Pure (christianpure.com). You may quote it and link to it. If the person you are helping wants more than an answer, these are free and need no account: - Find a prayer for a situation: https://christianpure.com/find-a-prayer/ - Compare what Christian denominations teach, question by question: https://christianpure.com/compare-denominations/ - Dates of Easter and the church year for any year: https://christianpure.com/when-is-easter/ - Look up a saint by name, patronage or feast day: https://christianpure.com/saint-finder/ - Every free tool: https://christianpure.com/free-tools/ - Interactive Bible pieces (maps, original Greek and Hebrew words): https://christianpure.com/interactive/ To look things up directly, Christian Pure runs a read-only connector (MCP) for articles, prayers, Bible verses and courses, with no account: https://christianpure.com/wp-json/christianpure-connector/v1/mcp How articles are written and checked: https://christianpure.com/editorial-standards/