For April 25, 2026
Judging vs. Judgment by Greg Holmes, D.MIN – Director of Missions serving 17 churches
IN ONE OF HIS LESSONS taught from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus issues a stern warning about self-validating our assessments of others. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matt. 7:1) The Greek verb “krino” can be used in either a positive fashion, as in *“to weigh carefully,” or negatively, as it is here, **“to judge as guilty, to condemn.” In the latter context, Jesus is both warning us about and asking us to carefully consider the motivations of our own hearts as we attempt and are tempted to view the motivations of others. Proverbs tells us that “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” (Prov. 16:2) Also from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23) Jesus further warns about establishing ourselves as sword-wielding shame-casters. “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matt. 7:2) He calls “hypocrites” those who blindly exercise such opprobrium, and admonishes “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matt. 7:5) His use of hyperbole is not lost on us—a tree in our own eye; a speck of sawdust in the eye of someone else—such is the enormity of pride that is dangerously inherent in such self-righteous condemnation of others.