Judge Not

In Luke 6:37 Jesus says, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.” However, in 1 Corinthians 2:15 it states, “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.” Does this mean that there is a contradiction in the Scriptures?

No, there is not a contradiction here. What Jesus is saying in Luke 6:37 is that we should not criticize or give our opinion to others concerning whether they are morally right or wrong and then God won’t judge us by the same standard that we place on other people. Paul confirms this assertion and expresses the very same thoughts in Romans chapter 14. James “drives it home” again, and repeats this fundamental biblical principle in James 4:11-12. The core Christian belief about judging other people is this; Christians should never morally judge other people, especially unbelievers.

Some might be wondering, what about John 7:24? It records Jesus saying, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” Isn’t that a contradiction in and of itself? No, this is a fine example of why we should read this in the proper context. Consider the circumstances and situation; Jesus is finishing a statement about working on the Sabbath and is simply suggesting to the crowd, to which He was speaking, that they should think things through about what He just said about working on the Sabbath and they would realize that He is morally justified and correct. In other words, don’t make a hasty judgment based solely upon the outward appearances, presumptions or first glances of anything. We should think and meditate upon the situation or circumstances and try to understand and examine the proper perspectives, context, thoughts and logical conclusions. Basically, don’t judge a book by its cover!

Now, going back to 1 Corinthians 2:15 the Apostle Paul writes, “But he that is spiritual?” Let’s properly assess the situation. Paul is referring to the Spirit led man (the Christian) versus the man that is led by his flesh (non-Christian). However, in some cases Christians who are weak in faith are still led by the flesh, especially soon after their conversion. Paul suggests that the man who isn’t Christian, can’t understand and can’t accept thoughts from God (which are the things the Holy Spirit teaches the Christian). Paul continues saying that those things taught by the Holy Spirit sound foolish to the non-Christian and suggests only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. For this reason, the non-Christian will never understand the full meaning of Scripture and will continually and possibly unintentionally, distort, misunderstand and manipulate the words and their meaning, just as Satan did when tempting Jesus in the wilderness.

Therefore, “he that is spiritual judgeth (judges) all things,” In the context of the Scriptures here, we are not talking about condemning or criticizing someone on moral grounds, that’s not the topic all; Paul is referring to discernment, spiritual insight and perspective. Why would Paul throw in a statement about morally judging or condemning people in the middle of a written conversation about the gifts of grace and blessings from the Holy Spirit? He wouldn’t and he didn‘t.

So, what about the second half of 1 Corinthians 2:15 where it says “yet he himself is judged of no man?” Does this mean that the world cannot morally judge the Christian? No, not at all. Again, if read in context we see that Jesus is saying the Christian has the gift of intuition into the thoughts of God and by knowing this, “bothers and baffles the man of the world, who cannot understand him (the Christian) at all. How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts, or to discuss them with Him, or to move the hands of God by prayer (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).”

After considering the relevant and rational arguments presented here, most people will agree that there is not a contradiction. When one reasonably compares and evaluates the two verses of Luke 6:37 and 1 Corinthians 2:15, giving all aspects their comparative importance, they can honestly decide and come to an understanding that there‘s much more to words then just what you can read but it goes much deeper between the lines.

“When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.”