Judge Not (Luke 6:27-38)

Judge Not
Sunday, June 28^th 2026
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 6:27–38

Prayer

O Father, we thank You for Your judgments which are true and righteous altogether, we thank You most especially for your promise that There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Grant us to walk and to live forever in the Unity of the Trinity for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

This morning we come to what is probably the most misunderstood verse in the whole Bible, Judge not, lest ye be judged. This saying from the Lord Jesus, which is recorded here in Luke 6:37, and in Matthew 7:1, is a verse that many unbelievers know by heart, they’ve got this one memorized, and sometimes they like to shout this in our face whenever we tell them, “to repent of your sins and believe in Jesus.” Their response is often, Judge not. Who are you to judge me?

• I remember some years back, when America was in the throes of trying to normalize and legalize same-sex marriage. You could hear this verse shouted at protests, at pride parades, and it was intended to silence specifically Bible-Believing Christians who wanted to defend what God says marriage is (A lifelong covenant between one man and one woman). Only God can judge me. They would say. Love is love. Love wins. These were the slogans the world ripped from the Bible and twisted to defend what God calls an abomination (see 2 Peter 2:6-8).
• Well, what exactly does this verse mean in context, to judge not lest ye be judged, especially when elsewhere Jesus commands us to judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24).
• In what senses should Christians judge other people, or judge what is right and what is wrong, and in what senses must we not? These are important questions to answer, especially when our salvation is on the line.
  • Jesus says very plainly here, if you judge not, you shall not be judged. If you condemn not, you shall not be condemned. Therefore, unless you would like God to judge and condemn you, well then, you need to understand and observe what Jesus is teaching here.
  • And so to help us understand this passage, I have organized this sermon and the next sermon around two basic questions:
    • Q1. What kind of judgements does God forbid?
    • Q2. What kind of judgements does God commend?
      • What kind of judgements are sinful (and therefore prohibited), and what kind of judgements are truly pleasing to God?
      • So this morning we’ll answer that first question about forbidden judgments, and then Lord Willing next week we’ll focus on the kinds of judgments we must make.
      • So first let’s get the context of Jesus’ word fresh in our mind.

Review of the Context

• Recall where we are in the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus began his sermon by telling us where true beatitude (eternal happiness) can be found. And he told us that beatitude is found by hating/contemning every earthly good that this world can offer and instead choosing to love God supremely above all else.
• He then expounded what this supernatural love which we call charity, does in the face of enemies and people who hate us. Rather than hating them in return (tit for tat), we love them with the very love with which God has loved us. We hate the sin, but we love the sinner for God’s sake. We hate all that is evil and immoral and corrupt, because we love God who is most Good, Wise and True. And therefore, what we desire most for our enemies (and everyone) is their conversion and conformity to God. The friendship that we have with God, we want everyone else to have too. That is how you know have God’s love inside of you.
• Jesus then goes on to say that when we follow through on this love for our enemies, both in our heart’s disposition, and in act, then we attain to the divine reward, which is the increase of our unity with God (the enlarging of our heart), and the imitation of God as His beloved children. Thus, in verse 36 Jesus says, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
• This brings us to our text, verses 37-38, where Jesus now prohibits judging and condemning other people, while commanding that we forgive and give to others the way that we would like to be repaid. Jesus says…

Verses 37-38

³⁷Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

³⁸Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

• So we could summarize these two verses by saying it is just the Golden Rule of verse 31, applied in the realm of judgment.
  • Now what exactly is a judgment? In a broad sense, a judgment is a determination of what is right or wrong, good or bad, true or false. Between men and neighbors in society, a judgment is more specially a determination of what is owed to someone, it is the declaration of what is just.
  • So Jesus is saying that for those who have received God’s love and mercy over and above what was justly owed to us (wrath, punishment, condemnation), we now owe to everyone else, for God’s sake, the judgment of charity. As Paul says in Romans 13:8, Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
• So Paul is just summarizing and applying what Jesus teaches here in verse 31, and verse 38, as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. With whatever measure you use to judge others, God will use to judge you. If you are generous in your judgments, putting the best interpretation on everyone’s actions, that is how you will come to be judged.
  • James 2:13 makes this same point when it says, For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
• So that is a summary of how Christians are to judge other people, and we’ll say much more about that next week. We must judge from charity. We must judge the way we want God to judge us.
• Now there many ways that we can judge unjustly, or think we are showing mercy when in fact we are perverting God’s justice. And so let us consider all the sinful judgments we need to avoid, lest we bring God’s condemnation down upon our heads. What kind of judgments are not judgments from charity?

Q1. What kind of judgements does God forbid?

• There are three principal judgments that God forbids in His Word, and they are:
  • 1. Usurped Judgments
  • 2. Rash Judgments
  • 3. Perverse Judgments
    • Sometimes a judgment can fall into all three of these categories, but let us consider what exactly these three sinful judgments are, and how we may avoid them.

The Usurped Judgment

• 1. What is a usurped judgment? A usurped judgement occurs whenever we make ourselves a judge in a place or a case where God has not given us that job.
  • All judgment ultimately belongs to God, and therefore God alone can delegate judicial authority to people subordinate to Him, whether to the civil magistrate over the people, to parents over their children, to masters over their servants, to husbands over their wives, and so forth.
  • There is a judicial hierarchy that you must respect, acknowledge, and not transgress. There may be appeals from a lower court to a higher court, or from one sphere to another, but an inferior is never permitted to make himself judge, jury, and executioner over his superior, that would be transgress and usurp the judgment God has established.
    • This is what Paul teaches in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
  • So what might be an example of a usurped judgment?
    • This would include all final judgments that belong to God alone to render. For example, a person’s eternal destiny, whether they are elect or reprobate, their rewards or punishments, their faithfulness or unfaithfulness in this life, and so on.
      • Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 4 of forming such judgments specifically about minister/pastors in the church. He says, Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
    • So one of the ways you know that a judgment is usurped, is when you lack the authority to actually reward or punish the person accordingly.
    • Paul makes this same point in Romans 14 when he says, Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
    • So before you start to form a judgment in your mind, first ask yourself, is judging this person a duty God has assigned to me? Are the people or matters involved things that God Himself will ask me to give Him an account for. If the answer is no, then leave it alone, mind your business, focus on judging yourself and those who are under your authority according to God’s law.
    • This is the “stay in your lane” principle that we must learn to observe, lest we subvert the real authorities that God has ordained.
  • Now there are two main classes of cases that are reserved exclusively for God’s judgment, and therefore we must withhold our own private judgments about them. And they are 1) hidden things, and 2) future things.
    • Hidden things include all secret thoughts, motives, and intentions of the heart. And this is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
      • Paul is saying that he has examined his own heart, and he is not aware of any unrepentant sin in his life, his conscience is clean. However, no man has the power to absolve himself before the throne of God. That judgment he has of a clean conscience does not automatically justify him, only God can do that.
      • Moreover, Paul knows Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? And he knows Psalm 19:12, Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
      • And so the logic of withholding judgment about people’s motives runs as follows. If we you scarce know our own heart, our own motives, and why we do what we do, how then can we be so bold to judge with certainty the heart, motives, and intentions of others? They might not even know why they do what they do.
      • And so we do not usurp the judgment of God by trying to peer into secret things. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:11, For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (who has revealed them to us).
    • So hidden things and future things and final things, are God’s jurisdiction, not ours. And so leave those things to Him, and you will be safe from usurping the judgment of God.
      • Now the second class of judgments we must avoid are rash judgments.

The Rash Judgment

• 2. What is a rash judgment?
  • A rash judgment occurs when we lack knowledge and certainty about the matter or person(s) involved, and then based on that lack of information, we pronounce a judgment as if we are certain.
    • For example, the Bible says that you need two or three eyewitnesses in order to convict a person of murder, and therefore it would be a rash judgment for a court to execute a person based on mere suspicion, or hearsay, or public opinion, or even based on just one eyewitness who claims they saw the whole thing (and perhaps they really did).
    • God says in Deuteronomy 17:6, At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.
      • Now this means that sometimes guilty people (even murderers) will “get away” with very serious crimes. And yet it is God’s will that we leave vengeance to Him, and refer all doubtful cases to His final judgment.
        • In God’s wisdom, it is better that in this fallen world, the guilty sometimes appear to “get away with it,” rather than running the risk of putting an innocent person to death. God’s law for human judges has a kind of built in mercy to it. It sets limits on our judgments, and forbids us to speculate beyond them. We cannot execute a person for murder just because we think they are guilty.
        • Now if you find that hard to accept (because you have a strong sense of justice), you need to be very careful, because what you might be saying in your heart is, “I know better than God how to run this world down here. I know better than God what the laws of justice should be.” That is a dangerous logic to follow, and it is what Jesus is prohibiting here. Don’t make a rash judgment when you do not have certitude, when you cannot see the whole picture.
      • This is especially where we as Christians must learn to walk by faith and not by sight. We pray and sing the psalms that cry out for God’s perfect justice to come into this world that is abundant with injustice.
        • We have to trust that God knows better than us, how to order the world, even if it means that someone we know is guilty (because we saw them commit the crime), goes free. In such cases, we have to trust that God’s Supreme Court will one day settle accounts with everyone, including us. A final judgment is coming for all, and we must learn to live in light of it.
        • Moreover, that hope of justice should give us peace and rest as wait. We can be patient and forgiving because we know that all our earthly appeals to the heavenly Supreme Court shall receive a perfect verdict one day, one that we will say Amen to.
          • Of course, our hope for all people is that they find mercy on that day of judgment, and turn away as soon as possible here and now from all and every sin they are engaged in.
          • Think of how patient God has been with you. If God had just executed us at the first big sin we committed, well, none of us would live long enough to even seek His mercy. But God is patient with us in our evil, and so we must be patient with others as well.
      • If you believe that God is a perfect judge, then practically this means that whenever you are in doubt about some case or controversy or dispute, you can just withhold rendering your own judgment (even in your heart and mind), and instead say, “I don’t know.”
      • Most of the time, those controversies and disputes are none of our business anyways, and so we would be committing a twofold sin by both usurping judgment from God or the lawful authorities, and then making a rash judgment about things we do not know with certainty.
        • By the way, this also applies in parenting and disciplining children. If the kids are fighting, and it is uncertain who hit who and who hit first, well only discipline for the things that they confess to, or that you were eyewitness to. Teach your children that you are under God’s law, and that you are only disciplining them as an instrument in God’s loving and restraining hand.
        • God bless my mother, who would say to us children in doubtful circumstances, be sure, your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:21).
        • We are going to miss stuff as parents. But that’s okay, if we ask God to catch and discipline whatever we miss.
    • Now that standard of needing 2 or 3 witnesses before rendering a formal judgment also applies to cases in the church, and so let me say a word about this since this is a protection for you as members and for us as elders.
      • Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:1, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
      • And in 1 Timothy 5:19-20 he says, Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.
      • So unless there are two or three independent witnesses who can confirm and substantiate the accusation being made, the church cannot even accept it or proceed to a formal investigation of it.
      • Instead, what you must do is follow the process laid out in Matthew 18. Jesus says, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
      • So that is the process Jesus sets forth to help prevent rumors, scandals, evil suspicions, and those situations where everyone feels like they have to pick a side.
      • There are going to be sinners and big sins in the church, and our first instinct should be to cover as much as we can in love (as Peter says, charity covers a multitude of sins), and then when something is too big to cover in love (because it would be unloving to do), we should first remove the log from our own eye, so we can see clearly to confront the person privately, and only after they refuse to repent do we bring others in.
      • Here must be careful to observe what Galatians 6:1 tells us, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.
  • So all of you must learn to hate in yourself, the formation of any evil and rash judgments, whether about an individual, or a group, or a whole class of people. You must ask God to shield your ears from rumors and lies, so that all gossip, slander, and evil opinions become utterly distasteful to you.
    • It says in Proverbs 6:16-19, These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
    • And Paul warns of such people in 1 Timothy 6:4-5 saying, He is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
  • So this might be the strongest argument for some of you to get off social media, to stop listening to those podcasts, stop texting with those people in that group chat. If they are these kinds of people, who want you to form evil opinions about someone else, From such withdraw yourself. Otherwise, you will become like them.
    • It says in Proverbs 14:7, Go from the presence of a foolish man, When you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.
    • And in Proverbs 13:20, He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
  • So don’t be a fool by dwelling amongst fools. It is okay to form an opinion or first impression about someone, but beware that an evil opinion or a bad impression can very easily become an evil judgment, or worse, you go looking for dirt to confirm your evil suspicions about someone.
  • That habit of mind (which many media and news industries run on) is totally contrary to charity, which Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:5-8, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
    • Imagine a news station that had charity as its governing rule.
  • So use this golden rule of love as your guide for judging others. Would you like someone to judge you without having all the facts, without knowing all the details, without first hearing everyone out? If not, then withhold your own judgments, think the best about everyone, and don’t worry about people deceiving you (they will).
  • But it is far better to think good about someone who is actually secretly evil (to let the guilty go free in your mind, because you lack evidence), than to think evil about someone who might actually be innocent. Jesus forbids such rash judgments, and Scripture condemns them in the strongest of terms. So be on guard against this.
    • Third and finally, there are perverse judgments.

The Perverse Judgment

• 3. A perverse judgment occurs whenever we judge something contrary to the law of God.
  • It says in Exodus 23:2, You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
  • It says in Proverbs 28:4-5, Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, But such as keep the law contend with them. Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the Lord understand all.
  • It was the perversion of justice amongst God’s people, who had God’s law to guide them, that brought down upon Israel the most severe punishments. Judgment begins with the house of God.
    • For example, Isaiah 5:20 says, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; That put darkness for light, and light for darkness; That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! These are the people who pervert God’s justice.
    • Psalm 82 is all about this. It is a declaration that God shall punish all those earthly judges (called gods or elohim) who in the name of God pervert what God’s law required. It says, God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods. How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked. They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable. I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.
  • This is the cry of the church for God to judge, for God to come and make things right.

Conclusion

• And so I close by returning to where we began, those scenes where the world is shouting at us, Judge not lest ye be judged, so that they can defend sodomy, homosexuality, abortion, trans-surgeries, and whatever new perversity they come up with next. What are they doing? They are making perverse judgments about right and wrong. They are charging Christians with hating them, when in fact what we hate is the evil and future punishments they are inflicting upon themselves if they do no repent.
• And so to keep the words of Christ truly in that kind of situation, what must we do?
  • First, you must be courageous to agree with whatever God says in His Word. Whatever God judges to be right and wrong, good and evil, that is our judgment as well. We agree with Him that sin is destructive, it deserves eternal punishment, and that all have sinned and fallen short of His infinite glory. That is the bad news we proclaim before the good news.
  • And then we believe in our hearts, and proclaim to the world, that God delights to show mercy. He says in Ezekiel 18:23, Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live? And it says in 1 Timothy 2:4, He desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
  • If that is God’s revealed will to the world, then that should be our will for the world as well.
  • All judgment belongs to God and that is a great gospel truth. Because on the cross, Jesus suffered the single greatest act of injustice there ever was or ever shall be. Man murdered God, and appeared to get away with it. But in God’s infinite wisdom, He turned the greatest act of evil, into His greatest act of good for the human race. Through our injustice, God manifested His own perfect justice, and He crucified our sins in the innocent body of Jesus, so that we could be justified. As Paul says in Romans 3:26, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
  • And so if God can turn our injustice again Him, into the instrument of showing His mercy and grace towards us, then we can trust Him to do the same with all the injustices that we suffer down here.
  • So go to Jesus, go to the cross, and give all your sins and sinful judgments about others to Him. He will blot them out in the ocean of His mercy.
  • In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.