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'Judge not'

'Judge not' beside Paul's instruction to judge the immoral within the assembly (with Matthew 18:15-17) — judgment, discipline and tolerance.

Matthew 7:1-5

1“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.

2For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye?

4Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

5You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.

2You are arrogant, and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.

3For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.

4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

7Purge out the old yeast, that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place.

8Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;

10yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortionists, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world.

11But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.

12For what do I have to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within?

13But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

What each tradition says

Rabbinic / Midrashic

Joshua ben Perahiah said to appoint a teacher for yourself and acquire a companion for yourself. He also said to judge all people with the scale weighted in their favor.

Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 1:6 (R. Joshua ben Perahiah); English: Mishnah Yomit, trans. Joshua Kulp (Sefaria), Pirkei Avot (Mishnah Yomit translation, Sefaria)Pirkei Avot 1:6

Patristic

Augustine is of opinion that in this passage we are taught nothing else. Where actions are doubtful as to with what intention they are done, we are to put the better construction on them.

Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, Book II (trans. William Findlay, rev. D. S. Schaff), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 6 (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888)Book II, ch. 18, §59

Catholic

Aquinas says the words “Judge not” forbid rash judgment about inward intention or other uncertain things, as Augustine states; or judgment about divine things, which we should not judge but simply believe, as Hilary says; or judgment from bitterness of heart rather than benevolence, as Chrysostom says.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part (II-II), q. 60, a. 2 (trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 1920)II-II, q. 60 ('Of Judgment'), a. 2, Reply to Objection 1 (on Matt. 7:1)

Orthodox

Chrysostom suggests that in this place Jesus does not simply command us not to judge any men's sins, nor simply forbid doing so. Instead, the command is addressed to those full of innumerable ills who trample on other men for trifles.

John Chrysostom (c. 349-407), Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew (trans. George Prevost; rev. M. B. Riddle), in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 10 (New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888)Homily XXIII on Matt. 7:1-5

Reformed / Protestant

Calvin says nothing hinders us from judging these also; even devils are not exempt from the judgment of the word committed to us. But Paul is speaking here of the jurisdiction that belongs peculiarly to the Church.

John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, vol. 1 (trans. John Pringle, Calvin Translation Society, 1848)Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:12

Evangelical

Ryle says what our Lord condemns in “Judge not” is a censorious and fault-finding spirit. It is a readiness to blame others for trifling offenses or matters of indifference, a habit of rash and hasty judgments, and a disposition to magnify neighbors’ errors and make the worst of them, which the Lord forbids.

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Matthew (1856; CCEL edition)Exposition of Matthew 7:1-11