Jesus warned His listeners about judging others hypocritically in His Sermon on the Mount. The Psalmist”™s prayer could be ours today:

(Amplified) Psalm 119:66 “Teach me good judgment, wise and right discernment, and knowledge, for I have believed (trusted, relied on, and clung to) Your commandments.”

(NASB) Matthew 7:1 “DO NOT judge so that you will not be judged.”

Jesus has warned us not to be a self-righteous people, looking down on others. Critical words and judgmental attitudes devalue others. This attitude also sets up the criticizer as “˜better”™ than others.

In verse 5, Jesus will name such a person: a hypocrite.

(NASB) Matthew 7:2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”

Jesus did not mince words with those who are judgmental ““ they will be judged by their own harsh measures.

Whatever measure we use to measure others ““ watch out ““ we will have that same judgment used to assess our lives.

When we judge others, setting ourselves up as better than others, we are in disobedience to Jesus words. “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”

A judgmental attitude puts others down. A judgmental attitude finds others “˜not good enough”™, according to our standards. Our judgmental attitude will be used to judge us.

Jesus was speaking about self-righteous judgment; He was not speaking about discernment of wrong teachings. We are to discern if teachings are in line with God”™s words or not, we are to test if people are born of God or not.(See 1 John 4:1-3)

Godly judgment will never be hypocritical.

Godly judgments depend on God”™s words

to be true, reliable and worthy of our trust.