Judging One’s Neighbour

Christ commands: “Do not judge.” And yet one must distinguish good from evil, recognise that an act is right or guilty, else nothing could be called sin any longer. These two demands aim at two different things: to condemn one’s neighbour, which God forbids; to discern good from evil, which he asks.

Do not judge

“Do not judge, that you may not be judged.” Matthew 7:1 What Christ forbids is to condemn one’s neighbour, to pronounce upon his heart a sentence that ranks him among the wicked. For to judge thus is to put oneself in the place of God, alone in knowing the depths of hearts, and alone able to save a man or condemn him: “There is but one lawgiver and judge, he who can save and destroy.” James 4:12 Whoever condemns his brother arrogates a power that belongs to God alone: “You, why do you judge your brother? We shall all stand before the tribunal of God.” Romans 14:10

Christ warns the one who judges his brother while forgetting his own faults. He sees another’s failing and not his own, which is graver: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, and not see the beam in your own?” Matthew 7:3 One must begin with oneself: “First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:5 The one who has corrected himself first can then help his brother to rise, instead of crushing him.

Judging the act, not the heart

Christ’s prohibition leaves whole the duty of discerning good from evil. The same Gospel commands us to judge with uprightness: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge according to justice.” John 7:24 A Christian can and must recognise that an act is evil, name sin as sin, refuse to hold evil for good. This discernment of acts is necessary; without it there is no longer good or evil.

What God forbids is to pass from the act to the person: to judge the heart of the one who acts, his hidden intentions, his worth before God. We see the act, we do not see the heart. One same deed may spring from malice or from weakness, from a long struggle or from an easy consent, and God alone knows each one’s part. To condemn the deed is sometimes right; to condemn the man is reserved to God, who alone will read on the last day what none can see: “Do not judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light what is hidden in hearts.” 1 Corinthians 4:5

The gaze of mercy

In place of judgment, the Gospel asks mercy, and makes it the measure of the mercy we shall receive: “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37 God will treat the sinner that we are as we have treated our neighbour. Against the tendency to condemn, the Christian life teaches precise means. The first is to judge oneself first: the one who remembers his own faults no longer has the heart to condemn another’s, for he knows himself a sinner like him. The second is to interpret for the good: before an act that seems evil, to seek the explanation that excuses before the one that accuses, since we do not see the heart and owe the other the benefit of the doubt. The third is to hand the man over to God: to leave to the sole Judge the weighing of what he is, instead of deciding oneself. The last is to pray for the one we would be tempted to judge, for we do not condemn the one we carry before God. Thus the gaze changes: we cease to see a culprit to be lowered and see the neighbour whom God loves and calls to rise. Charity, instead of condemning the neighbour, wills his good and hopes for his return to God. It is this gaze, not that of the judge, that Christ asks toward one’s neighbour.