This Sunday
Sermon notes
Judge Not (Lest Ye Be Judged)
Notes from the September 6, 2026 message. Every reference links to the passage so you can read it in full.
The big idea
Jesus said judge not, and he meant it. What he did not mean is that a Christian should stop discerning, stop deciding, or stop telling a brother the truth — because the same Lord commands all three within a few breaths of that sentence. What he was rebuking is the arrangement almost all of us run by default: mercy for me, justice for you.
Key takeaways
- Obeying Jesus is not where grace runs out. It is more grace — most of what he pries out of our hands was going to poison us anyway.
- Let the clear passages fence the hard one. Paul pronounces judgment in Corinth and says the saints will judge the world, so “judge not” cannot mean judgment is inherently evil.
- Whatever the command restricts, it has to leave discernment intact. You cannot hold fast to what is good and hate what is evil if you are not allowed to tell them apart.
- Refusing to distinguish good from evil is not humility. Hebrews calls it infancy, and calls trained discernment maturity.
- The word rendered “judge” covers everything from which gas station to stop at, to a well-made decision, to a sentence of condemnation. Which one Jesus is forbidding is the whole question.
- Our jurisdiction is the church and, first, ourselves. The people outside are in God’s hands — which is not the same as having nothing to say.
- “Judge not” is short, fast and quotable, which is exactly what makes it the most useful verse in the Bible for shielding yourself from scrutiny. That misuse is the very thing it was spoken against.
- The right response to a shield is not to manufacture a better shield. It is to find out what Jesus meant and do it.
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