Generally speaking, people judge others but don’t judge themselves. They critically examine other people’s lives, sometimes even fault-finding to make themselves feel better. They project, accusing others of the very sins they’re guilty of. Jesus condemned this sort of hypocritical judgment in Matthew 7. That said, judgment is necessary and frankly unavoidable.
In the same passage, Jesus instructed us to take the plank out of our eye so we could then see clearly to take the speck out of another person’s eye. In other words, we let the Holy Spirit point out areas that we need to work on and we follow His lead. He guides us into all truth. This allows us to fulfill Christ’s command in John 7:24: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” That’s right, we’re commanded to judge. It’s not optional. The good news? Unlike the world, we can judge correctly. After all, we have the mind of Christ.
Indeed, we have the best of both worlds, because “he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.” We can judge all things, but we aren’t judged by anyone. We are accountable to God. We have the authority in Christ and the ability through the Holy Spirit to consistently make righteous judgments. At the same time, no one can truly judge us, not even a human court or our own hyperactive consciences. Like Paul said, “I do not even examine myself.” We don’t have to because the Holy Spirit does that for us. That’s why “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” We’re free to live exactly the way we were intended to live by our Creator, without letting other people’s opinions get in the way. It doesn’t get any better than that.