To Judge or Not to Judge Jesus, the Great Teacher, once told a
group of people, "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew
7:1). At another time, He said, "...judge with righteous
judgment" (John 7:24). There are people who think that Jesus
spoke a contradiction. This means they believe the Lord taught
one thing one time and the exact opposite at another time. It is
very important to study the words of Jesus to know that He truly
is God's Son. it is also important that we do not accuse Him (or
anyone) of something He did not say. Jesus was sinless, and
definitely did not contradict Himself. He was talking about two
kinds of judging. In Matthew 7:1-5, Jesus was teaching against
judging as hypocrites. A hypocrite is one who says one thing,
but does another. But, in John 7:24, the Savior was teaching
that there is a right and a wrong way to judge. Some people had
accused Jesus of wrong-doing. They had judged Him unfairly; they
should have judged Him according to truth. What does it mean to
judge? It simply mea