Christians and Judging

In John 8 we read about the incident where the scribes and Pharisees bring to Jesus a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. If you are not familiar with this story, I encourage you to read it before continuing. The Jews were trying to trap Jesus by asking him whether he agreed with the law that required that she be stoned to death. Without answering, Jesus stooped down a couple of times to write in the dirt and as He did so told them that the person who was without sin should cast the first stone. Upon standing up, Jesus saw that not one of the accusers remained. Jesus asked if anyone had condemned her. After hearing that no one had, Jesus said that He did not condemn her either and then told her to go and sin no more.

Reading this story in preparation for a Sunday School lesson, I began to wonder what “condemnation” means and how it compares to the “judging” that we do. I decided to do a miniseries on this topic and the remainder of this document is the result of that study.

Whenever a discussion of the Scriptures that forbid judging occurs among conservative Christians, some immediately wonder if it is a sign of becoming liberal. As you read through this material, you may have the same thought. Another reaction you may have is that whatever judging means, you’re not doing it because the kind of discernment you have is required by Scripture or at least encouraged there. As you try to sort through this in your own mind, I ask that you try to be open to what Scripture teaches about this topic and then work out in your own life how to be a holy, discerning Christian while at the same time being obedient to God by not judging others.

The word for condemn that Jesus used is the Greek word “katakrino” which means to give judgment against, pass sentence upon. This word is also used in Romans 8:3 where Paul writes that God judged sin in the flesh. The word used more generally for judging is “krino”. (You can see that the word krino is contained in the word katakrino.) This word at its root means to separate, select or choose. Thus it means to distinguish. Some commentators define it to mean pronounce judgment, to try, condemn or punish.

It seems that katakrino is more the sentencing phase. The actual pronouncement of the decision of a court, whereas krino is more the judging process itself. Katakrino is a stronger word than krino. Jesus did not pronounce sentence on this woman. We are told not to hold the trial in the first place.

In the next few posts we will investigate passages that speak to us about krino – judging.