Judging - Passage 1

What follows is the second installment of our series on judging.

Passage 1: Romans 1:28-2:1

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. 1Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” (NKJV)

The first thing to notice here is that the death penalty is appropriate for all of these sins, not just the ones that we deem more serious. The Pharisees rightly understood that the law of God requires death for adultery, although their motive for bringing her to Jesus was not justice, but tripping up our Lord. What the Pharisees failed to understand is that their sins were also worthy of death. Thus we understand from this passage that if we judge another, we are inexcusable because we do the same things. At first I rebelled against this thought because I figured that I was a pretty good guy. But this passage exposes us for what we are – sinners under judgment of death just like the person we judge.

James teaches the same thing in his book, chapter 2. He tells his readers that prejudice against the poor and in favor of the rich is wrong. He says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” So we understand that showing partiality is wrong. But not that wrong…right? Look at verses 10-13: “10For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

What I had never seen before is that not only is this passage teaching us not to show favoritism, it is also teaching us that showing favoritism makes us a law-breaker and thus guilty of the whole thing. Thus we are inexcusable as we judge others because we are guilty of the same thing. There must be mercy, rather than judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

My conclusion from this passage then is that it is not our place to judge because we are guilty of law breaking the same as anyone else.