The Deflector Shield

You all know the routine. Some so-called minister in some so-called church will come out sporting a rainbow-colored vestment and brazenly declare that "God is gay!" or "God is transgender!" or some such woke foolishness in order to show how tolerant and inclusive he is.

Oh, and of course...

How tolerant and inclusive he thinks all Christians should be today.

The mainstream media will waste little time in lavishing attention on such a wonderfully woke person, and in the process subtly sanction the trendy garbage such people are spewing. And as they do so, it becomes reasonably clear that the real goal is to enlighten non-woke Christians who are apparently too jaundiced and narrow-minded to openly embrace said garbage.

Relax...this isn't going to be an LGBT "hit piece" (been there—done that. I'm simply using this "wokest of the woke" group as an illustration of what I want to discuss because they provide such exquisite examples.

Now, I'm pleased to report that there are still a decent number of prominent Bible teachers who will spare no effort in pointing out the profoundly obvious scriptural problems with all manner of woke, politically correct attitudes and beliefs that are so popular today, and let it be known in no uncertain terms how contrary such things are to the plain text of Scripture—not to mention revoltingly offensive to most born-again believers.

But they won't do it by scolding such people, calling them names, or telling them that in their opinion they are wrong.

They will point to the words of Scripture

and let God tell them they are wrong.

In spite of the (biblically prophesied) decline of the Church's strength and influence in the end times, we are still blessed to have individuals who are willing to call a spade a spade and speak God's truth with black-and-white clarity to an unbelieving world (which includes unbelieving wokesters).

But again: You all know the routine. The wokester in question will raise a deflector shield—a surprisingly powerful device that completely stymies the majority of otherwise scripturally competent believers and that consists of what has become one of the most oft-quoted Bible-isms in today's woke world:

Judge not.

The message is essentially this:

"Jesus said 'Judge not, that you be not judged,' and He meant what He said—DO NOT JUDGE!! How is that unclear?! So why don't you obey the words of Jesus and stop judging me, you judgmental hypocrite!!"

This "judge not" canard frequently comes into play when believers point out the errors of a fallen world, but it also rears its hoary head when they point out the errors of other believers who have foolishly allowed themselves to get swept up in trendy wokeness and have come to espouse ideas that do little more than mirror that fallen world.

This second Church-related category can include a variety of contentious issues, such as a heartbreakingly relaxed attitude toward abortion, a lack of support for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people (if not flat-out anti-Semitism), not to mention a ham-fisted mishandling of end-time prophecy that robs the Church of its blessed hope of the Rapture and tramples underfoot what the Bible clearly teaches about God's judgment during the Tribulation, Christ's literal return to earth, and His blessings in the Millennial Kingdom.

But without a doubt, LGBT-related issues are the stars of this particular show, and this includes issues pertaining to the world as well as the Church.

LGBT-related issues pertaining to the world include things such as...

•  The surreptitious indoctrination of young children with the perversions of the LGBT agenda, not to mention the mutilation of these children's bodies under the glowing guise of "gender affirming care."

• Allowing biological men who are pretending...er, I mean "transitioning" to be women to compete against real women in sports, effectively robbing talented young ladies of the hard-earned rewards of their efforts.

• The acceptance and normalization of homosexual "marriage."

LGBT-related issues pertaining to the Church include things such as...

• The actual performance of homosexual "marriages" by licensed ministers.

• Insisting that all of the fanciful LGBT flavors of gender and sexuality should not only be accepted but celebrated by believers because God made those people that way, and God certainly doesn't make mistakes.

• Expecting churches to openly and warmly accept members of the LGBT community, but while also openly and warmly accepting their sin. That's because failing to do so would be unloving—and God is love, right?

And the message never changes:

"You guys always make such a big deal about all that stuffy holiness and justice business, but you forget that God just love love loves the bejeepers out of us, and that's all that matters!"

And these are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The point is that as soon as believer A confronts deceived believer B who holds to any of the above views or any one of a million others that ooze out of the woke world, believer B activates his thermonuclear deflector shield and whatever believer A says from that point on is going to bounce off it like Nerf balls off the USS Nimitz:

 JUDGE NOT!! 

Sadly, the great majority of the time this deflector shield works like a charm for believer B, typically making believer A shut up and shuffle away (or what's worse, fall into the trap of condemning believer B even more vehemently) because he is uncertain how to effectively counter the "judge not" ruse from the Word. He most likely recognizes that this absolutely must to be some sort of scriptural sleight of hand, but he's just not quite sure who, what, when, where, why, or how.

He's stumped—he has no comeback.

Hence this article. In this article I want to do three basic things:

1. Help you understand what Jesus is actually saying in the passage where He says "Judge not." (Hint: It ain't what believer B is so cocksure it is.)

2. Help you understand why God wants and expects us to make judgments, and the manner in which He wants us to make them.

3. And conversely, help you understand the manner in which God doesn't want us to make judgments.

And I'll be the first to admit that no believer on earth needs to read this article more than I do.

So what is Jesus saying?

The first thing I want to do is go to the Word and take a closer look at the passage in question in which Jesus says "Judge not." I want you to see how people who activate their deflector shields every time someone challenges their woke beliefs as being contrary to Scripture yank the words "judge not" completely out of context and build an erroneous doctrinal position out of them. To do that, however, we need to gain a clear understanding of what Jesus was actually talking about when He said these words.

Here is the full passage, which is taken from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew:

¹Judge not, that you be not judged. [Screeech...woke stops here.] ²For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. ³And why behold you the mote [Greek: kárphos, or a splinter of hay or straw] that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam [Greek: dokós, or a log or wooden plank] that is in your own eye? ⁴Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, [which is what you are if you don't do the following] first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye. [Note with care what Jesus is telling us to do here.]

(Matthew 7:1–5 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

So the question is this:

When Jesus says "Judge not," is He telling believers to never judge or criticize anyone's words, actions, or beliefs in any way, no matter how contrary they are to clear teaching in God's Word or how badly they flout well-established biblical principles?

No, He isn't. He can't be, because in other places in Scripture we are literally told to make judgments...and we see a clear example of this before we even finish the above passage.

Notice the command in verse 5 that effectively prompts us to judge our brother: "...first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye."

As you obey what Jesus is telling us to do here, you are judging your brother. How is this unclear? It's just that you are not judging him in a hypocritical way, because you have removed the log from your own eye first.

If Jesus were telling us in verse 1 to never judge our brother in any way, then He might have said something along the following lines:

"Sure, remove the log from your own eye—that's great. But as for the splinter in your brother's eye, leave it alone—it's none of your business, so go easy, bro! Hey, maybe your brother likes that splinter. Maybe he actually thinks it helps him see better. How do you know? So don't worry about taking it upon yourself to remove it. Who knows, perhaps the day will come when he realizes he should get rid of that splinter. After all, it's his splinter and it's his journey."

But that's not what Jesus is saying, is it? What Jesus is saying is if you see your brother engaged in error, make sure you are completely free of that error to the best of your ability before you call it to his attention in an effort to correct him. Why? Because if you don't remove the log from your own eye first—that is, if you don't ensure that your life is free of some type of error before you try to correct your brother of that same error—you are nothing but a judgmental hypocrite and have no business trying to correct anyone.

Note that in other places in Scripture, we are expressly told to judge, but are told to judge in a righteous manner free of any hypocrisy:

²⁴Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. [Many modern translations read "Judge with righteous judgment." In other words, judge in a righteous manner.]

(John 7:24 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that those who are spiritual certainly do judge, since they are uniquely qualified to do so because they have the mind of Christ:

¹⁴But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. ¹⁶For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. [See remarks below.]

(1 Corinthians 2:14–16 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

Note that when Paul says "we have the mind of Christ," he obviously doesn't mean we know everything Christ knows. He means that the spiritual things we do know come from Christ and constitute spiritual truth. As a result, we are able to judge in a manner that is in accordance with God's Word.

I have a couple of quick questions for people who believe Jesus is telling us in Matthew 7:1 that we are not to judge people in any way, and we don't have to go very far before we stumble into verses that provoke such questions:

1. The very next verse after the "judge not" passage in Matthew 7:1–5 that I quoted above prompts a judgment-related question:

⁶Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast you your pearls before swine, [Dogs, swine...how can we tell?] lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. [Judge that.]

(Matthew 7:6 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

So, how exactly are we to discern who are the dogs and pigs unless we make a judgment concerning them and determine them to be such? Rather than prohibiting judgment, this verse literally presumes judgment.

2. And just a few verses later, Jesus warns us about false prophets:

¹⁵Beware of false prophets, [Same deal...how can we tell?] which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ¹⁶You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? [That is, we have to make judgments about the fruit of the ministry.]

(Matthew 7:15–16 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

Again, our judgment of their fruit is presumed. There are a number of others, but the point is made. Jesus is certainly not telling us that it is wrong to make judgments about people's words, actions, and beliefs. As we read the context in Matthew 7:1–5, we readily see that Jesus isn't telling us not to judge—He is telling us not to judge hypocritically. He is telling us to purge ourselves of a particular error before we call attention to that same error in someone else so we don't dishonor His name by acting like judgmental hypocrites, because hypocrisy is something God hates.

God's hatred of hypocrisy is touched on in several places in the Old Testament, and here are two:

¹³The Lord said, "Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; [In other words, they are complete hypocrites.]

¹⁴therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, [i.e. send the promised Messiah] even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden." [Due to their abject hypocrisy, when God sent that Redeemer their eyes were blinded to what He was doing in their midst—and they ultimately crucified Him.]

(Isaiah 29:13–14 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Hypocrisy is closely linked to pride and arrogance: When someone judges another person for something they are guilty of as well, it is their own pride and arrogance that blinds them to their error and makes it easy for them to hammer their brother. Note that the prideful arrogance that spawns and fuels hypocrisy takes the top spot on God's Top Seven List of Things He Hates:

¹⁶These six things does the LORD hate: yes, seven are an abomination to him:

¹⁷A proud look, [i.e. the prideful arrogance that underlies hypocrisy] a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸An heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹A false witness that speaks lies, and he that sows discord among brothers.

(Proverbs 6:16–19 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

(See also Proverbs 18:13.) So if you only take away one thing from this article, this is the gem to stick in your pocket:

Jesus never told us not to judge anyone

in any way. He told us not to judge others

as hypocrites who overlook their own sin.

Right ways to judge

Since the Bible tells us to judge in a righteous manner, we would do well to take a closer look at exactly what that entails to help us avoid the all-too-common pitfalls that can easily lead to the hypocrisy God hates.

1. Judge in agreement with God's Word.

Arguably the point of overriding importance here is that we are to judge with righteous judgment, or in a righteous manner. But what exactly does that mean? I would say this is the easiest one of the bunch:

Any judgment we make must be

in agreement with God's Word.

Remember: We have a Judge, and He always judges in accordance with His own perfect righteousness, perfect justice, and perfect Word.

Everything begins with us agreeing with God. As a matter of fact, that forms the very basis of our salvation. We agree with God when He says that we are sinners whose sin has separated us from Him. We agree with God when He says that His Son's one-time work of atonement paid the penalty for our sin, and believe this in simple faith. In a large sense, you might say that repentance is essentially changing the way we think and agreeing with the way God thinks.

In other words, there is only one way we should judge anyone:

We should only judge someone by

comparing their actions with what

God has clearly spoken in His Word.

In a very real sense, it is what God has spoken that does the judging. To dig into that a wee bit more, notice what Jesus said shortly after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passion Week:

⁴⁴Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. ⁴⁵He who sees me sees him who sent me. ⁴⁶I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness. ⁴⁷If anyone listens to my sayings and doesn't believe, I don't judge him. [Rather, he will be judged by his rejection of Jesus' words.] For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸He who rejects me, and doesn't receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke will judge him in the last day. [See remarks below.] ⁴⁹For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak."

(John 12:44–50 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Notice what Jesus says in verses 47–48: He wasn't here on earth to judge those who rejected His words. Why? Because He didn't come to judge the world—He came to save the world (see also Luke 19:10).

As for someone who rejects Christ's words, Jesus doesn't have to judge him personally, either at that time or in the future. Men will be judged by their rejection of the words the Father gave His Son to speak:

The rejecter of Christ "has one to judge him; the word which I spake, it will judge him in the last day." Nothing personal enters into the judgment: the man will be judged by what he has heard, by his opportunities and light.

— Expositor's Greek Testament [Source]

At the Great White Throne Judgment, all those who have rejected what God has said will stand before Christ and hear Him read the verdict and announce the punishment that was carved in stone the moment they died and entered the spiritual realm without believing what God has said. And that verdict?

Guilty as charged.

But I'm guessing you already knew the verdict...as well as the punishment.

2. Judge with humility.

Knowing that we have a Judge should keep us humble and appropriately tone our attitude when it comes to judging the errors of others.

The idea of judging with humility is closely related to the idea of removing the log from our own eye before we attempt to remove the splinter from the eye of our brother. Just as Jesus said—we need to deal with our own errors before we point out those of others. And as we deal with our own logs, we will be better be able to maintain the attitude of humility God desires us to have before we attempt to deal with the splinters of other believers.

And before we go for that splinter in our brother's eye, it wouldn't hurt to give our humility a shot in the arm by reviewing the following verse:

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

²⁴And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. [And if there is, let me remove it before I judge anyone else.]

(Psalm 139:23–24 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

3. Judge to restore, not to rebuke.

When we do have to judge or correct a brother who has erred, the purpose of it should be to restore that brother to fellowship, not simply rebuke him like an angry mother scolding a naughty child. In other words:

The goal of our judgment of

another person should be

restoration, not retribution.

As Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus:

³²And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you. [Key point: Think about how He forgave us.]

(Ephesians 4:32 / emphasis & [comments] added)

And to the believers in Galatia:

¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, [Paul says we must do this] looking to yourself so that you also aren't tempted. [...and as a result start growing a log in your own eye.]

(Galatians 6:1 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Jesus speaks to this in Matthew's Gospel, and I might add that He seems to emphasize the idea of keeping it as private and low-key as possible:

¹⁵If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. [Jesus goes on to describe the details of church discipline if it reaches that point.]

(Matthew 18:15 / emphasis & [comments] added)

I should also emphasize that our goal should be to restore—not to be right.

This is not about who's right—God's Word is right. This is about focusing on that simple fact and restoring fellowship with a fellow believer.

Wrong ways to judge

Since we have taken a closer look at what it means to make righteous judgments, it would be profitable to also take a closer look at some of the wrong ways to judge to help keep us focused on the right ways.

We've already discussed the problems associated with judging people in a hypocritical manner, but there are others aspects to this issue.

1. Don't judge in a superficial manner.

We shouldn't judge based on mere appearances, or on unsubstantiated, incomplete evidence. We shouldn't jump to conclusions based on our own opinions (or delusional rants spewed by a radically biased mainstream media).

We need to make an effort to dig a bit deeper and get the facts of a situation before we judge someone, or else we may find ourselves neck-deep in hypocrisy. We see a wonderful example of this in Luke's Gospel, when a Pharisee named Simon invites Jesus to dine with him:

³⁶One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee's house and sat at the table. ³⁷Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner." [Only focusing on the surface.]

⁴⁰Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." He said, "Teacher, say on." ⁴¹"A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?" ⁴³Simon answered, "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most." He said to him, "You have judged correctly." ⁴⁴Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. ⁴⁶You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." ⁴⁸He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." ⁴⁹Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" [Note that this isn't the only time Jesus got the Pharisees all up in a tizzy by making a point of openly forgiving someone's sins—see also Jesus' healing of a paralytic in Luke 5:17–26 (also Matt. 9:1–8; Mark 2:1–12).] ⁵⁰He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

(Luke 7:36–50 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Simon the Pharisee made a superficial judgment based only on his personal opinion of the woman and with no consideration of other compelling factors that informed the true nature of the situation. Simon's reaction was typical for the Pharisees: a shallow, snap judgment born of legalism.

And Jesus wasted no time hanging him out to dry for it.

2. Don't judge in a harsh, condemning manner.

Recall that in our "judge not" passage above, Jesus reminds us that we will be judged in the same manner we judge others:

²For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.

(Matthew 7:2 AKJV)

So it is clear that when we do judge others, we shouldn't do so in a harsh manner, blazing with condemnation.

We should make every effort to be gentle and forgiving in our judgment, as Paul reminds us in his letter to Titus:

¹Remind them to be in subjection to rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, ²to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. [And it goes without saying that this especially applies when we judge others.]

(Titus 3:1–2 / emphasis & [comments] added)

See Galatians 6:1 above as well. Jesus also touches on the idea of being merciful to others earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, when He says:

⁷Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

(Matthew 5:7)

Taken all together, we could effectively paraphrase this verse as...

Blessed are those who judge mercifully,

for they shall likewise be judged mercifully.

3. Don't make false judgments.

Arguably the worst of the lot is making false judgments—lying about someone and viciously pummeling them with untruths. Obviously lying is forbidden all throughout Scripture, from the 10 Commandments onward:

¹⁶You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

(Exodus 20:16 AKJV)

End of story. See also item no. 6 on God's Top Seven List of Things He Hates that I quoted earlier ("...a false witness that speaks lies…").

Another passage in Proverbs hits this yet again:

⁵A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaks lies shall not escape.

(Proverbs 19:5 AKJV)

Judging others based on lies is about as low as it gets. I mean...

• It's bad enough to judge someone in a hypocritical manner.

• It's bad enough to judge someone based solely on outward appearances.

• It's bad enough to judge someone in a harsh, unforgiving manner.

But judging someone based on known lies is the bottom of the barrel.

So don't go there.

No joke

What we're saddled with these days, however, is a regiment of self-appointed social media saints who consider it their sacred duty to correct everyone's doctrinal "errors" and publicly ID every "false prophet" in the entire world—which includes anyone who interprets anything in Scripture in a way that disagrees in any way with their immaculate, inviolable interpretation.

Hey, don't look at me like that!

Uhm...on second thought, maybe you should look at me like that. Yes, I admit I've been guilty of this in the past on a few occasions, and the Holy Spirit is at work as we speak to remedy it. It's like I said earlier...and I'll bet you thought I was joking. Well, I meant what I said—that was no joke:

No believer on earth needs to read this article more than I do.

Oh, and next time you point out someone's error and that person activates the old "judge not" deflector shield and quips that you should obey the words of Jesus and not judge them, I just may have the comeback you need:

So you want me to obey the words

of Jesus, do you? Well, stand by:

I've removed the log from my eye,

and Jesus says that means I'm ready

to help you with the splinter in yours.

From Greg Lauer @ A Little Strength—SEP '25

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