Judging Others

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Jun 16, 2024

In Matthew 7, Jesus is not forbidding all judgment but condemning hypocritical and superficial judgment. The context targets religious hypocrisy, not discernment itself. Scripture consistently teaches that believers have a responsibility to hold one another accountable with gentleness and humility — while never imposing Christian standards on those outside the faith. The church's calling is to lead with grace that opens the door to truth, and to always restore fallen believers rather than discard them.

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Nov 15, 2021

In Romans 2, Paul dismantles the self-righteousness of religious people who feel superior to the unrighteous described in Romans 1. Using the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector as a lens, Pastor Daniel shows that churchgoers are just as condemned before a holy God as anyone else — because God's standard is perfection, not goodness. Our only hope is not better behavior or religious performance, but the mercy and grace found in Jesus, who fulfilled the law on our behalf so that all who believe in Him are declared righteous.

Pastor Bill Bush · Jul 21, 2019

In Matthew 7, Jesus does not forbid the use of godly wisdom to help others grow; He forbids the condemning, self-righteous attitude that judges motives and demands rights rather than seeking restoration. The problem is never the content of the truth we carry — it is the condition of the heart carrying it. Before we can rightly address anyone else's struggles, we must first confess our own sin, remove the log from our own eye, and approach people with the same grace and love Jesus showed. The world does not need more judges; it needs to see Jesus in us.