Paul wrote, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? (Romans 2:1-3).
There is within mankind a self-righteousness that is incurable; because of the sin nature that we are born with, we all have the tendency to think that we are better than others, and our natural tendency is to be judgmental of other people. We are all prone to have a critical spirit towards other people who don’t believe like we believe, who don’t have the same skin color we have, who don’t go to the same church we go to, and who don’t do business like we think they should. It is mankind’s natural tendency to be critical of anything that we don’t approve of.
When you point a critical and judgmental finger at someone, there are usually three fingers on the same hand that are pointing back at yourself. When you make a critical judgement of another person you are saying that you know better than to do what they have done. But most of the time we have already done what we are criticizing the other person for. The mere fact that you criticize another person for something they have done only proves that you know better than to do that. It proves that you have a conscience that recognizes sin in another person; you are saying that you know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and you show that you know that sin exists in this world. And the fact that no one has ever lived up to their own conscience proves that we have all judged someone for something that we have done ourselves.
A good example of this is lying! There is no one in this world that hasn’t told a lie or shaded the truth in some way or other. Remember, a half-truth is a whole lie. I know that most people try to tell the truth, but none of us succeed totally in this. Another example is “keeping our word.” No one keeps their word totally. And to say that you have is to tell one of the biggest lies you have ever told. The saying, “A man is only as good as his word” is totally true, but we have all failed to keep our word at some time or other, and that should show you that “There is none good, no not one” (read Romans 3:10-19).
Paul wrote, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you. So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). This is some really good advice; and if more people followed this advice they would make it a lot easier on themselves. I think people get side-tracked by worrying too much about what others are doing and end up not taking care of their own business properly. Solomon wrote, “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife... Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind” (Proverbs 17:1; Ecclesiastes 4:6).
We are warned throughout Scripture not to have a critical spirit towards other people. This does not mean that we are never to make a judgment call as to what is right and wrong, if we couldn’t judge between right and wrong our legal system would be in chaos. The Bible tells us many times to make judgment calls as to how to live our lives. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:3). But that does not give us the right to have a critical attitude towards other people. A critical attitude usually ends up slandering other people. James wrote, “Brothers, do not slander one another” (James 4:11). Peter wrote, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1). It is that judgmental and critical spirit of others that is so hated by God.
One of the problems with a judgmental and critical spirit is that everyone’s discernment is hopelessly distorted because of our own arrogance, selfishness, greed and self-righteousness. Rarely does anyone know all the facts about any given situation, and surely no one knows another person’s motives. Many of the situations that we are critical of are none of our business, and it would be best if we left the judgment in the hands of God. The Bible tells us, “Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5). Solomon wrote, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
Paul wrote, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord” (Romans 12:10-11). This world would be a better place to live in if everyone was trying to help each other. It is a sad situation when we try to lift ourselves up by cutting other people down with critical remarks. All we have to do is look at ourselves to see how sinful we really are. Even our thoughts can be sin. (Matthew 5:22; 28).