Criticizing Others
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the blank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck out of your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under your feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." [Matthew 7:1-6]
This is the eighth Law of the Kingdom of Heavens. It is very important, as frequently we commit this sin, thus, and we get into trouble as God’s works are hindered. How can we avoid this sin? Lord Christ did state from the start, "Judge not, that you be not judged".
The word "judge" has been mentioned in the New Testament 113 times, so watch against doing it.
The word in Greek has different meanings, but the point is that we should not judge others. At times we ourselves don’t follow the Laws of the Kingdom of Heavens. These laws forbid us from judging others. If we do, then we are not following this commandment and implicate that we don’t believe in it! So don’t judge others.
The Lord Jesus Himself said that He personally came not to judge, but to save the world. We have to follow His path and stop judging others even in our hearts.
Lord Jesus came to save this world, as judgement has its own time.
As long as we are in the world, the door is widely open for anyone who wants to be saved, "Who desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth." [1 Timothy 2-4]
If Lord Christ Himself didn’t come to judge, but rather to save us, giving chance for the people to come back to Him, instead of turning them away. Then let us follow His example and give people a chance letting them to return to God, instead of judging them. Remember that the virtues of others will not permit us to heavens, nor that we are going to be punished by others mistakes.
Someone mentioned that he once thought the meaning of the word "judgement" differently till he read carefully the "Sermon on the Mount". He found St. Luke writing, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." [Luke 6:37]
There is no doubt that the Holy Bible included badmouthing and criticism with it. This is confirmed in, "Receive one who is weak in faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. ... Who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand…. But why do you judge your brother? … Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we all stand before the judgement seat of Christ. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way." [Romans 14:1-13]
This warns us against that condemning and criticizing others, is a sin, which is common among us. We have to remember that those who erred may have done this through ignorance. But we have no excuse if we have been raised in a Christian home.
Don’t expose the bad things done by others. That is God’s work. I trained myself before criticizing others, to ask myself first and see if I am the one who should be criticized.
In our world things are different from heavens. Those who are first here may be the lasts there. By the same token who are last here may be the first there, as there is always a place for repentance.
Heavens will be full of saints. Many were sinners in this world then repented. St. Moses the Black or St. Mary the Egyptian, both were adulterers, but through repentance they became saints. Even some became disciples and confessors who enlightened the way in people’s lives.
Our criticism to others may even lead them to be disparate. We should encourage the weak to believe in the grace of God Who will strengthen them.
One may say that God called to judge others. St. Paul wrote, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" [1 Corinthians 6:2]. St Paul wrote that instead of seeking the earthy courts, it is better for the church to look into disputes. Many people seek divorce using the courts instead asking the church. The church can correct many situations. Even courts open chances for settlement and only proceed if these offers were refused. We have a court within the church, that is the power of clergy that was given to him, " Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." [Matthew 18:18]
Family problems need to be discussed with the priest.
Once I was called to solve a dispute in a family. It took me many hours - from 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM - where 40 men in that family were in dispute. Everyone took his turn to explain what he did and I noticed that all of them were right in their actions. When the turn of the head of the family came and began to talk, I found him at fault. However he kept repeating that he was not at fault, but I kept reminding him that he was wrong in his decisions. Later he said that he never meant by his actions to harm anyone. I replied, since now he realized that they were wrong, and never intended to do harm to others then peace should be among all. That was the end of the problem and everyone embraced the other and all were happy.
Lord Jesus said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." [John 3:24] Appearance not always shows the truth. Judges therefore dig carefully for the truth and refrain from judgement if they do not have enough evidence.
We also have to judge if the judgments have to be honored.
But there are situations in life that we have to deal with. It is our duty as servants to the Bible to look into:
Who can come to serve
On a trip that I took from Giza to Aswan in 1940, to establish Sunday schools, an incident happened. I was watching a teacher, who was a university graduate. While he was conducting his class, he heard the bell signaling the end of the class and for another to start. This teacher who apparently didn’t finish what he was supposed to say, uttered uncomplimentary words not supposed to be used. One of the children asked me if it was proper for the teacher to behave that way. I replied that he was wrong and asked the teacher to apologize to the children for his behavior.
On the other hand, I saw another teacher whose children were very attentive looked much interested in what he said. I inquired about him and I was told that the people call him "the praying man"
Priests should scrutinize the spirituality of the servants and determine their ability to serve. The same applies for those who are seeking marriage and those who partake. The idea is far from trying to show the bad things, but to show if that person is qualified for what he is seeking.
Accordingly, there are judgements that are justified and others that are not. We have to know when we should judge and when we shouldn’t. It is improper to judge my brother unless I am following God’s orders.
The Lord said, "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."[John 5:30]
That is the Lord was listening to the Father’s will and was judging according to the Father’s order. We need to know what God’s rule is.
Who ever criticize or judge is breaking the law of love and the law that says doesn’t judge.
Do you agree with me that the church and all of us are falling in this sin?
Many times some do criticize the rest and ask us to comment! We need to follow the laws of love to others.
A servant once told me this story. A lady and her daughter used to serve the Lord, but used also to criticize other servants repeatedly. He preferred to pray asking God to lead him to what he should do. Since these servant were asking him his opinion, he told them that he read in the "Revelation" that it is a duty to the Satan to complain about others and he himself didn’t want to share the Satan in his job!
There are many good reasons not to criticize others:
You may ask, how can I do that? Can a sinner be better than I am?
Yes! That is if that person had better chances, or you could be worse than he could if you had similar circumstances as he had.
A story : A servant saw someone taken to be hanged after he
was committed to death. He felt sorry for him and said, he himself could
have the same punishment, except for the grace of God. This criminal probably
lost his father when he was young and his mother may had married another
man. He may grow in the streets spared him similar circumstances. He had
parents who took care of him. He felt thankful and slipped astray into
crime, drugs etc. He thanked God that God gave him a better uprising, or
he may had a similar path. He repeated what St. Paul said, "Who
is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with
indignation?"[2 Corinthians 11:29]
"For with what judgement you judge, you
will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured
back to you." [Matthew 7:2]
People who criticize are themselves the most likely to be criticized by others. This brings nothing to them other than misery. It is better to remove the blank from their eyes before trying to remove the speck from other’s eyes.
Before trying to judge others let us judge our selves first.
Criticizing others prevents us to see our own mistakes.
The new commandment asks us to love each other. St. Peter wrote,
"And above all things have fervent love for one another,
for "love will cover a multitude of sins" [1 Peter 4:8]
If we indeed love others, we find no reason to criticize them unjustly, for love is tolerance and compassion.
Let us ask ourselves why we judge others?
If we are sincere to ourselves, then we must admit that it is because
of "envy"
Second: Part of it is due to arrogance, and hating others. Trying to punish our brothers without cause or Divine guidance is a mere sin undoubtedly. Breaking the law of love is a sin indeed.
Third: Judging others, not only is a sin, but self-righteousness may play an important role. How?
Someone once said that the white Satan mostly is worse than the black one!
It may be joyful to rid ourselves from grandiose, envy etc. things that we inherited before coming to the Kingdom of Heaven. These were a part of the "ancient man" but we have replaced it –at the cross- by the most glorious Virtues of Jesus Christ.
We have to remember that our repentance, to God, in the presence of a priest is considered a true one.
With true repentance, we get a living true faith, standing on Christ’s Work. The truthful deeds of the cross, become accordingly the essentials in our life.
There is no doubt that we are capable to rid ourselves completely from the terrible sin of judging others.