I REMEMBER TEACHING a seminary class and saying something about our sin; I don’t remember what. A student raised her hand to ask a question. “But you’re not talking about Christians, right?” she asked, a little confused.

“Yes,” I replied, “I mean Christians.” To me, the point was obvious, but to her it was anything but.

She probed further, seeming a bit anxious. “But not the people in this room, right?”

I could see where this was going. I didn’t know for certain what tradition she hailed from, but it was apparently one that taught the possibility of Christian perfection in this lifetime. “Yes,” I said again, hopefully with the appropriate gentleness and compassion. “Even the people in this room. Even me.” The other students nodded; one turned to her and said humbly, “I sin.”

Now she was deeply and visibly disturbed. She stood up, left the classroom, and didn’t return for quite some time, until after she had a chance to compose herself and, I assume, to pray. To her credit, she stayed in the class and indeed, finished her degree with distinction.

Christians sin; sin happens even in the church. I hope that’s not news to anyone reading this. We can see it in the obtuseness of Jesus’ disciples in the gospels, or the conflicts that pepper the book of Acts or the letters of Paul and especially the letter of James.

And Jesus himself assumes that sin will happen in the church when he teaches his disciples how to handle it in Matthew 18, a well-known passage that has been used for centuries as a blueprint for church discipline. The teaching has not, of course, always been used well. But that just underscores the point: Christians sin, and sometimes do so self-righteously.

As Jesus has already taught in the Sermon on the Mount, people who are seeking the kingdom of heaven must learn the difference between true righteousness and hypocritical forms of piety. And they cannot turn a blind eye to sin, whether their own or that of other members of the community. The believing community must exercise wise and prayerful judgment and discernment as it seeks to embody the kingdom both individually and together.

It’s important, therefore, not to misinterpret what Jesus says at the beginning of Matthew 7:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matt 7:1-2, NIV)

The word translated as “judge” is not an inherently negative one. It suggests using our mental faculties to make a distinction or decision, and can result in our choosing either for or against something. We exercise such judgment all the time for a variety of reasons, and Jesus is not telling us to stop doing so.

But again, Christians aren’t immune to sin and errors of judgment, nor to being blind to those errors in self-serving ways (as we’ll see in the next post). This can have an outsized impact on relationships in the church. Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t use our capacity to make judgments — but it matters greatly how we do this in relation to others.

I think here of the situation that prompted Paul to write, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Rom 14:4). Believers in the Roman church, apparently, had some strong differences of opinion on what was and wasn’t acceptable religious behavior and were passing judgment on each other in condemning ways, each presuming themselves to be right.

Perhaps that sounds familiar?

Like Jesus, Paul is not condemning all use of moral judgment; after all, he’s using such judgment himself in deciding what issues in the church need to be addressed. But he knows that it’s possible for two Christians to have very different opinions on some religious matters and both still be faithful to God. He wants them to know that ultimately, God is one who will judge what is and isn’t done in faith. Meanwhile, we are to take responsibility for how we treat one another, aware that the way we pass judgment on others may damage their faith:

You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. … So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. (Rom 14:10, 12-14)

Paul is addressing the kind of judgment that shows “contempt” toward a brother or sister; the word suggests viewing and treating someone as worthless. Instead of taking such a high and mighty attitude, we should lean into humility and compassion instead. We should consider the ways our self-righteous condemnation may cause someone else to stumble by making them doubt themselves needlessly.

He makes an equally strong point near the beginning of the letter, in a way that highlights the hypocritical way some Roman Christians were judging each other:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, 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 human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (Rom 2:1-4)

This, I think, is the kind of thing Jesus had in mind in the Sermon on the Mount. When he tells his listeners not to judge, he’s telling them not to judge harshly and hypocritically.

And with that instruction comes a warning: “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Again, God is the ultimate judge, as Jesus himself will be when he returns as king. Only they can judge with full righteousness because only they are without sin.

Therefore, whatever measuring stick we use to pass judgment on others, Jesus warns, will be used to pass judgment on us. If that measure is a righteous one — of the kind of righteousness Jesus teaches in the sermon! — no problem. If not…well, that’s not what any of us should want, not if we stop to think about what we’re doing.

As Jesus said at the end of Matthew 6, we should all be pursuing God’s kingdom and righteousness wholeheartedly. And as a community of faith, we should be concerned about how every member of the community is doing spiritually. That’s where wise judgment is needed.

But it’s tempting to find fault with others as a way of not having to face our own faults squarely. May all of us learn to say with the psalmist:

Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting. (Ps 139:23-24)

If we can remember to pray that prayer every time we’re about to open our mouths in judgment, the whole community would be the better for it.