Popular culture holds judgment in very low esteem.  No one wants to be branded as “judgmental.”  Those with a passing acquaintance with the Bible will even say that Jesus frowned upon judgment.  Indeed, Sunday’s final lesson on the Sermon on the Mount includes the passage these folks may have in mind: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  (Matt. 7:1; NIV)

Popular culture’s allergy to judgment notwithstanding, Jesus’ teaching about judgment is far richer and subtler than a broad denunciation of judgment.  Jesus teaches us to use our ability to make judgments in our everyday lives in a wise and merciful way.  I’ll say more about that in a minute.  But let’s get to what underlies our cultural prejudice against judgment.

Judgment requires moral concepts.  This is where popular culture grows resistant.  That’s because we live in a culture under the sway of subjectivism and moral relativism.  I’ll briefly unpack these related concepts one at a time.

Subjectivism holds that moral values are in the eye of the beholder.  There is no objective, universal moral law governing all people for all time.  If subjectivism were true, any judgment I make about someone else’s behavior or character amounts to nothing more than an imposition of my own idiosyncratic preferences on someone else.

Subjectivism leads to the most extreme form of moral relativism.  Standards for right and wrong vary from individual to individual.  There is no higher standard by which to resolve differences between the moral outlook of individuals who disagree.

It now becomes clear why popular culture considers “being judgmental” a vice.  From the standpoint of subjectivism and moral relativism, there is no basis upon which to make judgment.  Judgment limits each individual’s presumed right to choose his or her own standard of right and wrong.  If one person insists upon their moral preferences, it boils down to a power play.  The stronger person’s preferences win.

Given more time, I could make a series of arguments against subjectivism and moral relativism.  (For example, they are internally inconsistent: subjectivists judge judgmentalism as evil).  But for the present, let’s say simply this:  Holy Scripture and Tradition (not to mention Reason) instruct us that Christians believe in an objective, universal moral law.

When Jesus teaches us not to judge, his meaning is relatively narrow.  Judgment is the activity by which the mind discerns how to respond to the situations we face everyday. Of course we must take care to judge our own actions.  And in love and mercy we are to judge the actions of those with whom we have regular interactions and to whom we are deeply committed.  If someone is doing something harmful, it is our duty to speak honestly to him or her about it.

However, we should never assume that we are capable of judging as God judges.  Yes, the moral law is objective and universal.  Nevertheless, we cannot know a person’s heart as God knows it.

Additionally, we should not assume that our role in life is to make moral assessments about everyone we encounter.  Minding our own business is an excellent policy when we are not involved in another person’s life.  For instance, I am in no way called to make judgments about a stranger’s character because of comments I overhear at a restaurant.

Finally, we should always enter moral judgment from the perspective of someone deeply in need of forgiveness.  If we find it necessary to confront someone, we should do so only as a fellow sinner.  Our desire should be to help someone else limp along the bumpy trail of life, even though we ourselves need a shoulder to lean on.