I got this trap I've been falling into ever since I've got saved that's a perfect example. I really like the "Judge not, lest ye be judged" verse in the bible.....if we all followed that, we wouldn't have so much trollish behavior in the church. Yet when I see someone blatantly judging someone because they don't agree with something they're doing.....I tend to "Judge the Judger for Judging".....lol. I've caught myself doing that dozens of times. I keep my mouth shut about it but I count even "Mental Judgements" in my outlook on that, so I'm self convicted of not living up to my own standard if I do that.
Yeah, I read what you're saying Donkeyfish...
But I don't think reproving of "the judger who judges" is wrong, and yet accusing the one who reproves (of "additional judgment") tends to be a 'lawyer's counter' and/or an 'escape clause' available to the one guilty of the original judging...to avoid their own wrongfulness.
It happened to me my 5th day on CC; I was accused of judging when I pointed out others' wrongful judgment of another.
Most people stop at the phrase "
judge not lest you be judged", as if that's the full message. But the full message is "
judge not lest you be judged by the *same* measure." (Matthew 7; and then Christ goes into examples of Hypocrisy in the verses that follow). In other words, it's another way of Christ giving the same golden rule: "
to do undo others" and especially "
give and you will receive". It's all the same.
When someone judges another they open themselves up to the same scrutiny that they used to weigh the one they judged. So when they are then judged similarly (and found hypocritical) they have no right to accuse their accuser of an additional round of judgment...because they're now guilty. They don't have any righteousness to stand on in the current situation. So the only recourse is to ask for forgiveness. But often pride gets in the way.
It is your right & responsibility (as part of the body of Christ) to correct and reprove a Christian brother or sister of their wrongfulness for edification (Eph 4:12). How else will we all grow? What isn't right is for they to turn around and accuse you of judgment for pointing out to them their wrongful judgment, instead of being humbled and admitting they were wrong.
Many have mistranslated the famous passage on this (Colossians 2:16-17) to say "
let no one judge you" in anything at all, when the original Greek closes with "
...but the body of Christ" (not "but the body is of Christ" or "the substance is of Christ"; rather, "
De [but] soma [body] tou [(of) the] Christou [Christ]"). Again, we are supposed to perfect one another because we are one body, with one spirit, and one head.
So the problem isn't with judgment per say, it's with righteousness (i.e. the subject of judgement, if that makes any sense). And unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of Pharisees (i.e. unless we can stop being hypocritical), we will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20).
...Now of course, if you were lacking in the standard you were mentally judging the judger about, then I agree - you were also wrong.
I was just taking this opportunity to enlighten the reader on a few passages.