“Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged” Doesn’t Mean We Should Throw All Judgment Out The Window
It’s three in the morning and you’re vomiting half-digested Jell-O shots in the vague direction of the toilet. As a loved one helps you get more regurgitated vodka in the bowl and less on the cat, they encourage you to dial back your wild Tuesday nights. “Judge not lest ye be judged,” you slur, ready to call them out on their bad eating habits before you pass out on the bathroom tile.
This one comes from some fellow named Jesus. It sounds simple enough, the Biblical version of “live and let live.” Whether you’re religious or not, surely you can agree with his call to not be a dick. And whenever people are slamming you for cheating or lying, just bust this sucker out to make them slink away in shame and think about their own failures.
Many, many quotes are misunderstood because they were popularized without context, which is why so many people think “a few bad apples” are no big deal. So how did Jesus’ sermon continue? “Now that that’s settled, let’s go knock back some wine on me”? Actually, it’s …
“And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”