1/20) Time for another one of these threads. Buckle up because this one really annoyed me. Lots of issues here on the whole "judge not" being taken out of context or just totally misinterpreted. https://twitter.com/robynvio/status/1304303907867295744

2/20) On Matthew 7:1-5, Christ was not rebuking all human judgement upon the behaviour of others. Rather, he cautioned them to live virtuous lives themselves so that their judgment of others would not be rash judgment.

3/20) This is the cardinal virtue of prudence/phronesis which lays the ground for the virtue of justice/dikaiosune.

4/20) “Judge not, that you be not judged.”, and likewise in Luke 6, by itself also including condemnation, could be construed to mean that one may escape even God’s judgment and condemnation simply by not judging/condemning the behaviour of others.

5/20) But, everyone is judged by God, so this cannot be a proper understanding. Jesus goes on to reformulate his statement in a positive way: “With the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”

6/20) Jesus indeed expects his disciples to judge but he warns that they, too, will be judged in a like manner.

7/20) Without prudence, their efforts of judgement would not be effective in appropriately admonishing their neighbours.

8/20) John 7:24 does nothing more than echo this.

9/20) Naturally, Matthew 7 goes on to warn against the evils of hypocrisy with the concerning the speck in one’s eye - hypocritical actions, after all, are not natural to the prudent man.

10/20) When the Gospels speak of love, we need to remember the following - the Greek language has three words for love, which enable us to distinguish Christian love (agape) from passionate devotion (eros) and warm affection (philia).

11/20) Jesus did not tell his disciples to fall in love with their enemies or to feel for them as they feel for their families and friends.

12/20) Agape is a gracious, determined, and active interest in the true welfare of others, which is not deterred even by hatred, cursing, and abuse, not limited by calculation of deserts or results, based solely on the nature of God.

13/20) By virtue of being an interest in the welfare of others, it goes hand-in-hand with the virtue of justice which itself requires judgement as to what one is owed according to what one does.

14/20) What else do the gospels say of judgement?

15/20) Proverbs 23:1-10 -- speaks of judgement as necessary for justice and that it should rightly be executed by those who are just.

16/20) Luke 12:54-59 -- the Lord speaks of the absurdity of being able to judge upon all sorts of worldly events but not of the self and its actions in the proper manner.

17/20) 2 Chronicles 1-19 -- to judge rightly is to judge as the Lord would judge. Such is the good judgement of the faithful that have cultivated the virtue of dikaiosune and phronetic ability.

18/20) 1 Corinthians 6:1-6 -- A pair of the Corinthian Christians were involved in a lawsuit against each other over a minor dispute. Paul is outraged by this. His objection is that two brothers would choose to willingly submit to the judgment of a secular government court.

19/20) St. Paul is not saying to never submit to secular law, but rather he condemns these Corinthians for voluntarily going to court, one that wasn’t in standing with the church, over a minor issue and not being able to make a judgement between themselves.

20/20) To wrap up - the Gospels to not write against judgement itself as this would undo far more foundational truths of the Christian Doctrine such as Divine Judgement. It actively encourages the *right* judgement, which is necessary for justice.