Driving down a snow-covered road one winter day, I hit an icy patch and my car began to fishtail. Living in Northern Michigan, I had been emphatically taught how to respond to these situations, but as a 16-year-old driver, I hadn’t had much practice. So, with the back wheels angling off a bit to the right, I appropriately “steered into the skid,” turning my front wheels in the same direction. Unfortunately, I overcompensated, turning them so far to the right that the car fishtailed severely in the opposite direction, completing a full 360-degree spin before slowing enough for me to recover. It was a powerful lesson in overcorrection, and at the mercifully meager cost of momentary fright.
Sometimes we as believers find ourselves skidding in a spiritual sense into judgment of others, holding the transgressor in contempt as harshly as their transgressions, if not more so. But we have been taught how to handle these icy patches, so as our tail-end begins to slide in the wrong direction, we do well to recall this lesson from our Instructor: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”1 Echoes James, indignantly, “Who are you to judge?”2 Increasingly, we understand this—we’ve navigated this peril before—so we “steer into our skid,” recalling God’s Word and realigning ourselves in the direction of non-judgmentalism.
But correction can easily lead to overcorrection. Sometimes in our determination not to judge people’s hearts, we “turn the wheels” so far into our skid that we fishtail severely in the opposite direction, reluctant now to call out right from wrong. “Do not judge” effectively devolves into “do not discern.” But didn’t Paul say “the spiritual person judges all things”?3 Yes, for the Greek word he chose in this case does not mean to pass judgment on the words and deeds of others, but rather to examine, evaluate, or discern a matter. To such scrutiny we Christians are called. In fact, this kind of judgment hails as mature “those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”4
We now drive on an increasingly slippery slope amid “those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”5 It is not ours to pass judgment on these—such would be a diversion for us, and only our righteous God knows people’s hearts. Instead, let us discern what is true, good, and right, then unswervingly speak it and live it for the good of the Kingdom and those who desperately seek it.
Father, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.”6 In Christ I pray. Amen.
1 Matthew 7:1-2 ESV
2 James 4:12 ESV
3 2 Corinthians 2:15 ESV
4 Hebrews 5:14 ESV
5 Isaiah 5:20 NIV
6 Psalm 119:105-106 NIV
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Paul Nordman—Author 