The Meaning of ‘Judge Not’: Why Assuming Motives Backfires (And How to Stop)

Have you ever been upset at someone or some situation, only to find out later that you had the wrong idea about what was really going on? Then you realize that most of your suffering was caused by your own wrong assumptions. I know I have. In the Bible, Jesus warns us that this will happen if we make assumptions about people’s motives.

Judgment’s Gravity: Jesus’ Wisdom for Self-Protection, Not Punishment

God created our world with certain laws and principles that govern how things work. For example, gravity is in effect on earth. If you attempt to violate the law of gravity by jumping off of a house, you will fall and most likely be injured. The injury is the natural result of an attempt to violate a principle. But it is not punishment. God did not punish you by causing you to fall to the ground and sprain your ankle. You brought this on yourself when you went against the principle or law of gravity.

In Luke 6:37-38, Jesus made the famous statement, “Do not judge, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Many people assume that he said, “Do not judge, and you shall not be judged by God…” But that is not what he said. He did not say that if you judge, then God will judge you as punishment for your behavior. That would contradict what he said in John 3:16-18 and other places.

John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

The only thing that determines whether or not you are condemned is whether or not you believe in Jesus. The only way to be condemned by God is to refuse to believe in Jesus.

When Jesus says, “Do not judge, and you shall not be judged,” he is not telling you how to escape judgment and condemnation from God. Rather, he is revealing to us a principle of how the world works.

God created the world, and in the Bible he shares wisdom with us on how to navigate this world so that we can do well, and avoid bringing unnecessary problems on ourselves. I believe that this verse about judging is an example of that wisdom.

What is Judging?

Sometimes when you take a verse like this and look at it by itself, apart from all other scripture, you can come to a conclusion that is not completely accurate. That is definitely the case with this verse about judging.

There are many times in the Bible where we are instructed to judge what we are seeing or hearing, and make decisions about what kinds of people or activities we are going to be involved in. That kind of judging is necessary for living life on earth. You cannot follow Jesus without making judgments about things. See 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 for one example, where we are given instructions on how to make proper judgments on the types of people we are to be in fellowship with.

Since making judgments is a part of life, what we need is wisdom from our Father on how to make judgments. When it comes to relating to others, there are limits to how we are to exercise judgment. Since God alone knows the motives of the heart (1 Kings 8:39), the only way we can make any sort of judgment is to go by the observable track record of decisions and behavior of a person. But even then, we don’t judge whether someone is good or evil. We just have to figure out the proper way to relate to them.

Proverbs tells us over and over not to interact with fools. Jesus tells us not to imitate the behavior of the Pharisees. Paul tells us to avoid certain people (2 Timothy 2:3-5, for example). I could go on with more examples, but the point is that there are times where you have to judge in order to follow the Bible.

But, the problem comes in when we start making judgments based on assumptions about people’s motives. Again, the only one that truly knows a person’s motives is God (1 Corinthians 2:11). Without some kind of divine revelation from God, you have absolutely no way of knowing another person’s motives. I believe that this is what Jesus was warning us about when he told us not to judge.

The Trap of Negative Assumptions

When you make assumptions about someone’s motives, either good or bad, you are walking on very unsafe ground. You will be making decisions (a.k.a. judgments) based on assumptions that are inaccurate. Your assumptions about a person’s motives are not trustworthy. You can certainly judge the behavior and track record that you are seeing, but you cannot know the reason the person is choosing that behavior. Only God knows that.

Let’s say, for example, you are walking through a store and you see an old friend in the distance. You wave at her, but she does not wave back and just keeps on walking. The proper judgment here is that she did not wave at you for some reason that you do not know.

But a poor judgment would be to start making assumptions about why this happened. This is where you can bring “judgment” back on yourself. I don’t mean judgment from God though. I mean negative consequences that are the natural result of your choice to make assumptions.

Here are some things you could assume about this situation:

• She didn’t wave because she doesn’t like me anymore
• She didn’t wave because she is angry at me
• She didn’t wave because she thinks she is better than me

Any of these assumptions are going to produce a negative emotion inside of you. But this negative emotion is going to be the result of an assumption that is probably untrue. You have just caused yourself emotional turmoil for no reason. You made a judgment about someone’s motives, and judgment came back on you automatically through negative emotions.

God did not do this to you. You did it to yourself. You violated a principle and thus experienced the result of that violation. It is just like trying to violate the law of gravity. If you jump off of a building and get injured, that doesn’t mean that God injured you. You injured yourself by failing to obey the law of gravity. The consequences are built-in.

This happens when you make negative assumptions about people’s motives. But negative consequences also occur when you make positive assumptions about people’s motives.

The Sneaky Danger of Positive Assumptions

Let’s say, for example, than a friend borrowed money from you, and he promised to pay it back next week. Next week comes and goes, but he does not pay you back. And let’s say that this happens multiple times where you loan him money, but he does not pay you back as promised. Here are some things you could assume about this situation:

• He forgot to pay it, but he will remember at some point
• He meant well, but he is having a hard time
• He is planning to pay me back later

This is an example of making a positive assumption about someone’s motives, but this is still an assumption, and it is very likely to lead to a negative outcome. The observable track record is that this person does not keep his word when it comes to money. If you ignore that because you are making assumptions about his motive, then you are judging, and then you can expect negative consequences to come at some point.

If you assume that he had good motives in spite of the observable track record, then you are going to be met with disappointment eventually. You are going to lose the money you loaned him, and you will keep trusting someone that should not be trusted with money. This is unwise, and it can then lead to negative emotions like hurt, resentment, betrayal, anger, and so on. But these could have been avoided or greatly reduced if you have chosen to take action based on the observable evidence rather than making assumptions about motives.

Instead, you could choose to just give him the money outright. Or you could choose not to loan him any more money until everything is paid back. But it is unwise to overlook the track record and make assumptions about why he is engaging in the negative behavior. That is what Jesus was warning us about.

The consequences for making assumptions about motives are self-inflicted. When you do this, you are causing yourself needless emotional turmoil.

A Biblical Example

Here is an example from the Bible where making assumptions and jumping to conclusions caused negative emotions and very negative consequences.

The context for the passage we will look at is this: Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead. News about this event was brought to the religious authorities. Then we see this take place:

John 11:45-46 – Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? for this man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

In this story, the religious leaders made assumptions and jumped to conclusions. They assumed that if they don’t do something about Jesus, then the Romans will come and take away Israel.

This was an imaginary future that they made up in their minds. It was make-believe. It wasn’t real. They don’t know what people are thinking, and they don’t know the future. They made assumptions about Jesus, about the Romans, and about the future. Then this make-believe future caused them to go into fear and panic, which led to them plotting to put Jesus to death.

This shows us the power of our imagination, and the need to be very careful about the assumptions we are making about other people and about the future. These men made assumptions about people, then imagined a future based on those assumptions, and then believed their own imagination. This led to self-inflicted fear, anxiety, and panic. They brought all of this negativity on themselves because of their assumptions.

The point is this: When you make assumptions about people, good or bad, you are initiating a negative outcome for yourself. Jesus says don’t do this, you won’t like how it turns out.

Conclusion

To summarize, when Jesus said “Do not judge, and you shall not be judged,” I believe he was talking about making judgments about people’s motives. When we do this, the result is that we will bring judgment, or negative consequences, back on ourselves.

I do not believe that God sends or causes the negative consequences. I believe that this is a principle or law that is a part of creation, just like gravity. I believe that Jesus is giving us wisdom to help us avoid causing unnecessary problems for ourselves.

The lesson is this: Do not make assumptions about other people’s motives. Instead, use their observable track record to make wise choices about how you will relate to them.

Here are a few takeaways for you:

• Observe actions, not intentions.
• Avoid making assumptions about why someone is behaving a certain way
• Make decisions about people based on track records, not perceived motives
• If your thoughts about a person or a situation is causing you ongoing turmoil, write down only the observable facts about the situation, and eliminate all assumptions about motives.