Judge Not Unrighteously

A common tactic used by individuals who wish to silence a person making a judgment on a moral issue is to cite the Lord’s own words in their support: “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. The attempt to use these words to prevent any judgment from taking place is not only absurd, but scripturally incorrect.

For starters, one need only look as far as the Joseph Smith Translation which adds context and clarity to the Savior’s words. In doing so, we learn that the Savior instead was telling his disciples to not judge unrighteously. Further, he counseled them to “judge righteous judgment”, in effect instructing them to judge others—but based on the correct moral standard God had given them.

Ignoring this insight, people who try to end a discussion with an appeal to the “judge not” line of scripture evidently advocate a “live and let live policy”, where no individual judgment occurs, and thus each person implicitly condones and supports whatever his neighbor chooses to do. This warped version of the golden rule shirks our responsibility to stand for what is right—instead of advocating doing unto others what we would have them do unto us, we’re told to not do unto others what we don’t want them to do unto us.

Conversely, the Lord would have us act instead of being acted upon—taking a proactive stance to work in righteousness, stand for truth, and spread the light of the gospel. The golden rule has the right idea: we should do good unto others, not simply not do bad things.