Judgment in Scripture has three main senses. First, the act of discernment — distinguishing truth from error, good from evil, right from wrong. "Righteous judgment" is what Christ commands (John 7:24). Christians are told to "judge all things" (1 Corinthians 2:15) and will one day judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Second, the verdict rendered — when a judge speaks, His word is a judgment. God has appointed "a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:31). Third, the temporal or eternal penalty executed against sin — the flood, the destruction of Sodom, the exile, the final lake of fire. What Scripture does not teach is that Christians should never judge. The command "judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1) is about hypocritical judgment, not judgment itself. Two verses later Jesus says, "first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye" — which is a command to judge, just with integrity. The only way to live a righteous life is to judge what is righteous; the only way to love people is to judge what will harm or bless them. Judgment is unavoidable. The question is whether our judgment will be just.
John 7:24 — "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
1 Corinthians 2:15 — "But he who is spiritual judges all things."
Acts 17:31 — "He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness."
Matthew 7:1-5 — "Judge not, that you be not judged... first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye."
Modern culture has weaponized "judge not" into a prohibition against all moral discernment.
"Judge not" is the single most misused verse in the Bible. In context, Jesus is condemning hypocritical judgment — the man with a plank in His own eye critiquing the speck in another's. He is not forbidding moral discernment; indeed, two verses later He commands it ("first remove the plank, THEN you will see clearly to remove the speck"). The modern abuse of "judge not" demands unconditional affirmation and punishes anyone who calls sin what God calls sin. But Scripture insists: we must judge false teachers (Matthew 7:15), immoral behavior in the church (1 Corinthians 5:12), and our own lives (1 Corinthians 11:31). What we must not do is judge hypocritically, prematurely, or from a place of pride. The Christian is called to discernment, not relativism.
H4941 — מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) — judgment, justice
H4941 — מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) — judgment, justice
G2920 — κρίσις (krisis) — judgment, decision