Condemnation VS Correction
No one likes to be condemned or corrected.
If you ask almost any group of people what their favorite Bible verse is, and some in the group happen to know a few Bible verses, invariably someone will say something like, “Don’t judge people unless you want to be judged” – a rough paraphrase of the beginning of Matthew 7 – followed by nods of approval around the room.
No one likes to be judged, condemned, or even corrected, but if our understanding of Jesus’ teaching on this stops there, we’re missing out on some key insights that can lead us to better relationships and lighter hearts.
Let’s look at what these three different words mean.
Condemnation is rooted in an attitude of the heart that destroys relationships. Condemnation is grounded in anger, contempt, self-righteousness, and feelings of superiority towards the other. Condemnation denies the other respect and belonging and aims to hurt and shame – to infuse someone else with a sense of inescapable and deserved self-condemnation, worthlessness, and forsakenness. It is a destructive attack on a human soul that almost always damages both the individual and the relationship, with nothing good to show for it.
I think “condemnation” is the best word for understanding what Jesus is saying at the beginning of Matthew 7 – “Do not condemn, or you too will be condemned. For in the same way you condemn others, you will be condemned, and with the measure you use, it will be measured against you.” Condemnation has evokes a reciprocal response; meaning if you act or speak condemningly of someone else then their natural response will typically be to return their own angry condemnation back at you – “Who are you to condemn me? You…” Nothing is improved this way and more is broken.
Condemnation is also the most likely emphasis of Jesus’ follow up teaching to this statement about the speck and the plank. Here Jesus says:
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The point Jesus is making here is not that we need to check ourselves first and get our own house in order so that we will be better able to effectively condemn someone. Condemnation IS the plank in our eye. Condemnation’s inherent anger, contempt, and self-righteousness blinds us to the reality of who we are and who the other person is and what is truly going on. Condemnation blinds us and makes it so that we will only get in the way of right relationships until we deal with the wrongness of our hearts.
Correction, on the other hand, is the action or ability of bringing someone around to the right side of things. Correction can only be done when the heart is free of condemnation. When done well, correction is a humble, kind, and gentle coming along side someone who has missed the mark and helping them find their way. If done well, correction evokes gratitude and a deeper sense of being loved and valued.
This is exactly what the Apostle Paul is speaking of in Galatians 6 when he says, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”
Judgment, typically expressed in the Greek word “Krino,” means to properly separate or to distinguish. The ability to make distinctions is a good thing. It is a sign of both maturity and intelligence. We want our doctors, dentists, engineers, school teachers, police officers, and scientists to be really good at properly separating and making distinctions. In the context of our discussion, it would mean the ability to distinguish between right and wrong in our actions and attitudes and those of others. It is quite possible and even needed and appropriate at times, to discern between right and wrong and even hold people responsible without giving into dehumanizing self-righteousness, contempt, and shame.
It is important that we cultivate good judgment – the ability to make distinctions, especially moral distinctions – but what we do with those judgments – whether we chose the destructive path of condemnation or the life-giving path of correction – will make all the difference.
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