"What is the danger against which our Lord is warning us? We can say first of all that is it it is a kind of spirit, a spirit which manifests itself in certain ways. What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not. That then leads to a censoriousness, and a spirit that is always ready to express itself in a derogatory manner. And then, accompanying that, there is the tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt. I am not only describing the Pharisees, I am describing all who have the spirit of the Pharisee.
It seems to me, further, that a very vital part of this spirit is the tendency to be hypercritical... Criticism in a true sense is never merely destructive; it is constructive, it is appreciation. There is all the difference in the world between exercising criticism and being hypercritical. The man who is guilty of judging, in the sense in which our Lord uses the term here, is the man who is hypercritical, which means that he delights in criticism for its own sake and enjoys it. I am afraid I must go further and say that he is a man who approaches anything which he is asked to criticize expecting to find faults, indeed, almost hoping to find them.
The simplest way, perhaps, of putting all this is to ask you to read I Corinthians xiii. Look at the negative of everything positive which Paul says about love. Love 'hopeth all things', but this Spirit hopes for the worst; it gets a malicious, malign satisfaction in finding faults and blemishes. It is a spirit that is always expecting them, and is almost disappointed if it does not find them; it is always on the look-out for them, and rather delights in them. There is no question about that, the hypercritical spirit is never really happy unless it finds these faults. And, of course, the result of all this is that it tends to fix attention upon matters that are indifferent and to make of them matters of vital importance. The best commentary in this connection is found in Romans xiv where Paul tells the Romans at great length to avoid judging one another in matters like food and drink, and regarding one day above another. They have been exalting these matters to a supreme position, and judging and condemning in terms of these things. But Paul tells them that that is all wrong. 'The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost', he says (Romans xiv. 17). One may observe one day, and another, another. 'Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.' But the thing to remember, he says, is that you are all being judged by God. The Lord is the Judge. Furthermore, you do not decide whether a man is a Christian or not by regarding his views on matters such as these, which are unimportant, and matters of indifference. There are essential matters in connection with the faith, matters about which they must be no doubt, while others are matters of indifference. We must never elevate the latter into matters of vital importance.
That is more or less the spirit of the man who is guilty of judgement. I am not applying all this as we go along. I trust that the Holy Spirit is enabling us to do so. If we ever know the feeling of being rather pleased when we hear something unpleasant about another, that is the wrong spirit. If we are jealous, or envious, and then suddenly hear that the one of whom we are jealous or envious has made a mistake and find that there is an immediate sense of pleasure with us, that is it. That is the condition which leads to this spirit of judgment."
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from 'Studies in the Sermon on the Mount', Vol 2., Chapter 15 "Judge Not", page 166-168.
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