James McBroom · No. 3. The Master's Words.

If we have followed the line of this precious Discourse in the two previous chapters it will not be difficult to understand what is here. If we live before the Father in simplicity and sincerity, our dealings with others will be marked by kindness and consideration rather than fault-finding, which seems to be the sense in which judging is used in this first verse. It is not that we are not called to judge between good and evil, for had it meant that there could have been no abstaining from evil, but that we should be free from a censorious spirit, which is a very great evil. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you" (Eph. 4:31-32). It is never right to judge motives unless it be our own, for love thinks no evil and will not condemn until it has proof. Should we be, on the other hand, judged wrongly and misrepresented by others, the way out is put before us in Matthew 5:44: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."