Balancing Understanding God's Character with Avoiding Judgmentalism
Balancing Understanding God's Character with Avoiding Judgmentalism
The book of Job poses the question starkly: "How should man be just with God?" [2]. This ancient query captures a tension that runs through Scripture and Christian thought—the need to understand and articulate God's righteous character while recognizing the limits and dangers of human judgment. The biblical witness consistently affirms both God's perfect justice and humanity's incapacity to judge as God judges.
The Foundation: Judgment Belongs to God
Moses establishes the principle clearly in Deuteronomy: "Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God" [3]. This declaration sets boundaries around human judgment even as it commands impartiality. The phrase "judgment belongs to God" does not merely describe God's prerogative—it identifies judgment as an attribute inseparable from his nature. Human judges in Israel were to reflect divine impartiality, but ultimate judgment remained God's domain.
Job himself appeals to this divine prerogative when he asks to be "weighed in a just balance so that God may know my integrity" [1]. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary notes that Job's friends erred by accepting God's "person"—that is, by showing partiality for God through "fallacies and prepossessions against Job before judgment" [11]. Their mistake was not in defending God's righteousness but in presuming to know God's verdict before God had rendered it. They confused advocacy for God with the exercise of God's own judgment.
Self-Examination Versus Judging Others
The biblical pattern distinguishes sharply between examining one's own conduct before God and pronouncing judgment on others. Job's declaration "let me be weighed in an even balance" reflects what John Gill calls consciousness "that he had done no injustice to any man in his dealings with them" [8]. This is self-examination, not self-justification. Gill observes that when the psalmist prays "Judge me, O Lord," the request concerns "the justification of his cause before men" rather than justification of his person before God, "which he knew was not by his own righteousness and integrity, but by the righteousness of God" [4].
Paul's instruction to the Corinthians reinforces this distinction: "Self-judgment (which implies confession of sin and repentance) averts God's judgment" [7]. The believer's task is to examine himself, confess sin, and repent—not to assume the role of judge over others. This self-judgment operates within the framework of God's mercy. Jeremiah's prayer captures the proper posture: "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment"—meaning "not in strict justice, as his and the sins of his people deserved, then they would not be able to bear it; but in measure and moderation, with a mixture of mercy and tenderness" [5].
The Limits of Human Understanding
The psalmist's struggle to reconcile the prosperity of the wicked with God's justice illustrates the cognitive limits humans face when attempting to comprehend divine governance. Gill notes that trying "to reconcile the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, to the perfections of God, and his wise providence in the government of the world, by the mere dint of reason, without consulting the sacred oracles" proved "too laborious and toilsome, a work he was not equal to" [12]. This acknowledgment of limitation does not represent intellectual defeat but theological wisdom.
Job's question to his friends makes the point directly: "Shall any teach God knowledge?" [9]. The rhetorical force is clear—no one can "direct and instruct him whom he shall afflict, and whom not, and when he shall do it, and in what manner." These matters "should be left to him, who does all things after the counsel of his own will" [9]. The friends' error lay not in affirming God's justice but in presuming to explain God's specific judgments in Job's case.
Distinguishing Correction from Condemnation
Job's plea "do not condemn me" [10] reflects an important distinction in how believers understand divine discipline. Gill explains that "the afflictions of God's people" are not "a condemnation of them, but a fatherly chastisement, and are in order to prevent their being condemned with the world" [10]. Yet these afflictions "may look as if they were" condemnation "in the eyes of the men of the world" [10]. This gap between appearance and reality cautions against hasty judgments about others' spiritual state based on their circumstances.
The believer can affirm both God's perfect justice and his own inability to execute that justice. Gill's comment on Job's understanding is instructive: Job possessed "a spiritual understanding, an understanding enlightened by the spirit of God," which enabled him "to know himself, his state and condition by nature; to know God, his love and grace to men, and, as his covenant God, to know Christ his living Redeemer" [6]. This knowledge of God's character and one's own condition before him does not translate into authority to judge others.
Practical Implications
The biblical framework suggests several principles for maintaining this balance. First, affirming God's righteous character requires no corresponding claim to comprehensive understanding of his specific judgments. Second, self-examination under God's scrutiny differs categorically from pronouncing judgment on others. Third, recognizing the limits of human understanding does not undermine confidence in God's justice but properly locates that justice in God himself rather than in human interpretation.
The friends' failure in Job demonstrates how defending God's character can become judgmentalism when it presumes to explain God's particular dealings with individuals. Their theological orthodoxy about divine justice did not excuse their "unfairness of the arguments" [11]. The text thus warns against using sound doctrine about God's character as a weapon of judgment against others, even when—perhaps especially when—that doctrine is true.
Sources
- Job “Job 31:6 (LITV) — let me be weighed in a just balance so that God may know my integrity.”
- Job “Job 9:2 (KJV) — I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?”
- Deuteronomy “Deuteronomy 1:17 (BSB) — Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.””
- Psalms (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Psalms 26:1: Judge me, O Lord,.... Meaning not that God would enter into judgment with him, in respect to the justification of his person in his sight, which he knew was not by his own righteousness and integrity, but by the righteousness of God; but his view is, to the justification of his cause before men; and particularly to the difference between Saul and him; and entreats that God would interpose, take his cause in hand, judge between them, and vindicate him; for I have walked in mine integrity; or "perfection" (o) not that he thought himself free from sin; this would be co”
- Jeremiah (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Jeremiah 10:24: O Lord, correct me, but with judgment,.... The prophet here represents the body of the Jewish nation, especially the godly among them; he considers the troubles coming upon the nation as a correction and chastisement of the Lord; he does not refuse it, or desire it might not come upon them; he knew the chastisements of a father are for good; he only entreats it might be "with judgment"; not in strict justice, as his and the sins of his people deserved, then they would not be able to bear it; but in measure and moderation, with a mixture of mercy and tenderness in i”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 12:2: But I have understanding as well as you,.... A natural understanding, or an understanding of natural things, which distinguishes a man from a brute; and a spiritual understanding, an understanding enlightened by the spirit of God, which is naturally dark as to divine things; but he had an understanding given him, to know himself, his state and condition by nature; to know God, his love and grace to men, and, as his covenant God, to know Christ his living Redeemer, who should stand on the earth in the latter day, both to be his Redeemer and his Judge; to know his interest”
- 1 Corinthians (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on 1 Corinthians 11:31: 11:31 Self-judgment (which implies confession of sin and repentance) averts God’s judgment.”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 31:5: Let me be weighed in an even balance,.... Or "in balances of righteousness" (z), even in the balance or strict justice, the justice of God; he was so conscious to himself that he had done no injustice to any man in his dealings with them, that, if weight of righteousness, which was to be, and was the rule of his conduct between man and man, was put into one scale, and his actions into another, the balance would be even, there would be nothing wanting, or, however, that would require any severe censure: that God may know mine integrity; God did knew his integrity, and b”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 21:21: Shall any teach God knowledge?.... Who is a God of knowledge, and knows all things, that teaches men knowledge; will any one take upon him to teach him the path of judgment, and the way of understanding, how he shall govern the world, and dispose of men and things in it? see Isa 40:13. Will anyone be so bold and audacious as to pretend to direct and instruct him whom he shall afflict, and whom not, and when he shall do it, and in what manner? should not these things be left to him, who does all things after the counsel of his own will? shall his dealings with men in an ”
- Job (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Job 10:2: I will say unto God, do not condemn me,.... Not that he feared eternal condemnation; there is none to them that are in Christ, and believe in him as Job did; Christ's undertakings, sufferings, and death, secure his people from the condemnation of law and justice; nor, indeed, are the afflictions of God's people a condemnation of them, but a fatherly chastisement, and are in order to prevent their being condemned with the world; yet they may look as if they were, in the eyes of the men of the world, and they as very wicked persons; and so the word may be rendered, "do not”
- Job (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Job 13:8: accept his person--God's; that is, be partial for Him, as when a judge favors one party in a trial, because of personal considerations. contend for God--namely, with fallacies and prepossessions against Job before judgment (Jdg 6:31). Partiality can never please the impartial God, nor the goodness of the cause excuse the unfairness of the arguments.”
- Psalms (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Psalms 73:16: When I thought to know this,.... How to reconcile the prosperity of the wicked, and the afflictions of the righteous, to the perfections of God, and his wise providence in the government of the world, by the mere dint of reason, without consulting the sacred oracles, or his own and others' experience: it was too painful for me: too laborious and toilsome, a work he was not equal to; "hic labor, hoc opus"; see Ecc 8:17.”