Yesterday I wrote that it is our responsibility to judge politicians. The pushback came fast.

Some people told me straight that the Bible says we must not judge. Others were gentler and suggested I use softer words instead: assess, evaluate, observe.

The more I read the comments, the more it felt like a word game. You can call it judging, assessing, evaluating, whatever you want; in practice, you are still weighing a person’s character and actions and deciding whether you will trust them with power.

Something in me hesitated. I started to ask myself if I was missing something. Was I being careless with Scripture, or are we using “do not judge” as a shield to avoid responsibility?

That thread pulled me back to earlier conversations with Fr. Florencio Lagura, SVD and Fr. Julius Lopez, SVD. Back then, I was trying to understand two words that kept coming up: eisegesis and exegesis.

Back in the seminary, I considered myself a slow learner — the outlier in my class. When there was something I did not understand during a lecture, I would approach my teachers after class and ask them to explain it to me again.

After the lesson on eisegesis and exegesis, I went back to them with more questions. It bothered me how easily people could quote a verse and end any discussion — and I needed to understand why.

Those conversations gave me language for a problem I am seeing again now.

TWO WAYS OF READING SCRIPTURE

Eisegesis was the first word I had to wrestle with. In simple terms, it is what happens when you start with the conclusion you want and then go hunting for verses that sound like they support it.

You already know what you want to be true. You open the Bible and pull out phrases that seem helpful. You ignore the context around them and present the result as “what the Bible says.” The text turns into a prop for a position you were not willing to question in the first place.

Exegesis is the opposite move. You start with the passage in front of you. You read the verses before and after. You ask what it meant to the people who first heard it. Only after that do you ask what that meaning might say to your own situation now.

With exegesis, the text is allowed to talk back. You leave room for the uncomfortable possibility that your opinion, not the passage, is the one that needs to change.

When people told me “the Bible says we must not judge” and stopped there, it felt very close to eisegesis. You take one line, “Do not judge,” pull it out of Matthew 7, and turn it into a blanket rule against all criticism, including of public officials. It sounds spiritual and it feels safe. But it also silences the rest of the passage and, in a way, the rest of the Bible’s teaching about power and justice.

WHAT “DO NOT JUDGE” ACTUALLY SAYS

If you go back to Matthew 7 and read more than one verse, the picture is more complicated than what others let on. Jesus says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” but then he talks about the measure you use being measured to you, and about the log in your own eye and the speck in your brother’s.

He is exposing hypocrisy. He is talking to the person who condemns others for sins they also commit, while refusing to face their own mess. It is about acting like God over someone else’s life, with double standards and no self-examination.

Later in the same chapter, Jesus warns about false prophets and tells people to recognize them by their fruits. That command already assumes evaluation. You cannot recognize bad fruit without looking closely at behavior, outcomes, and patterns. That is a kind of judgment.

Other parts of the New Testament go in the same direction. Luke records Jesus saying, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged,” but in the same breath he talks about forgiving, giving, and the measure you use. James warns believers against speaking evil of one another and reminds them that there is only one Lawgiver and Judge. Paul tells the community in Rome not to despise or condemn each other over disputable matters because everyone will stand before God’s judgment seat.

If you put these together, you can see what they are warning about:

• Hypocritical judgment is condemned: judging others for the very things you excuse in yourself.

• Harsh, unforgiving judgment is condemned: treating people as if repentance is impossible and mercy is weakness.

• Superficial judgment is condemned: reacting based on appearances, social position, or half-truths.

At the same time, the Bible still expects us to use our judgment. Believers are told to confront sin gently in the community, to test teachings, to distinguish good from evil, and to watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing. All of that involves making judgments, but with humility, self-checking, and clear standards.

So “do not judge” does not mean “never call anything wrong.” It means we must not set ourselves up as self-righteous, condemning judges in God’s place, especially while we refuse to see our own sin.

The question is not whether we judge, but how and what we judge.

HOW SCRIPTURE TALKS ABOUT RULERS

Once you see that distinction, it becomes hard to maintain the idea that Christians must never judge politicians. The Bible spends a lot of time talking about rulers, and it does not treat them as beyond evaluation.

In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel and Judah are constantly evaluated. Some “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” others “did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.” Their lives and decisions are measured against God’s standards of justice and faithfulness, not against their public image.

Prophets act almost like an opposition voice. Nathan confronts King David with “You are the man,” exposing his abuse of power in the story of Bathsheba and Uriah. Elijah challenges Ahab and Jezebel over idolatry and over killing Naboth to seize his vineyard.

Books like Isaiah condemn rulers and lawmakers who pass unjust decrees, deprive the poor of fair treatment, and twist justice. Psalm 82 pictures God putting earthly judges on trial for defending the wicked and failing to protect the weak. Jeremiah, Amos, and others keep returning to the same theme: leaders who crush the vulnerable and pervert justice will answer to God.

Alongside that, you have texts like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2. These describe governing authorities as “God’s servants,” given for order and to restrain evil. Believers are urged to respect the office, pay taxes, and submit for the Lord’s sake, as long as obedience to God is not being compromised. The role of government is treated as necessary and, in that sense, good.

So there is tension built into the Bible’s view of political power:

• Authority itself is affirmed as God-given and needed to prevent chaos and maintain order.

• Individual rulers and systems are sharply judged when they misuse that authority to oppress, exploit, or glorify themselves.

If “judge not” meant “never say a leader is unjust,” then the prophets, psalmists, and even Jesus would all be breaking their own rule. It makes more sense to say that Scripture shapes the spirit, method, and standard of our judging, instead of banning all moral evaluation of rulers.

DISCERNMENT AS A LEARNED SKILL

This is where discernment becomes important. I sometimes see MCT community members share my posts and add a caption that says "READ AND DISCERN" as if it were just a feeling or a gift that some people either have or don't. That framing lets people off the hook too easily.

Whether you approach it from a secular angle or a biblical one, the consensus is the same: discernment is primarily something you develop — through practice, reflection, and the willingness to be corrected. You are not born with it fully formed. You build it.

In everyday language, discernment is the ability to tell the difference between things that look similar: honest vs spin, justice vs mere legality, integrity vs pure image management. Again, you develop that ability through practice, reflection, experience, and the willingness to be corrected.

In biblical language, discernment is both something you train and something you ask for. You are told to test everything, to examine, to distinguish good from evil, to grow in wisdom. At the same time, there is an acknowledgment that human judgment is limited and biased, so you ask God for wisdom and let Scripture and community shape and correct your instincts.

Left on default, most of us do not naturally discern. We react to personalities. We defend our chosen camp. We let pastors, party leaders, influencers, or algorithms do the heavy thinking for us. It is easier to quote “do not judge” and walk away than to sit with uncomfortable facts and patterns, especially when they implicate people we like.

Training discernment is tiring because it forces you to question your own side, not just “theirs.” When I say it is our responsibility to judge politicians, I am not talking about emotional condemnation. I am talking about this kind of disciplined, accountable discernment.

WHAT WE JUDGE WHEN WE JUDGE POLITICIANS

So what exactly are we judging?

At minimum, we are judging policies, patterns, performance, and the use of power.

Policies: Who benefits from a proposal or law, who pays the price, and who is left out of the calculation. Does this policy protect the vulnerable or sacrifice them for convenience or profit?

Patterns: What a person’s track record reveals when you look beyond one speech or one photo-op. Do their actions match their words? How do they behave when cameras are gone or when there is nothing to gain?

Performance: How well do they actually do the job they were elected to do? Not the speeches, not the press releases -- the actual outputs. Are laws being passed, implemented, or blocked? Are constituents being served? Does the work show up even when no one is watching or clapping?

Power: How they treat people with little or no power—the poor, ordinary workers, marginalized communities, and even staff and volunteers who cannot offer them anything in return. Do they show care and fairness there, or only where it is visible?

We also have to look at our own standards. If we excuse in “our” politician what we condemn in “theirs,” that is not discernment. That is loyalty to a camp wrapped in religious language. The measure we use on others will be used on us too; Jesus already warned about that.

Accountable judging looks like this:

• Applying the same criteria across camps.

• Basing conclusions on evidence, documents, and history, not just impressions or charm.

• Refusing to act like we can declare anyone beyond repentance; we focus on actions, systems, and consequences, not on deciding someone’s eternal fate.

A simple internal grid can help:

• What is being promised?

• Who gains and who is harmed if this happens?

• What does their past say about their likely future behavior?

• How do they respond when confronted or challenged?

• How have they treated those who have nothing to offer them?

These are judgments. They are also necessary if we take seriously the impact of political power on real people’s lives.

WHEN “JUDGE NOT” SHUTS DOWN RESPONSIBILITY

In many Filipino Christian spaces, “judge not” appears at specific moments. Conversations become tense. Someone questions a candidate’s record or a pattern of abuse. Then someone else quotes “do not judge,” and everything stops.

We already live in a culture shaped by avoiding conflict and keeping the peace in the group. Add a misused Bible verse and suddenly silence looks like maturity, and naming wrongdoing feels like a spiritual failure.

The cost shows up in who gets hurt. When we refuse to judge politicians, we often end up recycling the same abusive and corrupt patterns. We call it humility, but the people living under those decisions experience it as neglect.

If Scripture itself models confronting unjust rulers, then believers who never judge those who hold power are not being “extra biblical.” They are stepping away from a responsibility the Bible assumes: to protect the weak, to call out injustice, and to remember that leaders answer to a standard higher than popularity and loyalty.

BACK TO THAT COMMENT THREAD

So I circle back to that line I wrote: it is our responsibility to judge politicians. I understand why it triggered people. Some were rightly worried about self-righteousness and harsh condemnation. That concern is valid.

But using that fear to shut down all criticism of public officials is different. That is where “do not judge” turns from a warning against hypocrisy into a way to avoid necessary accountability.

Those conversations with Fr. Lagura and Fr. Lopez keep echoing for me here. They were really about this choice: forcing the Bible to defend what we already want, or letting it correct even the way we talk about “judging.”

If we can teach ourselves to use smartphones and handle complicated apps, we can also train ourselves in reasoning, critical thinking, and discernment. It will not make us perfect judges. But pretending we do not judge at all does not make us humble; it simply leaves the judging to people and systems that may not care about truth or the common good.

So I am keeping the line. It is our responsibility to judge politicians—not to play God over their souls, but to weigh their actions, policies, and use of power, knowing that we too will be measured by the standard we apply to them.

If we refuse that responsibility, someone else will keep making those judgments for us, and we may not like where that leads.

SOURCES:

1. Matthew 7:1–5

2. Matthew 7:15–20

3. Luke 6:37–38

4. James 4:11–12

5. Romans 14:1–4

6. Romans 14:10–13

7. Romans 13:1–7

8. 1 Peter 2:13–17

9. Psalm 82:1–4

10. Isaiah 10:1–3

11. 2 Samuel 12:1–7 (Nathan and David)

12. 1 Kings 21:1–24 (Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth)

13. Selected king summaries in 1–2 Kings (e.g., 1 Kings 15, 16; 2 Kings 21)

14. Acts 5:27–32

15. Daniel 3 (refusing idolatrous commands)

16. Exodus 1:15–21 (Hebrew midwives and Pharaoh)

17. GotQuestions.org, “What does it mean that we are not to judge others?” https://www.gotquestions.org/do-not-judge.html

18. Bible Gateway, “Matthew 7:1–6 (NIV).” https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Matthew+7%3A1-6&version=NIV

19. Direction Journal, “Submission to Governing Authorities (Romans 13).” https://directionjournal.org/23/2/submission-to-governing-authorities.html

20. Francine Green, “What the Bible Teaches Us About Unjust Leaders and True Leadership.” https://afrancinegreen.com/2025/07/02/what-the-bible-teaches-us-about-unjust-leaders-and-true-leadership

21. BibleHub topical index, “Accountability Among Leaders.” https://biblehub.com/topical/a/accountability_among_leaders.htm

22. OpenBible.info, “Bible Verses about Judging Others.” https://www.openbible.info/topics/judging_others

23. Gospel Centered Health, “Bible Verses About Judging Others.” https://gospelcenteredhealth.com/bible-verses-about-judging-others

24. Christ Church Memphis, “What Does the Bible Say About Judging?” https://www.christchurchmemphis.org/stories/what-does-the-bible-say-about-judging

25. Church of Jesus Christ, “Judging Others (Gospel Topics).” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/judging-others

26. BibleProject, “What ‘Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged’ Really Means (Matthew 7:1–5).” https://bibleproject.com/articles/what-matthew-7-1-5-judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged-means

27. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust, “Subject to Government (Romans).” https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/book-of-romans/subject-to-government

28. BibleStudyTools, “Bible Verses on Judging.” https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/bible-verses-on-judging

29. GotQuestions.org, “What is exegesis? What is eisegesis?” https://www.gotquestions.org/exegesis-eisegesis.html

30. Grand Canyon University Blog, “Exegesis vs. Eisegesis: What’s the Difference?” https://www.gcu.edu/blog/theology-ministry/exegesis-vs-eisegesis-whats-difference

31. BCWorldview, “Eisegesis vs Exegesis.” https://bcworldview.org/eisegesis-vs-exegesis

32. PursueGod.org, “What’s the Difference Between Eisegesis and Exegesis?” https://www.pursuegod.org/whats-the-difference-between-eisegesis-and-exegesis

33. Mina Nampondamasaka, “Eisegesis vs Exegesis in Biblical Interpretation.” https://minanampondamasaka.wordpress.com/2024/08/29/eisegesis-vs-exegesis-in-biblical-interpretation

34. Challies.com, “Defining Discernment.” https://www.challies.com/articles/defining-discernment

35. GotQuestions.org, “What is biblical discernment and why is it important?” https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-discernment.html

36. Christianity.com, “What Is Biblical Discernment and Why Is It Important?” https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-terms/what-is-biblical-discernment-and-why-is-it-important-11532182.html

37. Grace to You, “What is biblical discernment and why is it important?” https://shop.gty.org/library/questions/QA138_what-is-biblical-discernment-and-why-is-it-important

38. Revive Our Hearts, “5 Ways to Sharpen Your Discernment Skills.” https://www.reviveourhearts.com/articles/5-ways-sharpen-your-discernment-skills

39. CBCP, “The Christian and Politics.” https://cbcp.org/blog/2022/04/07/the-christian-and-politics

40. Desiring God, “Judge Not.” https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/judge-not

41. Harvest PCA, “Judging and Being Judged (Matthew 7:1–6).” https://harvestpca.org/sermons/judging-and-being-judged-matthew-7-1-6

42. Crosswalk, “What Does ‘Do Not Judge’ (Matthew 7:1) Really Mean?” https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/what-does-do-not-judge-matthew-7-1-really-mean.html

43. Biblical Christianity, “Politics and the Bible: Are They Compatible?” https://biblical-christianity.com/politics-and-the-bible-are-they-compatible