It's Inefficient to Judge

Connection Between Forgiveness and Judging
While attending my sister-in-law’s church congregation, the men’s group had a council/discussion regarding the importance of forgiveness. For the purposes of our discussion, forgiveness was defined as “freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.” (Sidney Simon).

Somebody in the meeting applied the Book of Mormon story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis laying down “their weapons of rebellion,” an account about how this group left their bloodthirsty ways forever by burying their literal weapons and committing to not use them again. (Alma 23:7). The class member was saying that grudges are like a “weapon of rebellion.” But the lesson I learned from the Spirit was that my personal “weapon of rebellion” is connected to judging others. I think over and over about why something that someone did was unjustified and how it hurt me; I both judge them harshly and don’t forgive them.

The Inefficiency of Judging
Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, explains in The Wealth of Nations that the wealth of nations comes largely because nations allow their people to trade. Trading leads to specialization: I buy most things from other people so that I can focus on improving my productivity with one career. While I don’t know that Adam Smith intended a spiritual message, I get a spiritual message from it. During this life, God relieves us of making certain judgments so that we can specialize in serving others and keeping His other commandments.

There are several scriptures that indicate that God is the one specialized in some judgments, and doesn’t want us to waste our energies doing what He is already doing:

Doctrine and Covenants 64:10 - I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.

2 Nephi 9:41 - The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there.

Matthew 7:1 - Judge not, that ye be not judged. (Or as the Joseph Smith Translation says: Judge not unrighteously, that ye be not judged; but judge righteous judgment.)

Romans 12:19 - Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. . . for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

1 Samuel 16:7 - But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

Jesus Christ is the Perfect Judge
Lately I have been trying to imagine Jesus Christ being with me more often, and this has been helpful in judging less and forgiving more.

“He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because he loves me dearly
I am in His watchful care.”
-If the Savior Stood Beside Me

Although I have sometimes decided to imagine the Savior beside me thinking I’ll scare myself into behaving well more consistently, once I am actually imagining the Savior with me I don’t feel scared at all. Instead, I feel the Spirit more strongly. I understand that our Eternal Judge does not have any of the negative attributes that the world associates with being judgmental. As I recall that the Savior is with me, I feel His love for me more fully, and I feel it more fully for those around me. This leads me forget the harsh judgment or hurt feelings that I had and to focus on helping others and enjoying my time with them.






Jesus Christ is the perfect judge. In His judging, “he cannot be deceived” (2 Nephi 9:41) and He never forgets our wonderful divine potential. He indiscriminately invites all to be part of the House of Israel through repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We are blessed as we leave some judgments to Him. When we need to make some judgments, we are blessed as we follow His example and seek His guidance as we make them.