The Difference Between Discernment and Judgment
Judgment is an ambiguous word, in Greek as in English: it may mean sitting in judgment on people (or even condemning them), or it may mean exercising a proper discrimination. In the former sense judgment is depreciated; in the latter sense it is recommended.
– F.F. Bruce
The more I’ve been thinking about the difference between discernment and judgment (in the pejorative sense), the more I feel like they function on two different planes.
Discernment functions on a horizontal plane. It is you walking along a road that branches, and figuring out which path to take. It is you looking about either side and distinguishing the nature of what you’re seeing. It is having a conversation with someone along the path, listening to their view and sharing yours. Discernment seeking insight and understanding. It is cultivating the cognitive and spiritual ability to distinguish between things. It is perceiving clearly, having keen acumen or perception, striving to see things as they are.
Judgment functions on a vertical plane. It always involves some element of elevating yourself over another. It is you lifted up, looking down in some way upon another. It tends to involve some amount of comparison, disapproval or condemnation. There’s a power differential along this vertical plane that feeds your ego or sense of control at the expense of others. When you judge, you assume the right or power to the make the kind of determination that only God can. Janel Breitenstein writes: “When you judge people for what they say or do, you place them beneath you. You lose perspective of who you are in the sight of God—namely, a sinner saved by grace who is nothing without Christ making you new every day in God’s mercy.”
The easiest way to tell which plane you’re functioning in is to look at your emotions. Discernment is generally calm. You’re open, listening, seeking to understand. Judgment is rarely calm—you’re annoyed, angry, frustration, dismissive. You feel contempt or may want to withdraw. And it’s those emotions that people pick up on when they feel judged. It’s often not so much what you say as how you’re saying it.
The irony is that judgment prides itself on being a crusader for truth, but in reality, it comes from a place that is the very opposite of God’s kingdom truth. Is there absolute truth? Yes. Are there standards of right and wrong? Yes. But our ability to communicate that truth effectively, to apply it wisely, to create conditions for change, are severely hampered when coming from a place of pride or even contempt. Truth in God’s kingdom always comes from a place of humility and meekness.
Think of it this way: when Jesus says in Matthew 7, “do not judge,” he’s not saying, “do not judge because you ought not try to correct someone else.” He’s saying, “take out the log in your own eye so that you can see clearly to take the speck out of someone else’s eye.” You can’t be on two planes at once. If you are too eager to pronounce judgment on someone else, if you are unwilling to deal with yourself, you won’t have clear-eyed discernment about the people and situations around you.
Once you develop a habit of judging, it’s hard to stop. Positioning yourself on that vertical plane can become reactive and unconscious. But the more aware we are of our location at any given time, the more aware we are of the moment when we shift from one plane to another, the more we open ourselves to change. The more willing we are to examine the impulses that may be beneath our judgmental reactions—fears, insecurities, pride, desire for control—the more we begin to overcome the things that are in fact clouding our perception.
