I HOPE THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE! So often it seems justified to have this kind of reaction to another's wrongdoing. But such a response usually amounts to no more than self-righteous justification, doing very little to foster improvement on either side. Christians know that simply ignoring sin—one's or another's—is not the answer to healing sin. How, then, does one acknowledge the need to overcome sin while refraining from passing judgment on someone else?
No one has ever been more successful at healing sin and reforming character than Jesus. While fully aware that humanity needed to overcome sin, Jesus showed time and again that to judge another individual's behavior is not the means to improving it. Jesus' command "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matt. 7:1) demonstrates his profound understanding of this principle.
Many times Jesus showed that judgment does not promote the healing of sin. One example is his encounter with a paralytic man at the pool of Bethesda. Although the story later identifies the man as a sinner, Jesus does not use this public setting as an opportunity to raise the issue of sin. Instead, Jesus first restores the man physically. It's only later, when Jesus sees the man privately, that Jesus cautions him to "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" (see John 5:1-14).
