Whether It Is Lawful to Judge?
Objection 1: It would seem unlawful to judge. For nothing is punished
except what is unlawful. Now those who judge are threatened with
punishment, which those who judge not will escape, according to Matt.
7:1, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." Therefore it is
unlawful to judge.
Obj. 2: Further, it is written (Rom. 14:4): "Who art thou that
judgest another man's servant[?] To his own lord he standeth or
falleth." Now God is the Lord of all. Therefore to no man is it
lawful to judge.
Obj. 3: Further, no man is sinless, according to 1 John 1:8, "If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Now it is unlawful
for a sinner to judge, according to Rom. 2:1, "Thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest; for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou dost the same things which
thou judgest." Therefore to no man is it lawful to judge.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Deut. 16:18): "Thou shalt appoint
judges and magistrates in all thy gates . . . that they may judge the
people with just judgment."
_I answer that,_ Judgment is lawful in so far as it is an act of
justice. Now it follows from what has been stated above (A. 1, ad 1,
3) that three conditions are requisite for a judgment to be an act of
justice: first, that it proceed from the inclination of justice;
secondly, that it come from one who is in authority; thirdly, that it
be pronounced according to the right ruling of prudence. If any one
of these be lacking, the judgment will be faulty and unlawful. First,
when it is contrary to the rectitude of justice, and then it is
called "perverted" or "unjust": secondly, when a man judges about
matters wherein he has no authority, and this is called judgment "by
usurpation": thirdly, when the reason lacks certainty, as when a man,
without any solid motive, forms a judgment on some doubtful or hidden
matter, and then it is called judgment by "suspicion" or "rash"
judgment.
Reply Obj. 1: In these words our Lord forbids rash judgment which is
about the inward intention, or other uncertain things, as Augustine
states (De Serm. Dom. in Monte ii, 18). Or else He forbids judgment
about Divine things, which we ought not to judge, but simply believe,
since they are above us, as Hilary declares in his commentary on
Matt. 5. Or again according to Chrysostom [*Hom. xvii in Matth. in
the Opus Imperfectum falsely ascribed to St. John Chrysostom], He
forbids the judgment which proceeds not from benevolence but from
bitterness of heart.
Reply Obj. 2: A judge is appointed as God's servant; wherefore it is
written (Deut. 1:16): "Judge that which is just," and further on
(Deut. 1:17), "because it is the judgment of God."
Reply Obj. 3: Those who stand guilty of grievous sins should not
judge those who are guilty of the same or lesser sins, as Chrysostom
[*Hom. xxiv] says on the words of Matt. 7:1, "Judge not." Above all
does this hold when such sins are public, because there would be an
occasion of scandal arising in the hearts of others. If however they
are not public but hidden, and there be an urgent necessity for the
judge to pronounce judgment, because it is his duty, he can reprove
or judge with humility and fear. Hence Augustine says (De Serm. Dom.
in Monte ii, 19): "If we find that we are guilty of the same sin as
another man, we should groan together with him, and invite him to
strive against it together with us." And yet it is not through acting
thus that a man condemns himself so as to deserve to be condemned
once again, but when, in condemning another, he shows himself to be
equally deserving of condemnation on account of another or a like sin.
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