The final event to be recorded in the book of human history on earth will occur on the day in which the resurrected Christ judges the world with righteous judgment (Acts 17:31).
The possibility and practice of righteous judgment among humans prior to that event is not some utopic invention of mythology. It is not a moronic oxymoron. Instead, it is an essential to living righteously. Therefore, in the final chapter of Jesus’ monumental sermon on righteousness, the focus is on understanding and exercising righteous judgment.
In this chapter, Jesus describes the essentiality of righteous judgment in four important areas of life. They are:
- Exercising righteous judgment when interacting with your fellow human beings (vv. 1-12).
- Exercising righteous judgment when deciding the spiritual direction for your life (vv. 13-14).
- Exercising righteous judgment to identify (and thus wisely avoid) false teachers (vv. 15-20).
- Exercising righteous judgment to discern between the wise man with genuine faith and the foolish man with pseudo faith (vv. 21-27).
Clearly, judging with righteous judgment (John 7:24) is imperative now and forever.