Imagine that I received text from a married friend that read "I hate my wife." With just those words I would believe that his marriage was in serious trouble. But what if, after typing those first four words he accidentally hit "send." What if he had meant to say, "I hate my wife being away from me so long. I miss her dearly and can't wait for her to return from her trip." That presents an entirely different meaning. He truly meant those first four words, but they only express his real intent when combined with the words that follow. We interpret the meaning of words in their context, with all the words of a thought woven together. Theologian Don Carson learned a saying from his father that explains why Bible verses are often misused: "A text without a context is a pretext for a proof text." In other words, only by neglecting context can you make a verse mean what you want it to mean. This interpretive principle is often not applied to Jesus' word on judging in Matthew 7:1. If we lift from its context the chapter's first verse we might come to a very different conclusion than Jesus intended. What we will find is that Jesus wants us both to judge and not judge, or to use discernment in our judging.