For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you again.
All Commentaries on Matthew 7:2 Go To Matthew 7
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Since when these temporal things are provided beforehand against the future, itis uncertain with what purpose it is done, as it may be with a single or double mind, He opportunely subjoins, “Judge not.”.
Serm. in Mont., ii, 18: I suppose the command here to be no other than that we should always put the best interpretation on such actions as seem doubtful with what mind they were done. But concerning such as cannot be done with good purpose, as adulteries, blasphemies, and the like, He permits us to judge; but of indifferent actions which admit of being done with either good or bad purpose, it is rash to judge, but especially so to condemn. There are two cases in which we should be particularly on our guard against hasty judgments, when it does not appear with what mind the action was done; and when it does not yet appear, what sort of man any one may turn out, who now seems either good or bad. Wherefore he should neither blame those things of which we know with what mind they are done, norso blame those things which are manifest, as though we despaired of recovery.
City of God, xxi, 11: Some say, How is it true that Christ says, “And with what measure ye shall mete it shall be measured to you again,” if temporal sin is tobe punished by eternal suffering? They do not observe that it is not said “the same measure,” because of the equal space of time, but because of the equal retribution - namely, that he who has done evil should suffer evil, though evenin that sense it might be said of that of which the Lord spoke here, namely of judgments and condemnations. Accordingly, he that judges and condemns unjustly, if he is judged and condemned, justly receives in the same measure though not the same thing that he gave; by judgment he did what was unjust, by judgment he suffers what is just.
