Read the context of the Scripture. They were planning on stoning the lady because she had sinned. Christ said for the one of them who had not sinned to cast the first stone.
That's not a prohibition against judging either. It's yet another lesson about HOW they SHOULD be judging.
They wanted to take her life because she had sinned. And Christ in His statement made clear that unless they were gonna be non-hypocritical and take their own lives for their just as sinful sin, then they couldn't RIGHTEOUSLY demand her life because of her sin.
So can I demand the life of another because they have sinned? Nope because I too am a sinner. That's RIGHTEOUS judgment.
Can I pass RIGHTEOUS judgment against someone's sin if I'm not committing the same sin? Yep because that is called RIGHTEOUS judgment.
Well, now we're getting down to common ground. Because, you see, I
agree with you that Matthew 7:1 is not prohibitory ("Thou shalt not...") but rather monitory ("Beware lest thou...as the evildoers do."). Its actual meaning is, more or less, "Be careful not to judge [unrighteously], lest you yourself be judged." And verse 2 spells it out: "Because, by whatever standard you use to judge by, you yourself will be judged, as well." The whole "motes and beams" (dust specks and heavy timbers, actually) metaphor spells this out -- until you eliminate sin from your own life, you are not fit to judge the sins of another. Notice that that Ezekiel passage about blood being on one's hands says to
warn, not to judge.
Now, Zaac, you are saying that if you do not commit sin X, you are fit to judge righteously about sin X. But this is not in accord with Romans. All men have sinned, no man is righteous -- and no man can make himself righteous before God. True, the saints are ascribed as righteousness, but the righteousness with which they are ascribed is not their own but that of Jesus Christ, granted them by the grace of God through His Atonement. That's a big and important part of Paul's teaching that you have seemed to gloss over.
Now, do we even
have an example of righteousness in the New Testament to aspire to? Sure: Jesus Himself. "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus...." (Philippians 2:5-11) And what does He do. He doesn't decry sin, He doesn't condone sin, He
forgives sin. His words to the adulteress in John 8, no matter how you twist it, are not "You're an #$#%@ sinner, but I'll let you off this time" but rather "I won't condemn you, either. Go, and try not to commit sins from now on." When people focus on that "Go, and sin no more" as if it means "Well, you were just sinning, but you got off on that charge, so don't do it again" without looking at the five words in front of it, "Neither do I condemn you," they're setting themselves up as more worthy than Jesus to condemn people. I don't need to say that that's a HUGE mistake.
I'm not preaching condoning sin. I'm preaching a Savior who loved us enough to die for us, and who taught of a loving Father who
forgives and understands and welcomes. This bit of nailing down people's sins and demanding they get rid of the ones that society frowns on first before Jesus will have anything to do with them, that's dead wrong. "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," he said. Especially because the sins which seemed to irk Him the most during his Earthly ministry were not the sins of the flesh that people focus on, but the sins of the spirit, of man against man, the Pharisees thinkiing their perfect keeping of the Law made them righteous in God's eyes and fit to judge sinners. If I can bring just one conservative Christian to see how close some of what is said by conservative evangelicals is to what Jesus berated the Pharisees for, then I've actually done some good here.
FactL You
can't make yourself fit to appear before God. Fortunately, He doesn't expect you to. He's your loving Father, and He has arranged for you to be washed clean. Just stop fighting with the other kids in the tub!!
