Passage
Judge not: and you shall not be judged. Condemn not: and you shall not be condemned. Forgive: and you shall be forgiven.
Luke 6:37 (DRB)
Nearby Context
Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest. For he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.
Luke 6:36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:37 Judge not: and you shall not be judged. Condemn not: and you shall not be condemned. Forgive: and you shall be forgiven.
Luke 6:38 Give: and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
Luke 6:39 And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can the blind lead the blind? Do they not both fall into the ditch?
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "condemn", "judge", "shall", "judged", "condemned", and "forgive". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "condemn" and "judge", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 36's "Be ye therefore merciful as your Father..." into verse 38's "Give and it shall be given to...", so "condemn" and "judge" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "condemn" and "judge" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.