Rhetoric: Mormon assumes that his audience understands the rest of the verses that are part of the Savior’s Sermon at the Temple. Therefore, he makes a rather remarkable and startling reference: “It is given unto you to judge.” It is startling, because his audience would remember that the Messiah had stated: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Judge not, that ye be not judged” (3 Ne. 14:1).
Mormon thus seems to be flatly contradicting the Savior. As a rhetorical device, it would certainly rivet his audience’s attention on him. By making such a bold statement contrary to expectations, he would create instant alertness about how he could resolve this seeming contradiction.
Of course, Mormon is not contradicting the Savior, only the form in which the Savior phrased his intention. In both the Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount, the Messiah followed this prohibition against judgment with a qualifying statement: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” (3 Ne. 14:2). In other words, when we do judge, our measuring stick will be used to appraise our own performance during the final judgment. For this reason, Mormon rephrases the negative proscription to a positive prescription.