Intro
To judge or not to judge, that is the question. People who know little to nothing about the Bible do know “Do not judge” is in there. Rather than make this just one of a few topics from the Sermon on the Mount squished into a single post, I’m going to address the first six verses of Matthew 7 separately. It’s a topic that has been misunderstood, misused, and abused over the years. And yet, it’s so important to understand. Too many Christians judge poorly and frankly, we need to judge rightly. If we can’t do this, we become ineffective at so many things that Jesus calls us to do. So let’s dive in and find out how to do this correctly.
What Does it Mean to Judge?
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV)
I’m going to just get this out of the way up front: Jesus wants us (His followers) to judge. However, as I mentioned earlier, all too often we judge wrongly. And that’s why I’m going to explain what Jesus was talking about here when He says “Do not judge”, that way we can all learn to judge rightly. Christians have been scared into silence because of unbelievers pointing their fingers and saying, “You can’t judge me”. But the problem is that what those people are claiming is that by “judge” Jesus means “Don’t reject alternative lifestyles” or “Accept everyone and don’t encourage them to change”.
But this is just wrong. If that was Jesus’ meaning then He would be the biggest hypocrite of them all. After all, He called the religious leaders “vipers” and “hypocrites”. He also told the young rich man that to inherit eternal life he needed to sell his belongings and give to the poor. And how about the woman caught in the act of adultery? He told her to “go and sin no more”. Jesus clearly rejected the lifestyles of the Pharisees and encouraged people to change. So, Jesus can’t mean any of those commonly believed interpretations of “Do not judge”. So what is He saying?
The Definition
The Greek word for “judge” here is krino which can mean “to discern”, “to decide”, or “to condemn”. And I’ve already pointed out that Jesus can’t mean “discern” or “decide” because He discerned that the rich man had a great love of his wealth and that needed to change. And likewise, He discerned that the woman’s accusers were trying to trap Jesus, so Jesus flipped the tables on them. That really leaves only condemnation for Jesus’ meaning. And this fits the overall context. After all, later in chapter 7 of Matthew (coming soon to a blog near you), Jesus starts telling us how to identify (judge) fake and real people. And later, Paul calls Christians to approach sinning brothers and sisters and point out their sin and urge them to repent (more on that in the next section).
In Jesus’ conversation with the woman caught in the act of adultery, He asks her “Has no one condemned you?” And the He says, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:10-11). So very clearly, Jesus is not about condemning people, but He is about making a judgment about a person’s lifestyle and then encouraging them to change it to line up with how God wants them to live.
So, in conclusion here, Jesus calls us to not condemn people. After all, we don’t know what’s in their hearts. It’s not our job to condemn people. It’s our job to love people and bring to them the truth of the gospel and introduce them to Jesus. Let Him sort out their messes. He’s better at it then we are.
Measure it Out
How about that phrase “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”? What’s that all about? This one is pretty simple. If you routinely look in condemnation upon people – and verbalize it – than other people will do the same to you. It’s another form of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you treat people poorly, expect people to treat you poorly at some point. Show grace, kindness, and love towards others and you can expect the same to come back to you.
Moving on we’ve got a couple of more sections of this passage to cover in order to really grasp what it means to judge rightly.
Speck Vs Log
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)
I think people have taken this passage on specks and logs too far as well. To the point where some Christians think (or non-Christians try and tell us) that we have no right to point out other people’s sin because we ourselves have sin in our lives. And once again, we must use context. As I mentioned earlier, Jesus pointed out other people’s poor behavior, attitudes, and sin. So He can’t be saying that here. And as I also mentioned before, Paul tells Christians to come to other believers and gently point out sin in their lives.
What Jesus is addressing here is what He’s been addressing throughout this entire sermon: hypocrisy and holier-than-thou attitudes. In this context, this passage would be like a Pharisee telling people how bad their sin is and what they can do to fix themselves – while being ignorant of how much fixing they need, because as religious leaders who followed the Law to the letter, they must be perfect.
In light of this, I think the log isn’t what we might think of as a traditional sin, i.e., drunkenness, sexual immorality, etc. I think the log is pride. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were swimming in pride and self-righteousness. And pride blinds us to our own faults and magnifies everyone else’s. It makes us feel like we’ve got it all together. But what Jesus wants is for us to humbly remember that we too are sinful and avoid the self-righteous attitude if/when we come to a brother or sister and point out that they are living in a way that is dishonoring to God. This is another aspect of what it means to judge rightly. Humbly admitting that we ourselves are imperfect and with mercy and grace approach the one with the speck.
Avoid Criticism
Another aspect to this speck vs log is to not be critical. And I don’t mean constructive criticism. I’m talking about being critical and offering no additional help. Basically the attitude of “What a horrible thing you’re doing that God’s going to judge you for. Have a nice time in Hell!”
Now this might sound a little extreme, but being critical of another person’s lifestyle (to their face) without offering grace, mercy, hope, or any way around it, is just plain mean. Even the religious leaders didn’t do that (most of the time). Sure they were pretty critical, but they usually followed it up with “If you would just follow the Law…” etc. So they offered a solution, even if it was done with disgust and a holier-than-thou attitude. At times, with the “worst of sinners”, they might be less “helpful” and have a more critical disposition. And this is what we must avoid if we want to judge rightly. Our words must be laced with love, grace, and mercy. Not criticism. We must be gentle, not harsh.
Dogs and Hogs
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Matthew 7:6 (NIV)
In this last section, Jesus does one of the things He does best: throw out a metaphor that seems to be completely out of left field and not make any sense given what He was just talking about. Except that perception tends to be for the modern reader rather than His first century listeners who could usually pick up on most of the cultural cues. In this case, and in this context, Jesus is telling His followers that if the person with the speck refuses to listen to you and rejects your correction – even when you do it with love and respect – then don’t bother telling them anything more. If you keep doing it over and over, they’ll likely come to resent you and the gospel and become even more hard-hearted. At that point, your best option is to let it go and pray for them.
That can be hard to hear if the one you’re trying to love into the Kingdom is a relative or a close friend whom you dearly love. But sadly, not everyone wants to hear that they’re living a sinful lifestyle that’s going to send them to Hell. Some people just don’t want to change. And having the discernment (judgment) to know when a person is in that place and drop the subject – without coming down critically or holier-than-thou – is the last piece of what it means to judge rightly.
Wrapping Up
As you can see here, there is a right way and a wrong way to judge others. Jesus doesn’t want His followers judging people the way the self-righteous religious leaders of His day judged others. He wants us to be wise and discerning, always falling back on loving others. If we learn to judge rightly – with love, grace, and mercy – we’d be amazed at the spiritual growth we’d see in others – and ourselves. It’s going to take practice. And forgiveness. And probably some apologies along the way, but with God’s help, we can do it.
One more thing. During my research and reading articles written by others, I found this from one blogger named Matt Walsh that I’d like to quote because I agree with this wholly (full post here).
I am a sinful person. If you would ever consider accepting and celebrating my sins for the sake of being “non-judgmental,” please do me a favor and stop doing me that favor. I don’t want to be made comfortable and confident in my wrongdoing.
I’d rather have you hurt my feelings as you help me get to Heaven, than protect my feelings as you usher me right along to Hell.
And to be honest, if a Christian strongly disagrees with this statement (i.e., doesn’t want to hear where they’re going wrong), then I fear they are too comfortable in their sin and they need God to wake them up before it’s too late. Who knows, maybe He’ll use you or me to do it with a well placed conversation.
Outro
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