Love, love, love. The world is infatuated with love!
We who are called to be Christ's ambassadors need to be able to differentiate between what the world calls love and what the Bible describes as Christ-like love.
Proper judgment is an integral part of Christ's love.
What is love? (show video of children from Samaritan's Purse)
Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 7:1-7
Remember: this is part of a sermon called the Sermon on the Mount
- Jesus is preaching to or teaching His disciples
Not just the 12 but perhaps hundreds who were following Him
Now … you may well be wondering,
“What on earth does that have to do with love?” And, we really only ask that question because today is what our culture calls Valentine’s Day but the love we are talking about is the love found in the two great commandments.
So, look at
Matthew 7:1-2 NIV
“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.”
This seems to be one of the favorite verses in the Bible, especially for those who wish to indulge in what the Bible calls sin but don’t want to feel any guilt for those actions.
So, now look at
Matthew 7:7 NIV
“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.”
Are these verses in conflict? And, anyway, what could they possibly have to do with the love commanded by God?
Once again, let’s go back to verses 1-2 and take a look.
Matthew 7:1 NIV
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”
The idea here is not making rational judgments but that we are not to set ourselves up as prosecutor, jury and judge; convicting people and handing down sentences.
The idea is not that we should stop making judgments about anyone at all.
Illustration:
Imagine that you have a teenage daughter who is testing the limits of what you will allow as parents. She is in ninth grade. She comes home and says, “I want to go to a party with Billy on Friday night.” Now, you know Billy. You met him on a sidewalk downtown yesterday as he was being questioned by police officers. Billy is 36 years old, had alcohol on his breath, you could see the form of a weapon under his shirt, on his chest is tattooed a list of all the penitentiaries where he has been imprisoned and the party on Friday is at his biker bar called the Raunchy Heathens.
Now … being a good Bible believing Dad and Mom you know that the Bible says, “Do not judge.” So you tell your 14 year old daughter, “OK. Have fun.”
Now, we all know that such an illustration is ridiculous, so, if “Do not judge” does not mean that what does it mean?
From what I read, the meaning of the first phrase in that sentence means not only “Do not judge” but also includes the thought of “Stop judging”.
There was a lot of judging going on in Jesus’ day. The example was set by the Jewish religious authorities. Jesus, the Messiah sent from heaven, was judged for breaking the Sabbath by healing, he was judged for not washing His hands correctly before meals, He was challenged on the payment of the temple taxes, He was judged for eating with “sinners” and allowing a “sinful woman” anoint His feet with perfume.
So, it was natural for the people themselves to have picked up this trait of condemning judgment.
This kind of judgment almost always presents itself in words. Usually gossip. But the Bible says …
James 2:12-13 NIV says
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Psalm 85:10 KJV
“Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
OK. So, let’s go on to verse 2 …
Matthew 7:2 NIV
“For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
“In the same way …” Two people might see the same person in the same condition and one might say, “What a drunkard, what a waste of life” and another person might say, “Oh that poor guy. I wonder what brought him to that point in his life?”
Have you ever thought what it would be like to stand before yourself as a judge?
There’s this thing called rationalization. Rationalization is when you do something that is the opposite of what you would advise others to do and then try to think of ways to justify your actions. We know that we’re rationalizing. Others won’t fall for it and the Lord certainly is not deceived.
If we judge others over nit-picky things we will be judged over nit-picky things.
If we judge others on the surface appearance of things we will be judged on the surface appearance of things.
If we try to find out why a person is acting in the way they are acting we will be judged on deeper motives.
If a woman leaves her husband and moves into an apartment what does it mean? Well, it means that she left her husband and moved into an apartment. That’s all.
Why did she move out? Does she have two broken ribs? Does she have cigarette burns all over her back? Was her husband threatening to cut her up with a butcher knife?
Or, is she planning on committing adultery?
If we don’t know then we don’t judge. Once the facts come out what should our judgment be?
James 5:19-20 NIV tells us
“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”
Whether your actions are innocent or guilty isn’t that how you would want to be judged?
So, how do we go about making righteous judgments?
Matthew 7:3-5 NIV
“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.”
This is what is known in the literary world as hyperbole; an excessive exaggeration in order to capture your attention and to make a point.
Jesus is saying that we need to examine our hearts and our motives before we try to help someone else!
If I am on teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of mishandling the money the Lord had provided to me, how could I counsel someone on proper, personal finances?
If I feel superior to everyone around me and look down on them as inferior, how could I counsel someone on humility?
If I am constantly telling half-truths, lies, about people how could I counsel someone on honesty?
What does the Lord use to show us the “plank” we have in our eyes?
The Word of God, the Holy Spirit and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.
Have you ever seen a negative film?
Psalm 1 starts out this way, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands with (hangs out for companionship with) sinners, nor sits around and mocks people.”
How would that look if we “inverted” it or made the actions in it positive?
“Blessed is the man who walks in the counsel of the godly, who spends his time with godly companions and who delights in advising and encouraging others.”
If you were to combine those actions with having a delight in the law of the Lord and meditating in that law (the Word of God) day and night it wouldn’t be long before the plank would be removed from your eye and you would actually be a benefit to the kingdom of God.
OK. So, let’s look at the last two verses.
Matthew 7:6 NIV
“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.”
There are people who are so corrupted by the evil one that they have a hatred for anything to do with the Holy One, Jesus the Messiah.
We are not told here to abandon these people. You just don’t want to go waltzing up to one of them and say, “Do you know Jesus?” (Unless you are absolutely sure that the Lord wants you to do it right then!)
We never give up hope on people. We can pray for them. We can act with kindness for them. We can help them when their lives fall apart because of their hatred for God.
Illustration:
Melanie Hammond is one of the founders of Biblical Nouthetic Ministries and the C.H.O.I.C.E.S. organization which we support each month.
The summer before last we were taking Biblical counseling classes at their location in Chaffee and Melanie told us about a lady who came to her for counseling. This lady’s life was a mess and she blamed God for most of it.
In counseling sessions Melanie was not allowed to bring up the name of Jesus or God or reference the Bible or the lady threatened to leave and never come back.
Melanie could have told her, “We are a Biblical counseling ministry and if that’s not what you want you can come back when it is what you do want.”
Of course, that is NOT what Melanie told her.
Instead she continued to meet with her, gently showing her the grace and kindness and love that would flow from the Lord. Eventually, she was able to slip in little words of testimony as to how the Lord had helped her through the trials of her life.
That was well over a year ago. Last week we got to see Steve and Melanie again at the Ephesians 4 conference and I was able to ask Melanie about that lady. What a joy it was to hear that the lady and her daughter had both come to salvation in Jesus during that time. Hallelujah!
You see, some people are just not ready to hear the Gospel at a certain time in their life but that doesn’t mean you should just turn them over to an eternity in hell.
Conclusion:
As always, it seems we come back to our relationship with the Lord.
- Is our relationship with the Lord in order?
- Are we in the Word of God and being taught truth by the Holy Spirit?
- Do we love the Lord and desire to bring honor and glory to His name?
- Do we love the church, all who are born of the Spirit?
- If we love the church, the Bride of Christ, we must love the people in the church.
- If we love the Lord and His desire is that all come are saved shouldn’t that be our hope as well?
- Will ungodly judgment draw people to salvation in Christ? No!
- If we practice ungodly judgment how can we stop? Go back to step 1.
