Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 7:1-6 NIV (Don't Judge)
1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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. 6 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.
INTRODUCTION
When we have planks in our eyes, we consider them specks. When we see specks in others’ eyes, we view them as planks. That is how sin destroys human relationships and community, which is why Jesus warns us to be careful. If we adopt a judgmental spirit toward others, what goes around will come around, and we will be judged.
COMMENTARY
Matthew 7:1, NIV: Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
This may be the most often-misused verse in the entire Bible. Modern culture garbles this comment into a command to never disapprove or correct the actions of another. This mishandling of Christ's words is out of context three times over. First and foremost, Christ does not say "never judge," He warns that judgment has a consequence. Second, this statement is immediately followed by instructions from Christ on the proper way to use judgment. Third, Jesus' other teachings explicitly indicate that proper judgment is necessary (John 7:24), while hypocritical or shallow judgment is wrong.
Even so, this verse—especially the first two words in most English translations—is a favorite quote of those attempting to twist Scripture.
Jesus has been teaching within the context of Israel's religious leaders and how they practice their righteousness (Matthew 5:20; 6:1). He has called out as hypocrites those who call attention to themselves as they give to the needy and pray and fast. Under their leadership, Israel's worship of God had become about proving one's worthiness to other people instead of humbly serving God. So, on the one hand, righteous acts were performed to get approval from others. On the other hand, controlling religious leaders looked for opportunities to express condemnation against those they did not see as sufficiently pious.
Following that example, the everyday people of Israel learned to perform a religious duty for others' approval and to belittle those who did differently than they preferred. The result was a false religious experience: pride and fear of judgment instead of humility and graciousness to others.
In that context, Jesus says to the crowds of Jewish people following Him not to judge others in order not to be unfairly judged. He is talking about having an arrogant attitude: taking the place of God. Lack of humility and grace in how we perceive others leads us to wrongly declare one person's righteousness worthy and another person unworthy merely based on our assumptions. To judge this way is to assume authority over others that God has not given. In the end, God will judge those who judge in this way.
This does not teach that God's people should never express an understanding of the difference between right and wrong. In a crystal-clear statement, Jesus teaches in John 7:24 that His followers must be careful to make the right judgments instead of judging others by external appearances. Also, God often gives Christians the responsibility to judge truth and falsehood (Galatians 1:8–9; Philippians 3:2; 1 John 4:1) and hold fellow Christians accountable for sin (1 Corinthians 5:5).
What is condemned here is shallowness and hypocrisy: passing judgment on other believers as if one were God. This sneering kind of condemnation is clearly and repeatedly forbidden (Romans 14:10–13; James 4:11–12).
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.
Jesus has commanded His followers not to judge (Matthew 7:1), but this statement is not meant to be ripped out of context and misapplied. Here, Christ begins giving some context needed to interpret those words. Christians should not take God's place in declaring some people righteous and others unrighteous when we look only using shallowness or ignorance. They must not be judgmental—implying something unfair or inappropriate—because God has not given them this authority. Those who pass judgment on others for differences of opinion, or doubtful matters, are attempting to take God's place of judgment over His people. Those attitudes motivate people to perform righteous acts to be approved by others instead of God.
Jesus now offers a solemn warning. Those who pronounce judgment on others as if they were God will be judged with precisely the same force and to the same degree. Some commentators understand Jesus to be expressing a principle of human nature. Judgmental people always end up being judged by everyone else. Their attempt to hold everyone else to a higher standard provokes the people around them to measure every action they take. Holding others to unreasonable standards leads to charges of hypocrisy. In that sense, this parallels the ideas of forgiveness and mercy (Matthew 6:14–15). Those who unfairly judge others lack understanding of their limitations.
Other commentators understand Jesus as a warning about judgment from God, Himself: He will judge those who judge others. He will bring perfect justice by judging those who are wrongly critical using the same exacting standards they attempted to afflict on others. He will hold judgmental people accountable for attempting to take on His role.
Matthew 7:3, 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?
Earlier verses contained a statement quickly—and often—taken out of context. Christ is clear that "right judgment" (John 7:24) includes distinguishing between good and evil (Matthew 7:15–18). Judging others as if we are the standard of goodness is evil. Jesus commanded that His followers "judge not" (Matthew 7:1) but immediately began to explain what this means (Matthew 7:2). In short, what Christ condemns is shallow, hypocritical, or selfish criticism of others.
God does not give human beings authority to judge the righteousness of others using our preferences as the standard. None of us are perfectly righteous ourselves. We are in no position to pronounce judgment because we can be guilty of sin.
Jesus shows in this verse that we are often blind to our sins. This makes shallow condemnation of others even more foolish. This again uses the technique of exaggeration for effect, known as hyperbole. Jesus asks why we are so skillful to see a speck in a brother's eye and unable to notice the log in our eye. It seems human beings can recognize the smallest of sinful infractions in the lives of others while walking around with evident and ugly sins of their own. This is human nature, and God forbids His people to assume His role as judges over their brothers and sisters.
However, it is crucial to realize what Jesus says in verse 5. Once the "log" has been removed from our eye, we are told to help remove the speck from our brother's eye. The difference is that in helping our brother in this way, we are no longer attempting to be his judge. We are acknowledging the reality of sin, submitting to it ourselves, and serving our brother by helping him. Likewise, those "specks" and "logs" are truly sinful; the point is not that everything we see in others must be accepted but that we should approach sin with humility and grace, not arrogance.
Matthew 7:4, NIV: 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?
Jesus has forbidden His listeners from presuming God's place by making shallow judgments of others (Matthew 7:1–2). Jesus calls out the universal human tendency to inflate other people's wrongdoing while minimizing our own. We are unqualified to pronounce judgment superficially because we are often blind to wrongdoing. We are capable of noticing "specks" in the lives of others, while the "logs" in our own may be far greater than what we are trying to correct in another person.
The picture Jesus uses to illustrate this point is intentionally comical. In the rare cases where someone asks for help removing something from their eye, it can be challenging for another person to see it. One can imagine the helper peering intently into someone else's eyes, trying to see a tiny fleck of dust. In contrast, it is absurd to think of that "helper" doing so while they have a vast stick jammed into their eye. It would be a complete farce for someone impaled on a stick to examine others so closely that they can notice mere specks, and even more ridiculous to tell the other person they have an issue that must be fixed.
Some listening to Jesus' words here, given during the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–2), may have laughed. The meaning behind this visual joke is not so funny. The imagery is meant to be extreme and even humorous. Jesus will call the one with the log in his eye a hypocrite in the following verse for being unwilling to deal with his sin while calling out sin in the life of another (Matthew 7:5). However, it should be noted that Jesus does endorse the act of helping another to remove their "speck."
Matthew 7:5, NIV: 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.
Jesus has told His audience not to judge each other; they will also be judged (Matthew 7:1). He does not mean that people should have no discernment about sin, even in other people's lives. Instead, the command forbids playing God (Matthew 7:2). Christians are not to pronounce God's judgment on other sinners while leaving our lives unexamined or un-judged. We are not qualified to fill God's sinless, righteous shoes. To judge the sin of others while ignoring our own is as absurd as criticizing someone with dust in their eyes while our eye is impaled by a stick (Matthew 7:3–4).
However, Christ also says we are qualified to help each other remove sin from our lives. To say to a brother or sister, "let me help you remove sin from your life," is different from pronouncing God's judgment on them. Of course, Jesus has emphasized that we are not qualified even for that role until we have addressed the apparent sin in our lives. Otherwise, we become "hypocrites," a term derived from the Greek word for "an actor or pretender."
Once we have worked to remove some sin from our own lives—or at least dealt with egregious sins—we may be able to help remove the sin from another person's life in humility and service.
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.
Here again is a phrase from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1–2) that most people, even non-Christians, have heard. The most common use comes from the King James translation, which warns not to "cast…your pearls before swine." It is easy to focus on the derogatory imagery of dogs and pigs and miss the real point, which is not meant as an insult. The message is about wasting things of value on those who not only will not appreciate them but might even be angered by the offer.
The long-promised Messiah, Jesus, came to preach that the kingdom of heaven was near (Matthew 4:17). Those who believed this and followed Him were eager to tell this fantastic news to others. Of course, not everyone believed it. Israel's religious leaders would notably reject Jesus' claim to be the Messiah. They would accuse Him of heresy and blasphemy (Mark 14:61–65). What Christ said was true (John 14:6) and incredibly valuable (John 10:28), but these men responded with rejection and hatred.
In Jewish culture, dogs were rarely pets. Wild animals roamed the streets in packs, looking for food and attacking weaker animals. Dogs were symbols of immorality, barbarism, vulgarity, and ignorance. Pigs were officially unclean, according to God's law (Leviticus 11:7), and likely also scavenged for food. Pigs are voracious eaters and not incredibly selective about food. However, pigs can become aggressive when hungry; giving a herd of pigs something inedible when they expect food merely antagonizes them.
This verse is a warning to Christians: do not waste time or invite harassment from those who are hostile. To be called a dog or a pig was a great insult in Jesus' culture. Still, He does not hesitate to compare those who reject Him as Israel's Messiah to dogs and pigs. Crucially, though, His purpose is not to degrade anyone. The emphasis is not on other people but God's people.
Scripture embraces the value of seeking to convince others of the truth (Matthew 28:19; 1 Peter 3:15; Acts 17:2). However, there is a difference between speaking to the willing and wasting time on the hard-hearted. In this verse, Jesus tells His followers to be aware of this difference. At times, we may not realize this until we have already tried to reach them (Matthew 10:14). Sometimes—such as pearls and pigs—we should know in advance that what we offer will be rejected. Spiritually speaking, "casting pearls before swine" is not an act of love towards the unbeliever (Matthew 5:16); it is simply a waste of God-given resources.
Christ will give His disciples explicit instructions along these same lines later in the gospel of Matthew (Matthew 15:14).
Summary
Matthew 7:1–6 delivers Jesus' declaration that His followers must not pronounce God's judgment on each other. Those who do try to take God's role in this way will be judged in the same way themselves. Humans are not qualified to pronounce judgment because they are blind to their sin. To help another with a speck in his eye, a person must first remove the log of blatant sin from his eye. He also warns against wasting time or effort on those with no interest; they will not appreciate it and may attack you.
