Introduction:
A few years ago, a congregation of the Lord’s church in Oklahoma disfellowshiped a woman for immorality. When she filed a lawsuit against the church, the story made all the national news media. One of the shows to give the lawsuit coverage was Phil Donahue and on that show, I think the attitude of Donahue and most of the audience could be summed up in the words: "Judge not that you be not judged!"
It bothers me to hear someone use Matthew 7:1 that way. But, you see, it’s nice to have a verse to prove what you already want to believe, and I think that’s how this verse has been used. It has been used to convey the idea, "You live your lifestyle and I’ll live mine. But don’t you tell me how to live, and certainly don’t you try to impose your standards of morality on me."
"Judge not that you be not judged" is spouted by a lot of people who have no earthly idea what Jesus meant by that. And I venture to say that the people who quote this verse the most are the ones who understand it the least. It just happens to fall into line with the spirit of our time.
A teenager is at odds with her parents because they’ve laid down the rules that she can’t go out with a certain boy because they don’t think it would be good for her spiritual development. So, she storms out of the room and screams, "Judge not that you be not judged!" Slam goes the door. And she feels she’s cleared her system of her responsibility to tell her parents off biblically.
Or some student gets drunk and has to be disciplined on a Christian college campus. Immediately, his friends rally around and suddenly become very biblical, saying, "Judge not that you be not judged."
Well, what was Jesus saying in Matthew 7? I think one of the key verses in understanding it is Matthew 5:20: "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." We must have a different kind of righteousness from what the scribes and Pharisees had. They wore theirs on their sleeves; it was superficial.
Ours must grow out of a heart committed to the Father. And Matthew 7 is part of that context. Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, deals with two different extremes of the problem of human judgment. The first extreme is a harsh, critical spirit. The second extreme is permissiveness. This morning, we want to take a look at both of these extremes.
I. Don’t Judge (Matthew 7:1-2)
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
As Jesus looked at the religious situation of his day, he saw that judging others had become a great religious problem. The Pharisees and scribes sat
in the place of the critic. They were quick to pass judgment on those who didn’t live up to their expectations.
When Jesus was in the house of Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman anointed his feet, Simon said, "This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner." (Luke 7:39). The Pharisees, in their self-righteous arrogance, had created a special class of people called "sinners," as if they themselves were not such.
The Pharisees were used to judging others self-righteously. Jesus said there are problems with that kind of judging. It’s overly critical, always going around with a nit-picking attitude, digging and searching for faults, always suspecting the worst.
So Jesus says that we are not to judge. Now he’s not talking about the judgment in a courtroom. He’s not talking about judging open and obvious sin (we’ll get to that later). He’s not talking about judging false teachers. What he is talking about is a hasty, unloving, "holier than thou" type of attitude. We sometimes call this "jumping to conclusions". It’s at the very heart of gossipping and rumor-bearing.
Jesus wasn’t saying we should never assess people with some discrimination, but rather that we should not have a harsh, judgmental spirit. John Stott put it this way: "Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men (by suspending our critical powers which help to distinguish us from animals) but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God (by setting ourselves up as judges)." That’s what drives this overly critical attitude: a belief that I can see as God sees. I can see your motives. I can see the way you’re thinking. I know all the things that have led you to this point in your life. That’s what Jesus wants to eliminate.
Whenever we make a judgment, we do so based on what we have seen and sometimes that’s not enough to provide the whole picture. Human judgment is limited to the information which we put into it and sometimes that isn’t enough to make an accurate judgment.
The Indians had their way of saying this: "Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins." And there’s something to that. For example, a person brought up in a Christian home can’t really know the temptations of a teen-ager brought up in a thoroughly sinful environment. The fact is that if we realized what some people have to go through, instead of condemning them, we might marvel that they have succeeded at being as good as they are.
There is a story about a newspaper reporter that is one of my favorite examples of what we’re talking about. A reporter was once searching for a story about the laziness that existed throughout the South, when he saw a man in his field, sitting in a chair and hoeing his weeds. This had to be the ultimate in laziness. So he rushed back to his car to start his story when he looked back a second time and what he saw changed his entire outlook. He saw that the pants legs on the farmer hung down loose -- the man had no legs. So what seemed at first to be a story of laziness turned into a story of great courage.
But that goes to show the limits of what we sometimes see in other people. God once made the point that "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." (I Samuel 16:7). That’s why I don’t have the right to sit in judgment on someone else’s motives, because I don’t know what they are. Only the Lord knows all.
It was in response to this sort of critical attitude that Paul responded, "With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you....In fact, I do not even judge myself....But he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes." (I Corinthians 4:3-5).
We can’t know everything in everybody else’s heart. I can’t read all your motives. I can’t see you as God does. I need to give you the benefit of the doubt. That’s what Paul meant when he said in I Corinthians 13 that love "believes all things" -- love believes the best. But above all, I shouldn’t be going around trying to find faults in your life.
Notice that self-righteous judgment has a boomerang: "For in the ame way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." In other words: "Look, if you start throwing out this critical spirit on other people, it’ll come back.
We’ll receive the same kind of treatment that we dish out. If we judge others harshly and jump to the worst conclusions about others, we can be certain that we’ll be treated in the same way, I believe by both others and God.
II. Searching For Specks (Matthew 7:3-5)
"And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ’Let me remove the speck out of your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye."
There’s another problem with Pharasaic righteousnes. Not only was it overly critical, but it was also hypocritical. It was two-faced. We like to look at people with bifocals. We use the bottom part to see ourselves, and it has kind of a rosy tint to it. We tend to look past any shortcomings. But the top part we use to look at others. And that’s the hypocrisy Jesus was denouncing.
Bertrand Russell capsulized this hypocrisy when he said, "I am firm. You are obstinate. He’s pig-headed. I have reconsidered. You have changed your mind. He’s gone back on his word."
It’s like the parable in Luke 18 where a Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. The Pharisee looks through the top part of his bifocals and says, "Oh my! I’m glad I’m not like that scumbag out there." And then he looks through the bottom part and says to God, "You are just so blessed to have me on your side." That’s the kind of judging Jesus condemned.
We’re not qualified to sit in judgment on others because it’s impossible to
be impartial -- we’re influenced by our own imperfections. Jesus here uses the graphic example of a plank of wood and a speck of dust.
The picture is ridiculous. Now, we’ve heard it so many times that it has lost its humorous twist, but the people in Jesus’ audience were probably laughing out loud. It sounds like a scene out of the Three Stooges. Here’s one guy with a little piece of sawdust in his eye. There’s somebody else with a two-by-four coming out of his forehead, and he’s trying to get that speck out. Every time he turns around, the other guy has to duck.
I think Jesus used the illustration of a plank and a speck because he was a carpenter; that was familiar to him and it was familiar to the people around him. But if he were living today, he might have said that a man sitting in judgment on another person is like a man watching a football game.
Have you ever listened to a man watch a football game, especially if his team is losing? He’ll criticize the quarterback for not throwing well, the receivers for not catching the easy passes, and the linemen for not blocking well. Have you ever thought -- If he’s so good at knowing what to do, then why is he sitting in a chair watching the game instead of being out there playing? I’ll tell you why -- I’ve seen him try to get out in the backyard and play ball! Jesus says, "You’ve got no room to criticize others because of your own ineptitude!"
But you see, even though we are unqualified, we still judge. And we often do so for selfish reasons; it makes us feel better. If we have a problem with sin in our own lives, it takes a little pressure off to point the finger at others for a while. It makes our sin seem not so bad after all. But, Jesus warns us that we’ve got to clean up our own act before we tamper with the lives of others.
And I don’t think that the plank in our eyes is necessarily a worse sin. I think he’s talking about the sin of self-righteousness, appointing ourselves as the official speck inspectors of the brotherhood.
When I spend my time pointing my finger at your sin, my attention is distracted from my own sins, and that’s the real danger of judging. We’re all sinners, and we’re to work together as a family to overcome our sins. But ultimately, the only sins over which I have control are my own, and those are the ones that should command my greatest attention.
An illustration of this is found back in Genesis 38. Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar had lost her husband. Judah gave her another of his sons, but he wouldn’t cooperate in giving her a child. Then he died and Judah wouldn’t give her his youngest son as the law demanded. So Tamar did the only thing she could think of. When Judah announced he was going to the market, Tamar dressed as a prostitute, she disguised herself, and seduced him, becoming pregnant in the process. Later, when Judah learned that Tamar was pregnant out of wedlock, he said, "Oh! This is terrible! Tamar must be killed!" So she walked out and said, in essence, "That’s fine, but I want you to know that you’re the father."
We can see so well the things in others’ lives that we want to pick on, but Jesus said we’re usually being overly critical and hypocritical when we do it.
But it’s important for us to notice that he didn’t stop there. He didn’t instruct us to stay out of other people’s business. Rather, he gave us the responsibility of helping our brother: "First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye." (7:5).
What’s the loving, Christian thing to do when someone comes to you and he’s got a speck in his eye? Turn and walk away? No! Do you say, "Oh, no. I could never take that speck out of your eye. I’ve had specks in my eye before"? Of course not! He’s got something in his eye and he needs it taken out.
Or suppose a child comes to you with a splinter in his finger. He’s crying, "Please take this splinter out!" What’s the Christian thing to do? Leave the splinter there? No! You take the splinter out. So Jesus was saying there is a place for some discernment in people’s lives. If you see brothers or sisters who have specks in their eyes, you need to help them take it out!
But first you take out the two-by-four of self-righteousness out of your own eye. Paul put it this way, ""Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." (Galatians 6:1).
You who are spiritual -- not self-righteous, but spiritual -- those of you who have the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, you go restore him. Matthew 7 shouldn’t interfere with the responsibility we have to go to somebody in loving confrontation.
III. The Right Way to Judge (Matthew 7:6)
"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces."
The harsh, critical spirit is obviously wrong and some have tried to get so far away from it that they’ve gone to the opposite extreme, which is permissiveness. The holders of this position point to the first five verses of this chapter as their proof text; we are not to judge. They stress long and loud that we cannot judge. They interpret that as meaning we cannot judge in any case or in any setting, and especially don’t try to tell me I’m doing anything wrong.
An interesting situation arises, though, when somebody takes this position. They believe that you can’t judge anyone else as being right or wrong and you have no right to condemn the way anyone is living. If you are doing that, you are wrong and that you shouldn’t live that way. Thus they practice the very thing they claim is wrong for others.
The permissive person holds to a religion that serves what Nicholas Von Hoffman calls the "the Great Mush God." Everything is all right with God. The motto of the permissivist is "live and let live." He’ll never condemn a practice as sin or a doctrine as false because to do such is judging, and he believes in being "tolerant".
But, Jesus doesn’t end his discussion of judging with the command "judge not". He goes on to say, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs." If you think verses 1-5 prohibit any kind of discerning in judgment, you’ve got a real problem here. Becsause you’ve got to use some kind of criteria to decide who those spiritual dogs and pigs are.
First Jesus says, "Don’t judge, don’t condemn." Then, in the same breath, he says, "Make certain judgments concerning people and behavior."
How can these two positions be reconciled? The two positions actually complement and limit each other perfectly. In the first statement, as we’ve already seen, Jesus condemns the critical, holier-than-thou, jumping to conclusions sort of judgment that the Pharisees were known for.
In this second statement, Jesus acknowledges the need for making decisions concerning people and behavior that is detrimental to our Christian lives. Verse 6 stands as a safeguard against an extreme interpretation of verses 1-5. It’s not the case that Jesus condemns all judging. In fact, he demands that we make some judgment.
In John 7:24, Jesus said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." In I John 4:1, John tells us not to believe every preacher that comes along, but "test the spirits, whether they are of God." In I Corinthians 5:11, Paul tells us not to associate with a brother who is "a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner." That demands that we make a judgment of some sort.
The command not to judge others doesn’t mean that we can’t see the sinfulness of certain actions. Now, we’re never to look down in self-righteous judgment on another sinner, for we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. But we can recognize sin as sin, and we should never try to justify it. You don’t give to the dogs the sacred sacrifice reserved for the priest and you don’t feed your pearls to the pigs.
You can take a pig and put him in a bathtub. You wash him. You floss his teeth. You put mousse in his tail. You do whatever you want. Then you put him back outside, and you know where he’ll go? Right back to the mud. Jesus was saying there are people like that. These words are harsh, but his point is that we shouldn’t waste spiritual treasures on those who have no spiritual interest.
Mike Cope is a gospel preacher who used to live on the coast. Every once in a while, he’d go fishing and catch some grouper which, at that time, sold for about $5.00 a pound in the market. On one occasion, he served some of that grouper to some friends who came over. They tasted it and said, "Ooh! This is really good! It tastes like chicken!" To him, that was the ultimate insult. A simple bird that sells for 79 cents a pound, and he was telling Mike that’s what his hard-won grouper tasted like. He had shared pearls with swine. The next time they came over, Mike served them chicken.
In Matthew 10, Jesus sent some disciples out and he said, "Look. When you go into a town, and they don’t have the time of day for you, shake the dust off your sandals and get out of there." Some people are spiritual pigs and dogs.
Paul received some rough treatment in Corinth on his second missionary journey, and Luke reports, "But when [the Jews] opposed [Paul] and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, ’Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’" (Acts 18:6). We’ve got to use that kind of discernment and not waste spiritual treasures on people who will just trample them.
Now this is the exception rather than the rule. We don’t jump on this idea and stop evangelizing. But there are some people who have no spiritual interest. They will trample the precious things we hold dear to our heart. And Jesus said to use some discernment, have the ability to make judgment in our minds.
Conclusion:
So what is the message of Matthew 7:1-6? I think it’s a warning for us to avoid the extremes of judgment. We need to be careful not to become harshly judgmental, looking for faults, taking the opportunity to look down on others from our position of self-righteousness.
But neither are we to overlook sin. We need to be able to recognize sin for what it is. Any attempt to overlook or justify sin on any grounds is itself sinful.
We’ve seen the teachings of Jesus; as we close, let’s notice his example. In John 8, Jesus is confronted by a mob pushing before it a woman that was caught in the act of adultery. The mob tried to use her, as if she were a thing, in order to trap Jesus. The Jewish law said she must die. Roman law said that she couldn’t be killed without their permission. There was never any doubt about her guilt, nor was there any doubt as to the seriousness of her action.
So what did Jesus do when confronted by this sinner? First, he refused to look down on her. He wouldn’t allow the mob to treat her as a thing. Rather he forced the mob to consider their own sin. But, second, he didn’t justify her behavior. He wouldn’t refer to her action as anything other than sin. He forgave her and challenged her to stop sinning.
Jesus will do the same thing for you this morning. If you come to him, he will also forgive your sin with the challenge to live a life of purity for him.
