“Desire without
knowledge is not good—how much more will hasty feet miss the way!” (Proverbs
19:2)
“You judge
according to the flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is
true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.” (John 8:15-16)
When discussing sin, often I
hear people say, “The bible says not to judge”, and they refer to Matthew 7 to
back this up. All to often we tend to use this as a way to tell people “don’t
tell me I’m wrong, besides who are you to keep me accountable? You don’t know
me.” Truth is God wrote out His will for us and if they do not line up with His
word, then we know we are wrong. What we need to do when referring to scripture
and to understand what God says about sin is to read the context it is written
in.
Up to this point in scripture of
the “Sermon on the mount”, Jesus has been teaching about the attitudes of the
heart and the hypocrisy that goes with some of those attitudes. See, the
context of this passage is about dealing with the heart. What is your motive of
your judgment towards other people? Whenever there is judgment, it should
always be with the intent of presenting truth and with that should be an
attitude of hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:6) and having a desire for there to be a turning to God. Judgment
should never be that you want to point out things other people do wrong.
Today we
are looking into the sixteenth topic on the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus is teaching,
which is “Do not judge”. Matthew 7:1-6… Please understand this is not
about not judging, it is more about not being a hypocrite. To understand the
content of this passage, I believe the key is in v.3-4 “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 from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”
As an example, we cannot try to council a brother on being a
good steward of his money when we turn around and head off to the casinos. Same
as if you were to help someone with a pornography addiction and yet you just
looked at some lust-filled images on your smart phone! It just does not make
sense! Like Jesus says in v.5, you need to seek help for your own struggles
before you can help another about theirs.
One
time I witnessed a very sad example of wrong judgment. One summer morning I had
to work on a Sunday opening up the church building at 6:30 am. As I got closer
to the building, I saw this man lying on the bench outside the doors. As I
opened the doors, another one of our congregation members walked up with me.
The man on the bench stood up and asked if he could come inside and help serve.
It was apparent this man had not showered and had been sleeping outside all
night. I was taken back a little bit by this situation, but I said “sure, why
not. We welcome anyone who wants to help.” Then, the other member of our church
pulled me aside and said to me, “you have to get him out of here! He’s scary looking!”
I’m
not sure if it was because he was African/American or if it was he appeared to
be homeless, or if it was because of his odor. The point is he did not do
anything to warrant being kicked out of a church just because of his
appearance! After all, Jesus came for the sick. He came for the weary. He loves
to help and mercy those in need. In fact, He will pass right by the one who
thinks he has it all together and does not see his desperate need for Jesus to
help the lost! We need to be very careful of how we judge, why we judge and whom
we are judging!
Now,
with that being said, there is a place and time to judge. John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with
righteous judgment.” Righteous judgment is letting God decide. Like I said
earlier, He has already written in His word of how He wants us to live life. If
it does not line up with His word, we need to GENTLY and LOVINGLY come to that
person with intent of correction and show them truth. Of course, this is
assuming you have already practiced Matthew 7:5.
Reflection:
I would say you would need an
attitude of hunger and thirst for righteousness for this topic of judgment. Be
careful to judge another while you yourself are in some bondage of sin. First
confess your sin and repent by getting help, then you can be able to see
clearly how to help others. Now, once you are able to help others through
correction, consider it mercy to them to show them truth. If you don’t judge
them with righteous judgment, you are actually doing them harm because they may
not realize they need to repent.
Challenge:
How are you doing in your walk
with Jesus? Is there any area of your life that you need Jesus to take control
of? Maybe judgment towards others may be something you struggle with. Be very
mindful of why and how and whom you are judging. Confess your wrong judgment to
which you have judged and ask for their forgiveness.
-Doug McGowan
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