A Culture of Grace, and Judging Rightly

Here we have a text from the sermon on the mount that addresses interpersonal relationships within the body of Christ. We know this is the case be the use of the word, brother, as well as v6, that instructs how believers are to handle the pearl of the gospel.

The first v in Chapter 7 might be the most quoted text in the world. Interesting though, who we find quoting it most often, and it’s not Christians.

Think about the last time someone said to you, Don’t judge, or don’t judge me, or The Bible says not to judge others.

Can you remember what you or someone else was saying that elicited that response?

Was it politics?

Were you telling someone your opinion your thoughts about their vehicle of choice.

Or maybe you were giving directions to someone who was going the wrong way, so you corrected them to keep them from ending up in the wrong place.

Not likely.

If you hear this quoted by a non believer it’s because you have spoken some truth about morality, and the world hates the truth. What’s the best thing to do if you hate the truth, and cannot ultimately deny the absolute nature of truth. Well, you distort it, and misapply it.

How is this text misunderstood?

The primary misunderstanding is to believe that this is a blanket command from Jesus to never discern, reprove, or correct another person.

This interpretation is completely unfounded in Scripture.

Truth by definition is a straight line, a plumb line, and it is the endeavor of life to find that plumb line. That perfectly plumb line and standard can only come from one place, and it is from a holy, intelligent, benevolent God. Quit messing with the plumb line…don’t you just want to say that to people sometimes?

But as with most misunderstanding, they can often be fixed with a little bit of context, and a lot of humility.

So, let’s dive in.

This section is really split into three sections.

1&2 Deals with the seat of judgement and condemnation

v3-5 deals with the hypocrisy that happens when dealing with faults

v6 deals with putting proper discernment into practice toward unbelievers.

Look at v1 and 2 again with me...

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you”

The word used for Judge here could be rendered several different ways, but based on the context, and several other texts, we can understand that this is speaking of a seat of Judgement that holds the authority to condemn, or to judge the heart, or motive of a person.

And who is this Judge, this one being who can hold such a seat of power, who can with just a thought see the inner person and the motive behind every action, who can pronounce judgement and condemn to Hell for all eternity. This is God.

Listen to how the 1689 London Confession explains it...

God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged,2 but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

Romans 14:10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;

Understand that there is one Judge, and that is God. This is not our place…And what Jesus wants us to understand is that this is how it works in this world. Those who take this seat of pronouncement, to judge motives and judge hearts within the family of God must realize that the same measure is coming back to you. What you sow you shall reap.

This is a built-in accountability. Remember the judge. Remember His place. It’s not your place.

So, think about what this is saying in terms of how this is misused.

This is not saying to never judge the actions or words of another person. In fact, that is precisely what must be done in the ministry of discipleship and accountability against sin.

How unloving it is to simply let someone live outside the revealed and written will of God. How we must truly hate a person if we’re unwilling to warn them of what can and will destroy them. And all of this can be done without taking a seat of judgement or condemning a person.

So here’s the word for us concerning this first part of our text, New City Church...

Attitudes of condemnation toward brothers and sisters in the church will kill a culture of grace.

This could be the negative lens that you may be constantly looking through.

This could be acting like you can see a persons motive, when you’ve never asked them why they did what they did.

What begins as an action you disagree with moves to a position of you holding the gavel in your hand and pronouncing someone with sentence.

Where is grace in this?

Jesus shows us with His life that grace is more powerful to change a sinner than condemnation ever was.

Remember the woman caught in adultery?

What happened? Her accusers stood all about her, holding the gavels in their hands. Jesus there in the middle of them, and he begins to write in the sand. Then he says “He who is without sin cast the first stone.”

What happened in that moment? The accusers all left. Why? Because sinners do not have the right to judge and condemn sinners. Only Jesus has that place, and be sure, he does have that place. But what is most amazing about this story is not that these men did not cast a stone, but that Jesus, the righteous and holy judge of the earth, did not cast a stone. Why?

Love. Grace. Forgiveness.

Instead of bringing the justice that she deserved from the law…he forgave her sin, and did not condemn her. That’s the power of grace.

So, if in light of this knowledge, we continue to use the scales of perfection and holiness to judge others, forgetful of God’s grace, we place our own righteousness on those scales and guess what…we have none of our own.

This is not saying don’t judge PERIOD, brothers and sisters. It’s saying, be sure to judge rightly.

And as we live with one another, and grow as a church, there will undoubtedly be times when we notice the faults of others. This itself is not condemned. This is natural. We’re going to notice on others the affects of sin, behaviors, unholiness, things harmful to those we love…so what are we to do?

Look at v3-5 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Notice what Jesus calls the faults we see in others. Specks - sawdust

Notice what he tells us to think concerning the faults in ourselves… Log - or beam..

This would have been the main support beam that held up the entire roof system in a larger home. We’re talking a beam.

He asks the simple question…Why do you see the speck, but miss the log.

Some people are speck hunters. Eye inspectors.

What’s the hypocrisy?

Always quick to fix the other person, and slow to correct what is wrong in your own life.

It’s interesting to think about this analogy that Jesus uses…because the eye is incredibly important to the body. It’s not a particularly strong member. In fact, it quite delicate. If you’ve ever gotten something lodged in your eye, it takes only the smallest speck to completely ruin your day.

What do you need in that moment? You need someone with good vision to help you.

Can someone help me get this speck out of my eye?

Then you see someone come from around the corner with a beam so large coming out of his face that it’s knocking everyone else down.

That’s the foolishness you need to picture. But the perspective Jesus is asking us to consider is being that person with the beam. And how do we become those people?

Never examine your heart against God’s word.

Never turn from your own sin and run to God forgiveness.

Never remove what is lodged in your own Spiritual eye, but acting like an expert optometrist.

Here’s the reality, there is a form of judgement that is pleasing to the Lord within His church, and this is not it.

We need to be followers of Jesus with a clear vision of ourselves first. We get this by rightly seeing God as Judge, and fearing Him with the awe and respect that is due to Him. We do this by letting “the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

It is the Word richly dwelling in us that shows us our need, shows us our God, and show us the grace that others need.

Church, the grace of God teaches us to admonish one another, but it first must admonish us.

What does it mean to admonish?

It means to warn or to urge someone to avoid something. Do you see what’s happening.

“First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

There’s no doubt that we all have specks in our eyes this morning. We need others to help us to see these sometimes. Hopefully God’s word is illuminating some unclear vision. You’re not trusting God. You’re mishandling your money. You’re not stewarding your time well. That’s a big one, right? That might be a common speck in my eye, and I need the Word and the Spirit of God in my life to illuminate the problem so that I can dislodge it. If I said to someone else…Hey, you are really blowing it with time management and staying focused in your mission, but I fail to self examine…I’d be that hypocrite. Many of you know, those who ask, that this is often what I need prayer for as a pastor, husband, father…and the only way I can stay keenly aware of this need is to keep Christ and His word before me.

What we do not need, is for such a delicate things as an eye operation to be handled by people with hypocritical beams in their own eyes trying to fix everyone else.

Best case scenario?

There is a culture of grace here. We’re removing beams, checking for specks in ourselves first, then approaching others in a spirit of love and helping them to do the same.

Take this beautiful scenario of the right kind of judgement happening between brothers and sister, and then imagine someone saying... “judge not.” Makes no sense at all.

Finally, take a look at v6.  “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Did you catch that?

Jesus said that there are people in this world who, in their treatment of and response to what you give them are compared to pigs and dogs. Why?

Two behaviors to watch for…those who attack, and those who trample.

What are they trampling and attacking? That which is holy, and pearls.

We’re not talking about your lovely domesticated household pets here. In ancient Israel dogs roamed the streets, manged, and untrained. They attack and kill. You wouldn’t give one of these dogs something holy, like your precious time. And pigs, they could care less about pearls. You can tell a pig all you want that a pearls of truly great value is found in 1 in 10,000 oysters. doesn’t matter. To a pig, it’s perfect for trampling along with the rest of the filth under its feet.

What’s the point? Remember the context is about correcting people in the church. So these could be the dogs and pigs that Jesus is talking about. A brother or sister who will not respond to loving correction. You may need to pull back and wait for a season.

The context is also about hypocrisy. Christ may be saying that we need to discern in the local body those who are being hypocritical in their correcting, and they these should not be offered the same precious pearls as others. So this could be a form of church discipline.

Finally, a common interpretation of this is in the treatment of unbelievers who are hostile to the Kingdom, to Christians, and to the Gospel. This could very likely be what Jesus is talking about. What investment of time and energy should be given to those who trample the gospel? Be discerning, and know that you can leave it with God. Be sure you are also giving the Gospel to people God is preparing to receive it.

Here’s the conclusion.

We as followers of Christ have been given something valuable. The Gospel. The news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and how we are saved and kept, no by our own holiness, but by grace. This faith has made us a family, and in a family there needs to be loving correction, and a culture of forgiveness and grace. Many things can mess up a church family, and at the top of that list is hypocrites who correct others and never correct themselves, those who take a seat of judgement that does not belong to them, and those who, like dogs and pigs, do not value the precious pearl of correction any more. Ask the holy Spirit to search your heart this morning with His word. Are you contributing to a culture of grace here? What pearls do you need to withhold from someone? What correction do you need? Is there a log in your eye that you’ve been hurting others with while you make a big deal about the specks in others eyes? Let’s remember to self examine and stay humble.