Judgement and Discernment

Does anyone remember what we were going through before we did our series through the Book of Luke?

We were talking about the Sermon on the Mount!

What’s the Sermon on the Mount about?

It’s the most condensed teaching of Jesus about what it means to be a follower of Jesus and a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world

And so, we’ve talked about anger and divorce and prayer and a lot of things that will pop up in the lives of followers of Jesus.

Tonight we’re going to talk about one of the most misquoted passages of Scripture of all time!

Matthew 7:1-6

This passage is one of those passages that people who don’t even believe in God will quote all of the time because it feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card!

I can do what I want, and you can’t say anything about it because “only God can judge me,” which typically means that no one can judge me because they don’t believe in a God who can judge.

We’re almost allergic to the concept of judgement in general, we don’t want people to judge us, to tell us that we’re wrong, but I’ve always been happy to tell other people about why they’re wrong!

And so, in this passage, Jesus confronts our dislike of other people judging us and our quickness to judge others.

Judge Not…

Is anyone else really good at judging people?

I’m excellent at judging people.

One of the things that I get super upset about is grocery stores.

Explain about people walking slow and clogging aisles at grocery stores.

And I will make wild judgements about people based off of their times in grocery stores!

Jesus might have something to say to that.

Matthew 7:1 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

This is the first statement we get.

What does it mean to judge someone?

The word in the original language is a legal term, which means to evaluate positively or negatively and make a statement about that person - like how a judge can declare someone guilty or not.

And so in this context, Jesus says that we can not evaluate someone completely and make a judgement call on them because that’s not our job!

We aren’t God, and it’s God’s job to judge, it’s our job to love people well.

And then, Jesus points out some of the problems that happen when we judge people.

Matthew 7:2–5 ESV

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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? 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? 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.

Typically, the most judgmental people are also very hypocritical.

Boris Johnson was the Prime Minister of Britain during Covid, and he made a rule that there were to be no outside gatherings for anyone in the UK for about 8 months to a year because of Covid.

At the same time, he also hosted a bunch of parties that were in his house and were violating all of the rules that he had put down that other people were following.

After that, he quickly had to step down because no one respected him anymore.

No one likes hypocritical people, and yet we can all be incredibly hypocritical people!

We want people to be nice to us, but we’ll be snarky and mean to them.

We want people to be generous to us, but we won’t give anyone anything without working for it.

We want people in our small group to listen to us when we’re talking, but we’re going to talk the whole time to our friends when someone else is talking.

And this is one of the dangers with being super judgmental!

When we throw judgment at someone else, that judgement can act as a mirror for us.

Jesus even says that we are held to the same standard that we judge people for!

So if we expect everyone to be super generous, then we had better be generous too!

That’s where Jesus gives an example.

It’s like if one of your friends had a piece of dust in their eye and you were going to try to get it out, but you have a fork that is jabbed into your own eye.

Get the fork out of there and go to the hospital before you try to bug someone else about their eye!

In the same way, instead of judging and attacking people, we should love and appreciate them, and try to become more like Christ and encourage others to do the same.

But, we still have to look at vs. 2!

There are standards!

It says that when we judge, we will be judged with the same standard!

This is where people all the time will quote this verse and not really know what it means.

This verse isn’t saying that morality is false and that everything is ok and you can just do whatever you want because only God can judge me.

This section says that it’s not our job to determine whether someone is going to heaven or not or if they are a good person, but we are still able to hold people to a standard!

For instance, I believe, based off of the Bible, that it is wrong to steal.

So, if I see any of you guys stealing, I’m going to say something about it, because it’s wrong to steal. All of that is fine! Stealing is wrong, the Bible clearly states it! Morality is a legitimate thing!

However, if I get on your case for stealing, and then two minutes after I catch you stealing I go and steal something, then I’ve got a problem!

I’ve been a huge hypocrite, and I’ve got this standard that even I can’t keep.

Can you imagine how your friends in your small group would respond if you asked them to listen if you were someone who listened to them. It would add weight to what you’re saying. And similarly, when we act in the way that Jesus wants, it makes it much easier for us to talk to others about them acting like Jesus.

But then we get that really weird phrase at the end in vs. 6!

Matthew 7:6 ESV

“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.

That sounds a whole lot like judgment! Jesus compares people to dogs and pigs, and says that we shouldn’t give things that are valuable to them!

So what does that mean?

The Value of Discernment

We aren’t supposed to judge, right?

That means that we are not supposed to evaluate people to decide if they are good enough for God to love them or that they are deserving of salvation.

But, that doesn’t mean that every person is safe or that you should be vulnerable with everyone.

Human beings are created in God’s image and are loved by Him and should be loved by us, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is holy and has the right motives.

So, we have to practice discernment, which is to look at people with perception. It’s to be observant to the things that go on around you.

So, for instance, there used to be this type of guy that would show up at Christian conferences.

It would always be a dude who was in high school and would have a sign up that said “free hugs.”

And you might think, Dylan, he’s just trying to be an encouragement to other people.

NO HE WASN’T! This same guy would always go around groups of girls, and never seemed to walk up to all of the smelly dudes.

All that this guy wanted was to hug cute girls at Christian conferences and concerts under the disguise of being a really caring and nice guy; and people believed him because they didn’t have discernment

So when Jesus says that we are not to give dogs what is holy and don’t cast pearls before swine, what do you think that He’s saying?

I think that what Jesus is saying here is

Be careful what you’re willing to give people.

This isn’t about money, this is about personal vulnerability and the gospel.

There are people in the world who are always going to be against you or against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people in the world who will scoff and laugh and try to do you harm because you want them to come to faith.

There are people who, when you are vulnerable and open yourself up to them so that you can show them the love of Jesus, will try to do you harm.

Jesus tells us here to be careful with them.

Notice, He’s not telling us to hate or to ignore or to be mean to anyone, but He is saying that we have to be careful how much we’re willing to give of ourselves.

See, we need both 1-5 and 6 because 1-5 shows us to not be judgmental people who put people in a box that they don’t deserve and to let God to the judging, whereas v. 6 shows us that you need to be careful and that just because we don’t judge doesn’t mean that we trust implicitly.

Locking your doors at night isn’t being judgmental, it’s being smart; but hating homeless people isn’t smart, it’s just judgmental.

So, how does this point us to Jesus?

What in this section shows us the love of Jesus in our lives?

We see that Jesus here removes the power of religious elites and self-defined “holy people”

At this point in history, the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, were really good at telling people how they were wrong, but we’re also really good about making excuses for their own sins.

And we get it now! It’s easy for the people who seem the most “holy” or the best people to start becoming annoying and self-righteous about how they’re better than you because they do more.

Jesus makes this a matter about God and you.

You don’t have to be an exact copy of me or any of the other leaders. We’re not here to make you like us, because we know that we aren’t the standard of humanity, Jesus is.

We’re not here to judge you, we’re here to love you and encourage you to become more like Jesus and less like the world.

And similarly,

Jesus died to give us a way out of our judgement

Jesus “cast His pearls before swine” by giving His life as a sacrifice for us! He gave everything that we might be people of God when you and I did nothing to deserve it. That’s a love that is unimaginable!

Christ gave His life so that you and I can have a life that we don’t even come close to deserving!

Questions:

What is one pet peeve of yours?

What is the difference between judgement and discernment?

How can you hold someone to a standard without being judgmental?

What does it mean to have discernment?