Kingdom Living 13 Judging Others
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Central idea of the text or main idea of the text:
Believers need to judge their own faults and not those of others.
Homiletic idea: Don’t judge others, judge yourself and fix your own faults.
Introduction:
Let’s have a contest and see who can jump to the moon. I jumped higher than you, I win.
The moon is 238,900 miles away and I jumped six inches closer than you. I win. That is silly isn’t it? When we judge others it is not much different. We are so far from God’s righteous that when we judge others it is like me saying, “I win. I am more righteous than you.” When, in fact, I am still 100s of thousands of miles from being righteousness. Yet, we do this all the time.
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.
“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is 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.
Matt
Outline:
Do Not Judge
Do Not Judge
Pharisees had appointed themselves as judges over anyone who violated the Law. The Pharisees were the keepers of the Law. It was their job. they knew the Law better than anyone else. You might want to think of them as the Jewish religious police of their time. They didn’t hand out tickets, but they did hand out condemnation. They had become the policemen, who were meting out street justice. Not only were they being the policemen of the Law, they were also had appointed themselves the judges. But they were judges who did not know mercy. In their eyes they did not need mercy. After all, this was God’s law and it was absolute. But they had missed an important point:
Judging Inhibits Loving
When we judge without mercy, there is no place for love. We can become so involved in doing what is right, that if we are not careful we will do it the wrong way. You can do the right thing the wrong way and when you do, you are no longer doing the right thing. Illustration.
A judge has to have a sense of justice, but more important, a judge has to have a sense of mercy. The Pharisees knew how to follow the letter of the Law, but they knew nothing of the Spirit of the Law. That is why Jesus addressed this at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The Spirit of the Law gets down to why the Law was put into place. And when we remember the ”why” we will realize that mercy is required. God’s love is shown in His judging, not ours and His love is shown in His mercy.
Yes, this was God’s law the Pharisees were enforcing, but they missed that Before there was God’s law, there was God’s love
God loves us
God has always loved His creation and because of His love He shows us mercy. When Adam and Eve sinned, God had every right to carry out His judgment against them against them. In fact, He does carry out His judgment against them, but He shows His mercy in the midst of His judgment. This is what the Pharisees were missing. If we are not careful we find ourselves walking the same walk as the Pharisees. If we are not careful we become judgmental and self-righteous and mercy has no home.
Someone makes a mistake and we find them guilty, they don’t deserve a second chance. Someone hurts us and there is no room for mercy and forgiveness. We see others and make judgments, without knowing anything about them.
It is not our place to judge.
We are called to love
The Pharisees had missed the message of God’s love that came with His laws. God instituted His laws out of love for His people, because He wants the best for His people. His laws are meant to protect us and provide for us. Because God loves us we are to love others. We know that Scripture commands:
‘For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.
We are to be holy because God is holy. We are to love because God loves. Not just because He loves us, but simply because He loves. When we find ourselves judging we need to remind ourselves God does not call us to judge mercilessly, He calls us to love.
But if you must judge, you need to know:
Judging is Linked to Forgiveness
Judging is Linked to Forgiveness
We will be judged in the same manner that we judge others
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.
“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
If we choose to judge others, we need to know that we put ourselves out there for judgment, measure for measure. We should love our enemies. God loved us while we were still His enemies. Jesus has just taught His followers to pray that they are forgiven in the same measure that they forgive and if they do not forgive, they should not expect forgiveness.
Now, He reinforces what He taught in prayer:
If we choose not to judge, but forgive, then forgiveness will be turned back on us
Judgment means we will be judged
Forgiveness means we will be forgiven.
– forgive us our trespasses…
Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
;
We don’t have all the information to make sound judgments, God does
It is our natural tendency to rush to judgment. And when we rush to judgment, before we have all the facts, we usually make a mistake. We don’t lose anything by waiting and postponing judgment. Even when we think we have all the information, we don’t. Only God knows all the details. We need to leave the judging to Him.
d. –
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
God is the only Judge
We may make evaluations, but we are not to condemn
3. It always seems
Easier to See Other People’s Faults
Easier to See Other People’s Faults
than to see our own. V 3-4
“Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?
This isn’t new
Cain found fault with his brother Abel. It has always seemed easier to see other people’s problems.
When we focus on other people’s faults we will not see our faults
Like a camera. The main thing is in focus and the others are not.
God sees our faults and the faults of others
We don’t need to point them out to them. And God is fully capable. I don’t think He needs our help. If they have a fault, He knows it. Remember, there is nothing He doesn’t know.
Look at v 5 with me:
“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.
The only person you can change is you
i. Get the log out of your own eye.
ii. Airplane mask rule. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others around you. You have fix you first. Get rid of your baggage before you try to help someone else get rid of theirs.
The problem with this is that it hurts to fix me. It is painless fixing other people.
ii. Airplane mask rule. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others around you.
Conclusion:
· Jesus is giving advice on how we should live our lives. How we live our lives, here and now has eternal ramifications.
· This advice has eternal ramifications.
When we judge others we are placing ourselves above them
not alongside them. This is the whole “I’m closer to the moon than you are” thing.
When we judge others we are putting ourselves in God’s place
. There is only one judge.
· This leaves us to love people right where they are.
· We will love them better if we fix ourselves first, because others can see our log.