Sermon Tone Analysis

Starting Point

Example of me judging others....

Judging Others defines who we are, not who they are

What Do We Need To Know

Verse 1: Warning

Overall command.....Don’t judge others or you will be judged...

This is the overall command that Jesus gives…the word of advice....the main teaching point

What Does Judge Mean?

Greek word: Krino

Carries the connotation “condemn”....it can also mean creating a negative opinion about someone....

Don’t condemn others.....now this doesn’t mean that we don’t rebuke or hold people accountable....An example of this is

Here, Jesus focus and main concern is the faultfinding, condemnatory attitude we have towards others.

It’s a continual attitude that we have towards others…where we seemingly take the role of judge, jury and executioner ...

Let’s play this out for a moment…Because there are several different scenarios where this takes place....

Simple things like this....

Negative Opinion: A new person comes into the church and you don’t like the way they dress, or the way they carry themselves....or they style they keep their hair...and you judge them based on the way you feel about them....you create this negative image of them in your head and heart....or you pass that onto others....the negative opinion based on unbiblical thoughts.....or concepts....

We come to conclusions about others....often negative conclusions based on appearance.....and often times it’s because they look or carry themselves differently than us....and that’s what forms the negative Opinion.....

Effect of That Negative Opinion:

Can affect how others see that individual....influencing their view in a bad way...

Cloud our thinking when it comes to that person....like a rotten peach in the basket..it moves from peach to peach…and we will have a more difficult time interacting or thinking in a positive way about that person....

This happens all the time in our lives and in our churches....and we need to break this cycle of negative opinions of others...

It’s not Godly and it’s dangerous…

Sinful Judgement:

It happens this way…we know or see sin in someones life.....and we judge them…condemn them....we sentence them as guilty and in a personal way inflict s punishment on them.....ignore them…talk down to them....gossip with others about them.....

Instead of coming along side them as fellow believers....to help them....to encourage them....we throw them out with the trash....or treat them poorly because of their sin.....or perceived sin....instead of showing grace we throw tomatoes....we harden our hearts towards them.....

And often times we do it without knowing the entire story …or their entire background....we only see one perspective or one side of things....

These are the things that Jesus is talking about here in this first verse....Don’t do this....this isn’t what my people do....

These types of judgements tend to be unjust, rash and unloving.....in it’s very nature it is unfair...

Verse 2: Consequences

Basically if you do this to others, then it will happen to you.....

At some point in your life…you can expect other’s to do the same thing to you....you will be judged with equal harshness....

God will hold you to the same standard that you do with others....

And one of the ways you will be judged yourself is that once you get a reputation for being judgemental..people will slowly cease to have contact with you…they will shrink away....fearing they will be the next victims....your earthly relationships will be damaged....

The measure you give will be the measure you get...

It also says that there will be some kind of equal judgement from God himself on the final day.....

This is the warning.....don’t judge others because..... it will be revisited on you...

So we have the warning....then the results of the warning.....the consequences....

Verses 3 - 5: Woodworking

Jesus then takes another angle at this....he goes back to his wood working days......it’s like he takes us into his wood shop....

This is the reason we do this....this is the spiritual reasoning why we judge others…why we allow ourselves to judge others sins…and negative views of others....

Two types of wood used in this example...

Sawdust…or a splinter...

It’s small…think about a speck.....or sawdust....tiny…small....

Plank....or Log...

Used these for a main beam in construction…either the floor or roof....so it is significantly larger than the other...

Jesus isn’t saying that in every case the one Judging is a worse sinner because they have a plank instead of a speck...

The point is this…the things we find wrong with others is a very small matter compared with the sin that God sees in us.....

and it isn’t a small difference..it is significant.....basically he is stressing how funny it is that you can pick up a speck in your brothers eye but you don’t see the plank in yours…we see the imperfection....the small zit on other’s foreheads so easily but don’t see the patch of acne covering our faces....

Verse 4: And the issue grows deeper....

how can we offer to effectively help an individual when we have a deeper problem that we refuse to deal with.

and he relates this to hypocrisy…we are offering to help another person or point out their faults…but don’t even see the problem in our lives...

First Steps To Living It Out

Realize only God knows everything about that person

Resist making quick judgements

Remove the plank