Judge Not!

We’ve All Heard It!

Who are you to judge me?

Then someone will quote today’s passage.

Today I want to dig deeper into this passage and examine the topic that some would call the judging of another person.

This is important because we are told in Eph 4:15

Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Eph 4:15–16). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Are we to rule out ALL judging?

To answer that question, we need to think about three things from our passage in Matthew 7.

The Word - Judge

Krino, the word that is translated “judge” is used 6 times in Matthew. Most of the time when we think of the word, “Judge” there is a connotation of condemning and we see that sense in this passage but there is also they idea of fault-finding, condemnatory attitude which is too often combined with a blindness to one’s own faults.

The pot calling the kettle black or It takes one to know one or The nut didn’t fall to far tree. Having your ever heard those expression. Sometimes the reason that a person can see a fault in someone else is because the judging person has the same exact fault.

In today’s physiologic terms, we would say that person is projecting their faults and flaws onto someone else.

Jesus is telling us not to do that. It’s not right plus when you do judge someone and you do mean to condemn their actions while you are blind to our own faults you are not going to like the results. What will begin to happen is people will begin to judge you. People will began to condemn you and not forgive your or give you a second chance or third chance. You’re just done with you.

There is almost never any redemptive value in this type of judgement we are talking about either. They’re not looking to help you restore your relationship with Christ or to help you start a relationship with Christ. They are looking to one up you. They are wanting to see themselves as better than you.

That leads us to our next thing we need to look at in this passage and that is the context.

The Context

Context is important here. How do the translators know that Jesus was talking about people who judge other but are not looking to fix their own faults? The answer is the context.

Jesus goes on to asks his congregation on that hillside a question,

“Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

What do we learn from the context?

One, there really is something wrong

with our brothers and sisters in Christ. They really do have tiny slivers of wood in their spiritual eye. They have something they are not proud of in their past. The question is how are you going to treat them?

The second one;

there is something in our own eye.

We all have a fault or a more Biblical word would be a sin that we don’t want someone to know about. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.

The error is not in diagnosis, but in failure to apply the criticism that’s so meticulously applied to another.

Another thing I want to point out is that we do need to make decisions or judgments what we see going on in someone else’s life. That is how we hold each other accountable or as Wesley said, how we “watch over one another in love.” When you or I notice something in a brother or sister’s life that needs to be corrected and we say nothing, we are not loving them. Why? Because whatever is left uncorrected could lead to total destruction.

Let me tell you about a bridge that had a problem .

Bridge 9340

was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that opened in 1967. Bridge 9430 would become this state’s third busiest bridge with 140,000 vehicles crossing it daily. Then on a typical day in August during rush hour Bridge 9430, with a it’s small flaw ended up killing 13 people and injuring 145. The flaw? A gusset plate that ripped along a line of rivets because it was too thin. The 40 year old flaw and they additional weight on the bridge at the time contributed to its catastrophic failure. Bridge 9340 was better known as the I-35 bridge in downtown Minneapolis.

That one small flaw, that one small “sin”, if you will, not judged to be a flaw and not corrected would lead to the total destruction of the bridge. The bridge’s “life” ended that day along with 13 people.

If you and I make the seem mistake. If we allow a small fault, flaw, sin and we never correct it? Our life’s bridge will collapse and when we fall we might take 13 people with us. We might injure 145 people too?

You see It is nearly impossible to hold someone accountable without making some kind of judgement.

How Do We Help One Another?

So our aren’t destroyed? Well, Jesus tells us.

One: make sure you got your life together.

Does that mean you have to be perfect?

No, because none of us are but what we should do is look into our own lives. Do I have anything that I need to tend to? Is there sin in my life?

Two: Judgement Should Be Motivated by Redemption

When you inspect your life before you try to correct a brother or sister you will almost always find that you are more graceful, compassionate. You will come to the situation looking to help that person, to redeem the situation they are in, and to give them a second chance.

Do you have any logs in your eyes? God is the log removal business