S.O.T.M. Judge Not [Matthew 7:1-2]

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Matthew 7:1-6] We will read this whole section this morning but we’ll only really look at two words…Judge Not.

So we come now to the last major section of the sermon on the mount and there is some debate on the right way of approaching this last chapter. Some have regarded chapter 7 as a collection of maxims that has very little connection to the rest of the sermon. But it seems to me that is a clear misunderstanding of this section, because there is a very clear theme in this chapter, and that is of judgment. Judgment is a theme which constantly recurs in our Lord’s teachings.

It is not difficult to trace the connection between this section and the previous. Indeed, as we have seen repeatedly, it is very important that we should always regard the Sermon as a whole before we attempt a particular interpretation of any section, or any statement in a section. So it is good for us to review the whole again briefly.

First, at the beginning of the sermon, we have the beatitudes which are the description of the Christian, his character affects the way in which he lives and his reaction to that world.

Then he is reminded of his function in the world as the salt of the earth and as a light set for all to see, and so on.

Then, having described the Christian as he is and in his setting, our Lord goes on to give him particular instructions with regard to his life in this world.

He starts with his relationship to the law/the word of God. That was especially necessary because of the false teaching of the Pharisees and scribes. So the Christian is taught how he is to behave in general, how the law/word applies to him, and what is expected of him.

Having done that, in chapter 6 our Lord looks at this Christian who has been described, living his life in this world, and living it, especially, in fellowship with his Father. He has to remember always that the Father is looking upon him.

He has to remember this when he is in private and when he is deciding what good he is going to do—his giving, his prayer, his fasting, everything designed to bring about the growth and nurture and culture of his inner spiritual life and being. It has always to be done as realizing that the Father’s eye is upon him. There is no value or merit in it if we do not realize that; if we are out to please ourselves or to impress others we may as well do nothing.

Then our Lord shows us the danger of the impact of the life of this world upon us, the danger of worldliness, the danger of living for the things of this life and this world, whether we have too much or too little, and especially the subtlety of that danger.

Having dealt with all that He now comes to this final section. And here again He is enforcing the all-importance of our remembering that we are walking under the Father’s eye. The particular subject He handles is one which is mainly concerned with our relationship with other people; but still the important thing to realize is that our relationship to God is the fundamental matter. It is as if our Lord were saying that the final thing which matters is not what men think of us, but what God thinks of us. In other words, we are reminded all along that our life here is a journey and a pilgrimage, and that it is leading on to a final judgment, an ultimate assessment, and the determination and proclamation of our final and eternal destiny.

I think we’d agree that this is something of which we constantly need to be reminded. Half our troubles are due to the fact that we live on the assumption that this is the only life and the only world. Of course we know that is not true; but there is a great difference between knowing a thing and really being governed and guided by that knowledge in our ordinary life and outlook. If we were questioned and asked whether we believe that we go on living after death, and that we shall have to face God in judgment, we would undoubtedly say ‘yes’. But as we live from hour to hour are we mindful of that? We cannot read the Bible without coming to the conclusion that the thing that really differentiates God’s people from all others is that they have always been people who walk in the consciousness of their eternal destiny.

The natural man does not care about his eternal future; to him this is the only world. It is the only world he thinks about; he lives for it and it controls him. But the Christian should walk through this life aware that he is just passing through, he has a loose grip on this world. He should always know that he is walking in the presence of God, and that he is going on to meet God; and that thought should determine and control the whole of his life.

Our Lord goes to great lengths to show us here, as He was in the last section, that we ever need to be reminded of that, and that we need to be reminded of it in detail. We have to remember this fact in every part of our lives must be brought into that relationship. We are undergoing a process of judgment the whole time, because we are being prepared for the final judgment; and as Christian people we should do all things with that idea in our minds, remembering that we shall have to render an account.

That is the controlling theme of chapter 7. Our Lord handles it in different ways leading up to the picture of two houses…one built upon the rock the other built upon the sand. Representing two people listening to the same things; one puts them into practice and the other does not. Once again we are reminded of the greatness of this sermon on the mount. It’s profound, it’s searching, and in fact at times alarming.

Some have said, “I don’t like the theology and all this talk of doctrine, give me something practical, like the sermon on the mount…that I can do.” But when we truly look at this sermon, as we’ve been doing, we discover that there is nothing that condemns us more than the sermon on the mount does. There is nothing so utterly impossible to do than what is taught in the sermon on the mount.

In fact, if it were not that I knew of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, I would never look at the Sermon on the Mount, because it is a Sermon in which we all stand completely naked and altogether without hope. Far from being something practical that we can take up and put into practice, it is of all teaching the most impossible if we are left to ourselves, but we are not left to ourselves. This great Sermon is full of doctrine and leads to doctrine; it is a kind of prologue to all the doctrine of the New Testament.

And our Lord ends this great sermon with a consideration of how we as Christians are to walk in this world under a sense of judgment and that of judging one another.

Judge Not

Once again, our Lord uses the same method of teaching He has used throughout this sermon. He makes an announcement and then gives reasons for it. He lays down a principle and then gives reasons concerning that principle in logical detail. As I said earlier we’ll consider this leading statement before we move on into the explanations of it… judge not.

This statement often leads to a great deal of confusion. And is very easily misunderstood, and it can be misunderstood on two sides extreme from each other. One side, no assessment is made at all, the other side, final condemnation is passed out. So what exactly does our Lord mean by, ‘judge not’? There may not be a more important time to rightly understand this than now. Different periods of the church throughout history needed different emphases, I believe a right understanding of this statement is needed now more than ever.

The atmosphere in life today, especially that of religious circles, desperately needs a proper understanding of this statement. Here’s why, we are living in a day where we don’t define things as is [up is down, bad is good etc.], we live in a time with no time for theology, a time that doesn’t care to much about doctrine, it could be characterized as an age of love of ease and compromise…anything for the good life…an age of appeasement. And when a Christian stands for what the bible says, he’s dismissed as difficult and impossible and intolerable and judgmental.

There have been times in Church history where men were praised for standing on principle at all costs…but not so much today. Now the controlling attitude is just be a pleasant person, don’t cause a stink, don’t stand on any particular doctrine, and just be tolerant of everyone.

Some would even say that judge not must be taken simply and literally as it is, and as meaning that the Christian should never express an opinion about others. They say that there must be no judging whatsoever, that we must be easy, indulgent and tolerant, and allow almost anything for peace and quiet, and especially unity. This is not a time for these particular judgments, they say; what is needed today is unity and fellowship and would say that all who in any sense use the name Christian should be accepted. You might think, ‘well if they claim to be Christian shouldn’t we accept them???” Who am I to judge?

Well the answer to that is in the scripture we read today. Take the very context of this statement and you will surely see at once that that interpretation of ‘judge not’ is quite impossible. Look at verse 6, ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you’. How can I put that into practice if I do not exercise judgment? How do I know which kind of person can be described as a ‘dog’ in this way? In other words, the injunction that immediately follows this statement about judging at once calls upon me to exercise judgment and assessment.

Then again, take the more remote connection in verse 15: ‘Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.’ How is that to be taken? I cannot ‘beware of false prophets’ if I am not to think, and if I am so afraid of judging that I never make any assessment at all of their teaching. These people come ‘in sheep’s clothing’; they are very inviting and they use Christian terminology. They appear to be very harmless and honest and are invariably ‘very nice’. But, we are not to be taken in by that kind of thing—beware of such people. Our Lord also says, ‘Ye shall know them by their fruits’; but if I am not to have any standard or exercise judgment, how can I test the fruit and judge between the true and the false? So, without going any further, that cannot be the true interpretation which suggests that this just means being ‘free and easy’, and having an indulgent attitude towards anybody who vaguely uses the designation Christian. That is quite impossible.

You’ll also find the same teaching in regards to the Church as well. Judgment is to be exercised in the church or in church discipline. When was the last time you heard of church discipline put into practice? If you look at the history of Protestantism, history of the church especially after the reformation, the church has always been the place where the word is preached, the ordinances are administered, and discipline is exercised. Church discipline has always been a mark of the church. The prevailing attitude today is, “who are we to judge?”

This question of judging applies, also, in the matter of doctrine. Here is this question of false prophets/teachers to which our Lord calls attention. We are supposed to detect them and to avoid them. But that is impossible without a knowledge of doctrine, and the exercise of that knowledge in judgment. Paul writing to the Galatians says, ‘But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’ That is a clear pronouncement. Then you remember what the apostle has to say in 1 Corinthians 15 about those people who were denying the resurrection. He says the same thing in 2 Timothy 2 when he says that some deny the resurrection, saying it is past already, ‘of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus’; and he again expresses judgment with regard to that and exhorts Timothy to do so. In writing to Titus he says, ‘A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject.’ i.e. if they won’t repent of their heretical view reject them. How do you know whether a man is a heretic or not if your view is that, as long as a man calls himself a Christian, he must be a Christian, and you do not care what he believes, who am I to judge? I could give you many examples like this from scripture. The NT is filled with this.

What does judge not mean?

Surely our Lord’s emphasis is this. He is not telling us that we are not to make these assessments based on judgment, but He is very concerned about the matter of condemning. In trying to avoid this tendency to condemn, people have swung right over to the other extreme, and so again they are in a false position. The Christian life is not quite as easy as that. The Christian life is always one of balance. There is a great deal to be said for the point of view that to walk by faith means to walk on a knife edge. You can fall on this side or that; you have to keep on the dead center of truth, avoiding the error on the one side and on the other. So that while we say that it does not mean the refusal to exercise any thought or judgment, it does warn against is the terrible danger of condemning, of pronouncing judgment in a final sense.

The best way to illustrate this is to think of the Pharisees. In this Sermon on the Mount our Lord had the Pharisees in His mind most of the time. He was telling His own people to be very careful not to become like the Pharisees in their view of the law and in their way of living. They misinterpreted the law. They were boastful and demonstrative in their giving; they were flashy in their praying at the street corners and in making a show; and they announced that they were fasting. They were, at the same time, materialistic in their outlook with regard to the things of this world. Now our Lord has them in His mind at this particular point also. You remember the picture which He gives in Luke 18:9–14 of the Pharisee and the publican who both went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisee said, ‘God, I thank you, that I am not as other men … or even as this publican.’ It was that judging and condemning attitude of the Pharisees towards others that was so wrong.

But the New Testament makes it clear that that attitude was not confined to the Pharisees. It was something that constantly troubled the early Church; and it has been troubling the Church of God ever since. It is something that troubles the Church of God today, and as we approach this subject we should remember our Lord’s statement in this connection when He said: ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.’

I suppose there is nothing in the whole of the Sermon on the Mount that comes to us with such a sense of condemnation as this statement which we are studying....judge not. How guilty we all are in this respect! There is a tendency for this thing to spoil all our lives and to rob us of our happiness! What havoc it has made, and does make, in the Church of God! It is a word to every one of us; it is a painful subject, but a very necessary one. This Sermon of our Lord’s comes and speaks to us, and we ignore it it is to our harm. It is so important a subject that we must analyse it still further, though it is going to be painful. The way to treat a wound is not just to ignore it or to give it some superficial treatment; the right treatment is to probe it. It is painful, but it has to be done. If you want it to be cleansed and purified and healthy you have to probe the problem. Let us probe this wound so we may be cleansed.

What is this danger against which our Lord is warning us? What is this spirit that condemns? It is a self-righteous spirit. Self is always at the back of it, and it is always a manifestation of self-righteousness, a feeling of superiority, and a feeling that we are all right while others are not. That leads to a tendency to despise others, to regard them with contempt. I am not only describing the Pharisees, I am describing all who have the spirit of the Pharisee.

The self-righteous spirit also has a tendency to be hyper-critical as well. There is a big difference in being critical and hyper-critical…true criticism is a helpful thing, for constructive criticism seeks to improve and better that which it criticizes…but being hyper-critical delights and even finds enjoyment in finding fault. Take 1 Corinthians 13 “love hopes in all things” a hyper-critical spirit of judgment hopes for the worst, finds faults and is displeased when fault is not found. The result of this kind of spirit is it focuses on matters that don’t really matter at all. Paul addressed this issue in Romans 14 where people were caught up in the matters of food and drink and expressing judgment and condemnation on others. There are essential matters in regard to faith, and there are other matters which are secondary at best…the hyper-critical person elevates the secondary issues. What we are talking about is of course...

The spirit of judgment

So what does this spirit look like in practice? Here’s at least 5 of them.

The spirit of judgment is ready to give judgment when the matter is really of no concern at all. How much of our time do we spend in expressing our opinion about people who really have no direct dealings with us? We really have no interaction with them at all, but we experience a malicious pleasure in inserting our opinion on their lives. We really see this evident played out on social media. In the crude rude comments we see and post on peoples pages. That is part of the way in which it shows itself in practice.

Another manifestation of this spirit is that it puts prejudice in the place of principle. When I say prejudices I’m not talking about racial prejudice, I’m referring to our predetermined preference on whatever. For example in the church there is the worship wars over contemporary music verses traditional hymns, which is better? We all have what we prefer…that is our predetermined prejudice. It’s not a matter of principle it’s a matter of prejudice there. But if a man takes his own prejudices and puts them up as principles, he is guilty of this spirit of judgment. My music is better than your music based on principle…no that’s based on what you like. We’ll leave that there.

Another way in which it shows itself is in its tendency to put personalities in the place of principles. We all know how easy it is for a discussion to drift to persons or personalities and away from principles. It is true to say that people who object to doctrine are generally those who are most guilty of this. Because they do not have a grasp and understanding of doctrine they can talk only in terms of personalities; so the moment a man stands for principles or doctrine, they begin to say that he is a difficult/obstinate/hard-headed person. The person is thrust into the place where principle should come, and that, in turn, leads to the tendency to impute or assume motives. Because they cannot understand why another person stands for principles, motives are imputed to him and assumed; and to assume motives in someone is always a manifestation of this spirit of judgment.

Next, is to habitually express our opinion without a knowledge of all the facts. We have no right to pronounce any judgment without being aware of the facts, without going to the trouble of becoming acquainted with them. We should search for all the facts and then judge. To do otherwise is to be guilty of this Pharisaical spirit. This leads to not taking the trouble to understand the circumstances, never ready to excuse others, and doesn’t exercise mercy. Usually there is no need to hear all the facts…my mind is already made up.

The final one, which is of course the worst one… This spirit really manifests itself in the tendency to pronounce final judgment upon people as such. This means that it is not a judgment so much on what they do, or believe, or say, as upon the persons themselves. It is a final judgment upon an individual, and what makes it so terrible is that at that point it takes on that which belongs to God alone.

You remember how, when our Lord sent messengers into the villages of the Samaritans to make ready for His arrival, and they would not receive them, that James and John hearing this said: ‘Lord, will thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?’ That is it; they wanted to destroy those Samaritans. But our Lord turned and rebuked them and said, ‘You know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.’ They were guilty of forming and passing a final judgment on those people and proposing to destroy them.

There is all the difference in the world between doing that and expressing an enlightened, intelligent criticism of a man’s views and theories, his doctrine, his teaching or his mode or manner of life. We are called upon to do the latter; but the moment we condemn and dismiss the person we are assuming a power that belongs to God alone and to no-one else. Now…I know...

This is a painful subject, and so far we have looked only at the injunction. We have not yet considered the reason which our Lord adds to the injunction. We have just taken the two words, and I trust we shall always remember them. ‘Judge not’. As we do so let us thank God that we have a gospel which tells us that ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’, that not one of us stands in his own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ.

Without Him we are all utterly lost. We have condemned ourselves by judging others. But then God the Lord is our Judge, and He has provided a way where we may pass ‘from judgment unto life’. through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The exhortation is that we should live our lives in this world as people who have passed through the judgment ‘in Christ’, and who now live for Him and are being transformed to live like Him, realizing that we have been saved by His wondrous grace and mercy.