Sermon on the Mount 8
The tension of this text is unavoidable. From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 God issues one command after another. On top of those commands are prophetic evaluations of the sins of the people who failed to live responsibly within the terms of the covenant God had made with humans
It is likely that Bible readers, because they absorb God’s perspective in Bible reading, will become judges. In spite of the strong warnings in the Bible about not being judges, we often find ourselves judging others. So we need to hear what James 4:11–12 says to us:
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
James warns his readers that when they begin to judge (condemn) others, they are assuming the posture of God, not the posture of humans. In assuming that posture, they have usurped the role of God and begun to be the ones who determine what is right and wrong, and who is right and who is wrong.
John Wesley said this well: “The judging that Jesus condemns here is thinking about another person in a way that is contrary to love.”
But there is more here than a Jesus version of “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his sandals.” The Sermon on the Mount frames a kingdom ethic, an Ethic from Beyond.
Jesus closes with his kingdom alternative: take care of yourself first (7:5).
Jesus rendered strong moral judgment of others (Matt 6:1–18; 7:13–27) and that he compelled his disciples to know the difference between what is good and what is bad—in fact, the whole Sermon is just that.
Thus, judging others “is the forbidden evaluation of other persons. It corrodes simple love.”
“Do not condemn or you too will be condemned [by God at the judgment].” Without this nuanced difference between discernment and condemnation, we run the risk of (1) becoming mute on moral judgment or (2) missing the powerful warning about assuming we are God.
That posture leads us first to examine ourselves; only after we have duly inspected ourselves through the searching guidance of the Spirit of God, confessed our sins, and made peace with God, can we see the sins of others in such a way that we strive with them to live together in love, justice, and peace. So instead of caving into the proclivity to be gods, as was the case with humans from Adam and Eve to the Essenes and the Pharisees and to modern-day Christian critics, we are called to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Christians tend to be harder on fellow Christians than on others, and this can sometimes breed suspicion of one another and judgmentalism.
I take James as an example. Read James 3:1 through 4:12 and you will see a brother of Jesus who both calls sin sin and then calls us not to be judges.
Two recent studies have revealed that many don’t like the church or Christians because they perceive them as judgmental.
this is a simple prohibition of taking the gospel and the kingdom vision to the Gentile world until after the resurrection, the Great Commission, the ascension, and Pentecost, which unleashed the Gentile mission—a theme that unfolds in Matthew’s gospel.
Jesus is referring, not to official lawcourts, but to the judgments and condemnations that occur within ordinary lives, as people set themselves up as moral guardians and critics of one another.
the tendency of hard-line pressure-groups—which is what the Pharisees basically were—is always to create a moral climate in which everybody looks at everybody else to see if they are keeping their standards up.
In many countries, this kind of moral climate used to be maintained in relation to sexual morality. Often, today, the moralism is just as fierce, but the target has changed