To Judge or Not to Judge

Review

Lesson 1 - “Tudes” Matthew 5:1-16

Lesson 2 - Jesus The Law & Prophets: Matthew 5:17-48

Lesson 3 - Disciples Devotion: Prayer Matthew 6:5-15

Lesson 4 - Kingdom Living: Matthew 6:1-4; 16-34

Introduction

I have titled today’s lesson To Judge or Not to Judge that in fact is the very first word Jesus uses when he opens this section.

The Sermon on the Mount only takes about ten minutes to read but I wonder how long it took him to teach - perhaps they split some of the sections up with a meal or a snack in between.

There’s a poem about snacks and juging I want to share briefly

The Cookie Thief

A woman was waiting at an airport one night. With several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shop, Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see, That the man beside her, as bold as could be, Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between, Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock, As the gutsy “cookie thief!” diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye!”

With each cookie she took, he took one, too. When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do. With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, “Oh brother, This guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude, Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!”

She had never known when she had been so galled, And sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, Refusing to look back at the “thieving ingrate.”

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, Then sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise. There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes!

“If mine are here,” she moaned with despair, “Then the others were his and he tried to share!” Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief! Source Unknown

Jesus begins this passage with a very serious command and explanation in these first seven verses lets read about it.

Matthew 7:1–7 KJV 1900

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. 6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

I want to look a little at this first word in our passage - what does it mean to judge?

To judge can mean 1 of three things

To condemn or pass verdict on

To execute punishment on

To evaluate (This seems to be what Jesus is talking about here) The lady with the bag of cookies evaluated her neighbor as selfish rude and irritating.

James Smith in his Good and Beautiful Life book gives an interesting look at the difference between evaluating and judging. I thought this was so good and helpful

He begins by asserting that “Assessing other’s behavior is a necessary part of life.” He goes on and says, “Assessing, evaluating and even grading someone’s performance is not the same as judging.” “Judging,” he says, “is making a negative evaluation of others without standing in solidarity with them.” He explains this like this, “When we judge others we are criticizing them, but not as a caring firend who wants to help. After we critically assess their behavior or character, we walk away.”

A friend is going to say - blank is wrong in your life, The Bible is plain about this see here, and here, can I pray with you or help you in anyway with this. I’m going to be right here with you.

A judger is going to say, if they even say it to the person and not behind their back, “Man you are so wrong, you might not even be saved anymore, you got to straighten this up right now or you’re going straight to hell. Bye”

Thats going to accomplish a lot isn’t it.

Smith goes on to say there are two primary reasons we judge others 1. To fix people or 2. To feel better about ourselves.

My Utmost for His Highest June 17th—The Uncritical Temper

There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17–20 ). Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man’s case about which we know nothing

We have a very serious problem in our culture today and that is a refusal to believe anything is wrong.

I was struck by the passage Bro. Lieb read yesterday morning in his sermon

2 Timothy 3:13 (KJV 1900)

13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

One of the most common phrases you hear today is, “Don’t judge me!”

I just want to go on record here today and explain there is a difference between “judging” and “rebuking, exhorting, and reproofing with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

There is a difference in knowing the Bible says something is wrong and judging someone.

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount To Judge or Not to Judge: An Important Question 7:1-6

Jesus distinguishes between acts of judgment and an attitude of judgmentalism. God’s people are certainly called by the Lord to call sin, sin. We are certainly called by God to discern good from evil, right from wrong, and good fruit from bad fruit (7:17). What we are not called to do is judge people’s motives or look down on people with a self-righteous, judgmental spirit.

But there is always a danger in evaluating the moral life of someone else and that is not being in the right spiritual frame of mind to help them.

Jesus illustrates it with a mote and a beam.

This would be like a piece of sawdust and a 2x4

I remember several years ago when Tim and Lisa my brother and his family were pastoring in Elsberry, MO and we were working on the parsonage. I was helping someone hold a piece of drywall up while someone esle was attaching it. As I stood there someof the drywall fell right into my eye - it was almost impossible to see it became so irritated I had to take a short break from work. I couldn’t see to help finally I was able to get to a mirror and sink of water and wash it out.

In that day they didn’t have mirrors so if you got a speck in your eye you would have to ask your friend your helper to look at it and get the speck out of your eye.

Can you imagine them turning to help you only to knock you out with the 2x4 in their eye?

Jesus is using some exaggerated scenarios to get across a very important truth -

Now I want us to get some very important truths Jesus says about Kingdom Dwellers - those who are in Christ those who are saved

If you judge others be prepared to be judged in return.

It is not wrong to see wrong in your brother and want to help

It is wrong to try to fix your brother with you have something serious that needs fixed in yourself. (Jesus uses the term “hypocrite”)

It is important to make sure your are in a proper place spiritually before you attempt to fix your fellow man. When you get rid of your problem I like how it says, “then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” - You know sometimes spiritual trouble when properly overcome cand provide some of the best teaching and helping material there is.

Jesus teaches that our spiritual welfare can be helped by others and that we can and should invite help. We should be ready to help but not with a 2x4 in our eye.

I think we should also look seriously at something before we go on

Matthew 7:2 KJV 1900

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

My Utmost for His Highest June 22nd—The Undeviating Test

This statement is not a haphazard guess, it is an eternal law of God. Whatever judgment you give, it is measured to you again. There is a difference between retaliation and retribution. Jesus says that the basis of life is retribution—“with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” If you have been shrewd in finding out the defects in others, remember that will be exactly the measure given to you.

Someone shared an interesting perspective on this idea of a mote and a beam, (James Bryant Smith)...

tThis 2x4 or beam is often thought to be sinfulness in the one who has it or a bigger problem than the one they are dealing with. This could be - but this person said perhaps.. but is getting sin out of our lives or fixing our problems suddenly put us in a position to go around straightening everybody elese out - No I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about at all. They make the claim that the 2x4 isn’t sin or a problem but the idea of judging itself.

In reality I think they are right -I have never seen someone bent on setting everybody striaght actually set anybody straight - thy are normally a trouble maker or strife maker.

Preachers we have to especially be careful of this - our job is not to set everybody striaght as much as we would like to do that sometimes - it’s to present and expound the Word of God

In our attempting to help others with showing them the “right way” we must use great caution, care, and compassion

Exalting Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount To Judge or Not to Judge: An Important Question 7:1-6

Sinclair Ferguson says it perfectly:

The heart that has tasted the Lord’s grace and forgiveness will always be restrained in its judgment of others. It has seen itself deserving judgment and condemnation before the Lord and yet, instead of experiencing his burning anger, has tasted his infinite mercy. (Sermon, 153)

Then Jesus says something that has boggled me for years the next few verses.

Now Jesus has just warned us about the dangers of judging and then he tells us to judge (or at least how I have always interpreted it)

Stott and Carson say that this passage is not about judging perse but more about using discernment or knowing who is ready for what truth

Lets read it then we will talk about it. ..

Matthew 7:6 KJV 1900

6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Now my problem is how do you determine who are dogs and who are swine? Isn’t that judging? Well some might call it discernment....

It could be and I may still use it that way someday - but I wonder if Jesus isn’t continuing his warning of judging

It’s not the idea of “not wasting our time on people who are unworthy of our ideas” but rather understanding what people can digest.

Dogs were considered an unclean animale by the law of Moses so you wouldn’t give him something holy he couldn’t handle it.

Pigs don’t digest pearls - in fact if a farmer went several days and fed his pigs only pearls thats expensive feed - the pigs can’t digest it its not going to fill them up and they are going to turn to what they can digest - the farmer

Pigs can’t digest pearls and people can’t digest being condemned or judged.

I believe Jesus is trying to say that Kingdom Dwellers aren’t opposed to evaluationg and assesing but our approach to this is so different from the world. A good tongue lashing is not a Biblical or Kingdom Dweller’s approach.

Now it almost sounds like Jesus switches topics in this next section Matthew 7:7-11 But I would submit to you that this passage in the Sermon on the MOunt is a continuation from the previous passage. Now it differes from Luke 11 in that Jesus isn’t teaching so much about prayer as he is how to help others instead of being critical and judging and isn’t it interesting that Jesus begins with prayer

Matthew 7:7–11 KJV 1900

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

This is an excellent passage to go to on prayer and LUke 11 expands on it even further

When we pray about the things that concern or burden us in others and begin asking it does something for us:

The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ Ask

Prayer is a wonderful gift from God that helps us in at least three ways. First and foremost, we are inviting God into the situation. We are not alone, but are colaboring with God in an effort to help others. Second, we begin to feel more compassion and less criticism. Third, we have the wisdom of God available to us. God can provide guidance and perspectives that we do not have on our own

Seeking and knocking are words of persistance. Persistent in prayers and persistant in communicting to the other person that we are standing with them. (The judging we are not to do is to stand at a distance and thrown grenades at them… Kingdom dwellers say no I’m going to walkright along beside you in this.”

Persistent prayer is not a lack of or even a sign that you lack faith but rather a show of love and commitment.

This section ends with one of the most famously quoted although often misqouted versess

Matthew 7:12 KJV 1900

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

The Golden Rule - This is LOVE IN IT’S TWEETABLE FORM a condensed simple statement that love would never do anything to anyone else that I wouldn’t want doen to me

I don’t like being rebuked or tounge lashed publicly - I don’t need to do that to others

I don’t want someone just trying to set me straight I don’t need to do that to others

I do want someone to love me enought to care when I am doing wrong to help me see and help me change I want to do that for others.

Kingdom Dwellers are so counter culture but its the way to the blessed life and the righteous life

I want to end by reading this poem prayer I got from Dr. Ben Witherington

Take me to the just side of justice and the right side of righteousness,

not the vindictive side of vindication for otherwise, I do not wish to go

lead me to the passionate side of compassion and the gracious side of Grace,

not the condescending side of Mercy. For otherwise, I have remained remote for pity's sake.

Push me past the truancy of trouble. And the pleasant side of pain, not allowing me to wallow in it. Lest I Marvel at my martyrdom,

carry me to the service side of serving and the sacrificial side of sacrifice.

Not the calculating side of caring for otherwise, my generosity remains too Frugal,

put me outside my selfish Eden and beyond my creature comforts without Raising Cane in my life.

For I desire to be a remarkable, Not A Marked, Man.

Fill me with an in indistinguishable blaze a Peerless and fearless love, not a faltering, Flame, or a fumbling forgiveness.

For I desire to be christened with real christlikeness. May the Spirit make me spiritual and the Son shine in my life.

And the Father find me faithful lest I missed the Kingdom's goal and all God's people said, amen.

Tomorrow our last lesson in the Sermon on the MOunt we will talk about Wisdom and Folly Personified.