Matthew 7:1-6
I knew my eyesight wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t realize how bad my vision was until I got my first pair of glasses as a teenager… and the first time I put those glasses on…I was stunned and amazed.
Everything was sharper…and clearer… and brighter and more beautiful as I could see the details of leaves on the trees and flowers.and I’m thinking “Is this how everyone else sees the world?”
And I kept tilting my glasses up and down to just compare the difference between my blurry unaided vision and what the world looked like with my vision corrected.
I knew my eyes wasn’t perfect… but I didn’t realize just how bad it was until my vision was fixed…I had gotten used to seeing the world in a certain way…and I thought I had seen better than I did… and I needed help to correct my vision to see the world rightly.
As we return to our series on Jesus’ sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7… we come to a text that is about sight…How we see God, ourselves and others. And how we can become overconfident in our perception of reality… in particular when it comes to moral judgments and evaluations about ourselves and others… and how our blurry spiritual vision can cause significant damage…
And Jesus comes along as the divine optometrist to help us.
Really in His whole sermon, Jesus is helping us to “see” the world rightly. Jesus has been speaking as the divine King who is establishing a Kingdom… And entrance into the kingdom is NOT by trying really hard to be really good…
Which ran contrary to what the religious teachers of Jesus’ day… the Scribes and Pharisees taught… they were focused on appearance…and impressing people with outward displays of piety…and under their teaching there was this pressure to live up to a certain standard and if you reached it you were commended and considered “good” and if you couldn’t you were judged and considered “bad.”
And this created a culture of comparison… where you could find people lower than you on the religious scale… which made it easy to look down on them while exalting yourself and believing you were a fit candidate for God’s Kingdom.
But from the first words of His sermon, Jesus explodes that attitude… He doesn’t say “blessed are the super religious rule keepers.” He says “blessed are the poor in spirit.”…the ones who recognize their sinfulness .the ones who stop trying to cover up their sins with religious acts…and who instead by faith cast themselves on the mercy of the King to forgive and save them… blessed are these. For THEIRS is the Kingdom…
And for the rest of His sermon Jesus helps us to see what life is like for a true Kingdom Person…
In chapter 5 He says it’s a life that exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. While they only cared about the outward appearance of obedience, Kingdom People care about sincerely loving and obeying God inwardly…from the heart.
In chapter 6 Jesus instructs us on right heart attitudes about our acts of giving, fasting, and praying…as well as money and possessions and our anxiety… and how a right view of God helps us in all of those areas.
And as we move into chapter 7, Jesus now helps us to have a right view on relationships in God’s Kingdom and he begins this section with what may well be the most popular verse in our culture today… actually it’s really the first two words of the verse that people REALLY gravitate towards…
I came across a funny post recently that showed how most people read Matthew chapter 7.
(Show picture)
People may not know the rest of the Bible but they sure know that part don’t they? “Judge Not.”
That’s America’s verse! As our culture has become awash in relativistic thinking… what’s true for you may not be true for me. You need chart your own way and own your own truth. And the great sin in America today is to judge someone’s lifestyle…
“Don’t tell me that my lifestyle and choices are wrong… you’re supposed to be a Christian and you know what the Bible says…”judge not..” So back off!
But the immediate context of our passage shows us that, contrary to the popular interpretation of that verse, Jesus is not making an absolute prohibition on all judging… for example, in verse 6 He warns us about people whom he calls dogs and pigs…
In the Jewish world dogs were wild dangerous scavengers and pigs were disgusting and unclean and the law forbid the Jews from eating them…
And here they represent people who are so belligerently antagonistic towards the gospel that it would be counterproductive and even wastefully reckless to provoke them by repeatedly preaching at them.
But for us to even heed Jesus’ warning we actually have to make some sort of judgment in order to determine who falls in the category of pigs and dogs…
In verses 15-20… Jesus will warn us about false prophets and that we can know them by their fruits…by their life and teaching… this requires some sort of critical evaluation and judgment on our part.
In fact virtually the entire sermon on the mount assumes that we will need to use our discernment in making ethical judgments. Indeed in John 7:24 Jesus actually tells us TO judge… with right judgment. So there is a kind of judgment that is good.
And so when Jesus says “judge not” He is not, as Don Carson notes, commanding us to be “amorphous, undiscerning blobs who never hold any opinions about right and wrong”
Instead, Jesus is warning us against a harsh, hyper critical, and hypocritical judgmentalism…
Do not be judgmental…
Now, it’s interesting that Jesus waits until near the end of his sermon to give us this warning… it’s as if, He knows that after giving us lots of exhortation about pursuing a righteousness that exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees…we can actually fall into the trap of becoming like them.
Don Carson puts it this way,
“It is easy to see how powerful…the temptation to be judgmental can be. The challenge to be holy has been taken seriously, and a fair degree of discipline, service and formal obedience have been painstakingly won.
Now, I tell myself, I can afford to look down my long nose at my less disciplined peers and colleagues. Or perhaps I have actually experienced a generous measure of God’s grace, but somehow I have misconstrued it and come to think that I have earned it.
As a result, I may look askance at those whose vision, in my view, is not as large as my own’; whose faith is not as stable; whose grasp of the deep truths of God not as masterful; whose service record is not as impressive (in men’s eyes, at least): whose efforts have not been as substantial. These people are diminished in my eyes; I consider their value as people inferior to my own value.”
The judgmental person is a negative fault finder who is destructive towards others… he assumes the worst about someone and puts the worst possible spin on the situation… And he may even delight in seeking out and exposing the failures of others.
He criticizes not out of a genuine concern over sin… it’s instead a means of making himself feel better about himself by comparing himself to someone he believes is worse…in this sense it provides cover for his own sin.
In Luke 18 Jesus illustrates this attitude very powerfully where we read that.
[9] He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: [10] “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ [14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Luke 18:9–14)
Do you see what’s going on there? This religious guy is tearing down someone he deems worse than him.while simultaneously lifting himself up… notice verse 9 says Jesus is telling this story to those who trusted in themselves and treated others with contempt.
They had an overinflated view of their own goodness and a hypercritical myopic focus on the faults of others.
Now…I want to be honest and up front with you…It’s challenging for me to preach this sermon. And it’s going to be challenging for you to hear this sermon…because it is easy to think we don’t have this problem.
In prior chapters Jesus has been confronting us about lust and adultery and anger and anxiety and many of us have humbly said “Yeah… that’s me… this is my struggle big time. God have mercy on me a sinner…”
But how many of us came to this section on judging with glazed eyes and a yawn because hey I may have my own problems but at least I’m not like this.
“I’m surely not like that Pharisee guy…and thank God!” Now I hope you see the irony there?
Friend, can we just admit we all have a tendency to be this way?
We all tend to apply ethical standards to everyone else with a greater degree of fervency than to ourselves. Don’t tell me you’ve never sat through a sermon thinking “Man…I really wish so and so were here so they can hear the preacher…they really need this..”
How many times have husbands come to me for pastoral counseling complaining about their wives…preferring to quote Paul’s instructions for how their wives should their husbands while conveniently skipping what he has to say to the men?
How many times have I myself focused on verses about children needing to obey their parents at the expense of verses that command me not to exasperate, be harsh, or discourage my kids?
So the challenge is to hear this message first and foremost for YOU… not the person sitting next to you…not your spouse, parents or kids… but YOU. And in case you’re wondering yes I will be applying it to me…but stop worrying about me and think about you :). That’s the challenge.
Now, our brand of judgmentalism may not be as crass and over the top as that Pharisee in Luke 16. Sometimes it’s more subtle… and sometimes our judgmentalism isn’t even over someone’s sin…
Very often the warfare that splits churches and wrecks homes is a harsh, uncharitable judgementalism not over matters essential to the Christian faith but over matters of preference, opinions, secondary disputable matters…where we begin to view ourselves as more righteous and mature than other Christians because we have the “right” view.
And so we may encounter a Christian who has a different opinion than us on certain political issues… Well they support THAT political candidate…I can’t believe it! And we automatically dismiss them and judge them harshly…
I’ve seen Christians go to war over homeschooling verses public schooling… judging one another and eyeing one another with suspicion in regard to their spirituality…
While there are certain essential theological positions that we all must agree on to be Christians… there are many other theological issues where good Christians can disagree… but we look down on them or even ostracize them because of their different view…
Maybe we have certain lifestyle convictions on what do about Halloween or certain entertainment options or whether or not we observe certain religious holidays… Friends Christians butt heads and judge one another over these kinds of things all the time. And sadly fail to extend charity to those who see things different than them.
These aren’t problems new to Christianity…in the 1st century the apostle Paul had to help a church work through similar challenges and he tells them to not quarrel over opinions…He says don’t despise the other Christian for God has welcomed him… and then he says,
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls.
(Romans 14:4)
You’re not their master, God is… so don’t look down in a judgmental way on those with whom you disagree… these are your brothers and sisters in Christ and you need to welcome them as God has welcomed them.
Sadly, this kind of harsh judmentalism that tears down is all to common in churches today. There are people in this room who have wounds and scars from horrible experiences in church life. Where you have been wrongly treated and misunderstood and unfairly judged…
If that is you I want to tell you that I am so sorry… And I am so glad you are here and haven’t given up on the church that is full of imperfect people… and I want to encourage you to prayerfully seek out safe, godly, mature Christians that have a track record of not being “judgy” so that they might invest in you and help you to heal.
Know that God sees you, and grieves with you and there will be accountability towards those who have mistreated you…in fact that’s where Jesus goes next… as he urges us to…
Beware of judgment from God
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1–2)
Now we need to stop and consider what this means. Jesus can’t mean that the erring Christian might go to Hell. The Bible is clear that there IS no condemnation for those who are in Christ…
On the other hand, the Bible does teach that we are accountable to God for how we live. When Jesus is warning you about judgment He’s not warning you about Hell… so what does He mean?
He could be referring to God’s chastening… Just like a loving, caring parent will provide appropriate discipline to his kids to help them get back on the right path, so God disciplines His sons and daughters… as Hebrews 12:10 says…
…he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
(Hebrews 12:10-11)
And so if you are harsh in your judgment of others God may bring a heavy hand of discipline on you not because He is mean…but to wake you up…to get your attention.
To bring you back to the path of holiness… to greater conformity to the image of Christ… and He can discipline us in all kinds of ways and circumstances…could be through a difficult trial… could be through bringing judgmental people into YOUR life who are hard on YOU so you might learn from that… could be a whole host of things that God might do according to His wisdom and what He deems is best.
The apostle Paul likewise warns Christians of God’s Fatherly discipline…
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
(1 Corinthians 11:32)
That’s a fascinating verse… the kind of judgment that a Christian might endure isn’t the judgement of Hell… it instead protects us from Hell.because it alerts the Christian to sin in his life that needs to be dealt with and it puts him back on the proper path…
Jesus’ warning that judgmental people will be judged could also be referring to a judgement beyond this life… when we stand before God… I want to go back to Romans 14 where Paul was warning the Christians to stop judging one another over opinions… look at what Paul says…
Why do you pass judgment on your brother?…why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;… So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
(Romans 14:10–12)
In 2 For 5:10 he writes that
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body
(2 Cor 5:10)
Now this isn’t salvation by works…These verses address people who are already saved by grace through faith… instead as one writer put it… this judgement
“this is not to determine our eternal destiny.it is a judgment which is going to affect our eternal destiny, not by determining whether it is heaven or hell, but by deciding what happens to us in the realm of glory.”
Jesus himself speaks of rewards that believers will enjoy in the age to come which correspond to how we live our lives in this present age.
And so Jesus wants us to realize that our engagement with fellow Christians isn’t just a horizontal affair…between us and the other person… God is present too… He is watching…and evaluating… and yes, He is judging.
How differently might you treat a fellow Christian if you knew that at any moment God might walk through the door right in the middle of what you’re doing?
Now…that’s not just an illustration…but a present reality… James writes,
Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
(James 5:9)
Jesus is present. And His return is imminent. and we cannot escape His gaze… and may our desire not just to avoid judgment but to please Christ change how we deal with other Christians…
But when Jesus says in verse 2
“with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
it’s not just a warning about God’s judgment… it’s also an encouragement to show generosity… because if the measure you use will be measured to you… then you want to deal with people the way that you would want God and others to deal with you…
With mercy…with patience… with generosity… with understanding…with gentleness…and assuming the best.
Because Jesus wants create a Kingdom Culture that is different than the culture of this world… the culture of the world is full of accusations and finger pointing and impatience and harsh judging… Jesus wants the church…God’s people. to be known as having extreme charity…
Because that is exactly how God has dealt with you…
And the heart that has tasted and drunk deeply from the wells of God's grace and forgiveness will always be restrained in its judgment of others.
if you are a Christian that struggles with judgmentalism it means that you still struggle to grasp the measure of God’s grace and kindness towards you… and perhaps you need to go back to the well…go back to the scriptures…to God’s character and promises…refresh yourself again as you drink deeply again from the well of the gospel…
That is meant to be the foundation from which we build relationships with one another… the Apostle Paul urges you Main Street Church to…
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
(Ephesians 4:32-5:1)
And so Kingdom People are meant to conform to the image and character of our king… which leads to Jesus' next exhortation and that is to
Avoid hypocrisy and judge rightly
Now, if our issue with someone isn’t over a sin then we need to repent of our judgmental spirit. But what if there’s a sin…a genuine fault we see in a brother or sister in Christ? What do we do then? Well first we really need to judge ourselves.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
(Matthew 7:3–4)
Throughout the Sermon on the Mount we’ve seen how Jesus likes to use humor to make it a point… and he’s doing it again. We’re probably so familiar with these verses that it goes over our heads… but I can imagine a chuckle rippling through His audience as Jesus says this.
It’s hilarious…it’s a cartoonish. and He may be drawing this image from his own life as a carpenter… imagine a guy who has a little speck of sawdust in his eye… If you’ve ever gotten even the tiniest thing in your eye you know it’s very troublesome and you need to get it out.
Well the speck represents someone else’s fault that you notice… and you’re very concerned about it. And you really want to help this person deal with it… and you’re approaching him to take care of this tiny little speck… while you’ve got a log protruding from your own eye…
that word for log in the original language is the same word used of the main beam in a house… it’s also used to describe a battering ram.
And in verse 5 Jesus calls such a person a hypocrite… Jesus uses this word to describe the Pharisees who saw themselves as super righteous… and yet inside they were full of all kinds of evil desires…
John Stott’s comments are very helpful here…
The picture of somebody struggling with the delicate operation of removing a speck of dirt from a friend’s eye, while a vast plank in his own eye entirely obscures his vision, is ludicrous in the extreme. Yet when the caricature is transferred to ourselves and our ridiculous fault-finding, we do not always appreciate the joke. We have a fatal tendency to exaggerate the faults of others and minimize the gravity of our own.
…we have a rosy view of ourselves and a jaundiced view of others. Indeed, what we are often doing is seeing our own faults in others and judging them vicariously. That way, we experience the pleasure of self-righteousness without the pain of penitence.
Now there is a tremendous example of how hypocrisy blinds us in 2 Samuel chapter 12… King David had fallen into horrible sin… he committed adultery and got the woman pregnant, and then had the woman’s husband murdered and then he married her in an attempt to cover everything up… and we have every reason to believe this cover up went on for months.
As David just goes about his regular duties as God’s holy, anointed king… serving and representing God…that would be the image he’s projecting to everyone else… until one day, he is confronted…
[1] And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. [2] The rich man had very many flocks and herds, [3] but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. [4] Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” [5] Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, [6] and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
[7] Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”
(2 Samuel 12:1–7)
Do you see how blinding hypocrisy is?… David’s anger burns against another man’s speck and he brings down the harsh hammer of judgment… the death sentence… and yet all the while David is guilty of grotesque heinous sins that God’s very law said should bring about the death penalty.
If David, who was man after God’s own heart, can have such a catastrophic fall… we should not presume that we are beyond such things…
I can preach on pride and be prideful about it… I have yelled at my kids about how they shouldn’t yell… I have told people how they need to be respectful in a disrespectful way… there have been so many times one could rightfully come to me and say “Demer…YOU are the man…”
As the 19th century Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne said, “The seed of every sin known to man is in my heart.”
Now the judgmental person is not only a hypocrite, he’s also harming the person he’s supposedly trying to help.
Working on someone’s eye takes a lot care… and finesse… and patience and gentleness…
But in Jesus’ scenario what’s happening?… it’s like you’re coming up to this person say “Hey let me get that little thing out of your eye” and you’re trying to get close to them with this battering ram sticking out and every time you turn this way or that you’re beating the poor guy upside the head!
Now again as we’re listening to this we have to stop thinking about our neighbor and applying this to us… WE do this. we assume the worst about others… we don’t give the other the benefit of the doubt… we don’t believe the best…we’re quick to assume the worst…
When a married couple is in conflict the easy part is to identity the other person as the problem… and when you tell you’re spouse that they are the problem how does your spouse respond? Does your spouse say “Oh you are so right…please do ocular surgery on me and remove what you see?” No your spouse says “are you crazy? the problem is actually YOU!”
And so what do you have? You have two people bludgeoning each other with their telephone poles and when the other gets whacked that reinforces to them that the other person is at fault.
So what does a genuinely concerned, speck finding Christian do?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
(Matthew 7:5)
Now here’s the surprising twist… Jesus doesn’t say you shouldn’t help your brother because you shouldn’t judge at all… no…the assumption is that your fellow christian actually does need help… and you need to help them.
And the prerequisite to you helping them isn’t that you need to be perfect…that’s never going to happen. All it takes is for you to get the battering ram out of your own eye… which simply means humbling yourself… and acknowledging to God that you need help…and you have significant sin in your own life…and that you are no better than the other person.
And the only reason you have God’s favor at all in your life is not because you’re so awesome but because He has been so gracious to you in your sin.
So come out of shadows and stop trying to paint over your sin with a fake high and mighty righteousness and cry out with the tax collector have mercy on me oh God a sinner!
And then…you will have clearer vision… you will see yourself rightly…it’s not that you’re minimizing the other person’s sin or sweeping it under the rug… but when you have clearer vision you can genuinely say “I’m no better than my brother or sister…” Indeed when you can say with the apostle Paul I am the chief of sinners…
Then you are ready… then you can really be gracious with your brother or sister and lovingly and compassionately help them with their speck.
Do you think that that approach will change the way you handle conflicts in your marriage? With your kids or parents? Or inside the church?
What would happen this week in every moment of conflict…before you go on the warpath you examine yourself first. And you pray “Lord I don’t trust the way I perceive this right now”
Normally we are way too confident in our own unaided vision… suspicious of everybody while seeing ourselves as the good guys… and I would do well to flip the script and first be suspicious of my prideful, judgmental heart.
And treat that person with the measure I want given to me. Log removal is not about perfection… it’s about honest humility and heart that wants change for yourself… as much as you want the other person to change.
And when the log is gone do you think then you’ll be a kinder, gentler speck remover. That’s what Galatians 6 is all about…
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
(Galatians 6:1)
Jesus in Matthew 7 not only is condemning our judgmentalism… He is teaching us that we in the church actually do have a responsibility to help our brothers and sisters in Christ. To press in to one another’s lives… our sanctification…our growth in Christ… is a community project…
But we will never effectively help one another if our relationships, our homes, our church, is awash in a spirit of hyper critical, hypocritical judgmentalism… because our relationships won’t be safe places for us to be real…to fail… to confess… because we’ll all be so afraid of bludgeoning one another with our battering rams that there’s no way we’ll be real with anyone. And that leads to a church that is shallow, immature, and ineffective.
Let’s remember that Jesus seeks to build a kingdom…a new society… a people different than the world that will stand out in the world because we’re different from the world… a shining city on a hill… that others may see and give glory to God.
Jesus didn’t say the world will know you are my disciples by you judging one another… He said they will know we are His by our love for one another.
Now… let’s be honest… even the best of Christians fail here… and so we should leave here today feeling convicted but not depressed… because we have a God that is not like you and me but is exceeding in His generosity…
While the harsh hypercritical judge does not provide hope but immediately drops the hammer on those who offend him… God is not like us…while we deserve the harshest penalty for how we have offended God with our sin… Jesus came and let the hammer of justice fall on Him instead of us.
He took upon Himself the sins of His people… our sins of hypocrisy…and judgementalism… and all the other ways we have violated the sermon on the mount… and those sins were punished in Him as our substitute… His death on the cross paid the price for our sins and His resurrection proved that the Father gladly received that payment…
The heart of God is not to gleefully condemn, but to eagerly save…
That’s why after Nathan confronted David.. and David put away his self righteousness and humbled himself and confessed his sin… Nathan turned to David and said…
And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.
(2 Sam 12:13)
That’s amazing grace. And that kind of grace is available to you…
And so all who by faith, humble themselves, seeking to turn from their sins and trust in what Christ has done will find not judgment, but mercy. And as we have received that mercy let us now turn to our brothers and our sisters and extend the same kind of grace and love and kindness to them.that the world may know that we are His.
Let’s pray…
Matthew 7:1-6 Review Questions
1) Many in our culture interpret Jesus’ teaching, “Judge not” as a prohibition on making any kind of moral judgment on anything or anyone. Why isn’t this the case? Can you think of Bible verses that actually permit and even command Christians to “judge” in a certain kind of way?
2). Jesus warns that judgmental people will be judged. Will Christians actually be judged? What does Jesus mean by this?
3) What’s the problem with trying to help a Christian in sin while you have a log in your own eye? Why does Jesus illustrate our own sin as a log and our brother’s as a speck?
4) What does it look like practically to “remove the log” from your own eye?
Matthew 7:1-6 Application Questions
1) Have you ever felt judged by other Christians? How did that affect you?
2) Have you ever been judgmental towards other Christians? Why? What are the kinds of things that tempt you to judge others?
3) How often do you consider that God’s eye is on you and He will hold you accountable in regard to how you engage with other Christians?
4) Do you see it as your responsibility and calling to help other Christians with their “specks?” Why might we be shy to live up to this calling?
5) Have you found the church to be a safe place for Christians to be authentic with one another in their struggle against sin? How can you help Main Street cultivate a culture of safe authenticity?
6) Were there specific ways this passage convicted, encouraged, or challenged you?
