Last night we continued our study of the Sermon on the Mount, looking at Matthew 7:1-5 and Jesus’ teaching on judging others. Here are the notes:
Matthew 7:1-6 // 6.8.15 // All about judging
7:1-2
Here Jesus teaches his followers to think about their own judgment first, and to keep it on their minds whenever they make judgment calls about other people. See also James 2:8-13.
To those who aren’t Jesus’ followers yet, these verses continue the message of 4:17 (“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”) by instructing the world to repent in this way: The kingdom of heaven is coming–in response, stop ignoring the fact that all human activity will face the scrutiny of the final judgment, where everything about each person will be evaluated by none other than God himself.
7:3-4
Jesus clarifies the issue here by giving us more information. When he says, “judge not,” he’s talking about avoiding the kind of mentality that notices small flaws in others, while ignoring big flaws in ourselves. He’s teaching his followers not to try to address issues in other peoples’ lives when their own lives still needs addressing, especially if the basic issue is the same for both people.
To those who aren’t Jesus’ followers yet, these verses continue the message of 4:17 like this: The kingdom of heaven is coming–in response, stop passing judgment on others when the same issues are in your lives, or would be, if you had the opportunity and didn’t have to worry about consequences. Stop moralizing to everyone while you have the same issues raging in your lives. These things aren’t just for those who identify themselves as followers of Christ, they are a call to our culture–to all those who do not follow Christ, and yet who do have this issue of “judgmentalism” in their lives.
7:5
This verse is interesting, because here we see that Jesus doesn’t think it’s wrong to notice things that are wrong with other’s lives, if our own lives are clean, and we want to help. So he says, if you see things wrong with other people and with the world, the first thing to do is to have a life that is free from evil and harmful things, especially the evil you want to fix. Having sin in our own lives messes up our vision, and then we can’t help anything. If we get rid of those things from our lives (if we repent) we’ll have clear vision and we’ll actually be able to help people. (By the way, if you think about it, if someone actually has a speck in their eye, it’s incredibly painful, and it would be a loving thing to help someone get it out if they needed it.)
Putting it all together:
1. “Not judging” does not mean “not telling people they’re wrong.”
It’s not wrong to identify something that’s wrong in someone’s life (the “speck in the eye”). Our culture says this is what Jesus means by “judge.” But Jesus can’t mean simply, “never tell anyone they’re wrong,” or he wouldn’t have said what we have recorded in verse five.
And there’s a lot more along those lines. For instance, notice how contradictory it would be for Jesus to teach that no one should ever confront someone for sin in other’s lives, and then to say (and have his followers say) these things:
- Matthew 4:17 (By calling humanity to “repent” Jesus assumes there are things wrong with people’s lives, and that they need to change.)
- Matthew 18:15-17 (Jesus taught that his followers could notice sin in each other’s lives, and confront each other about it in the right way.)
- Mark 7:21-23, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (Jesus taught that certain things in human hearts were evil, and defiled people. His early messengers continued his teaching.)
- 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 (Jesus authoritative messengers applied his teachings by instructing Christians how to notice and deal with wrong things in each other’s lives.)
- Matthew 28:18-20 (Jesus’ main instruction to his followers about what to do after he ascended involved teaching them to obey his commands–and this would necessarily involve telling people to do some things and to stop doing other things.)
Maybe the key is found in this passage: John 8:2-11. We need to learn to speak like Jesus: “I don’t condemn you, go and sin no more.”
2. We are called to be people who don’t judge, but do help get rid of sin.
So, what Jesus teaches is not that his followers will never tell someone they’re wrong, but that his followers will not have nit-picking, critical spirits and lives full of the same sins they confront. They will have humility even as they courageously attempt to call those around them to repentance. They’ll be kind and large-hearted, and they’ll be sensitive and skilled at helping people, and willing to do the hard work it requires. See Galatians 6:1 and James 5:19.
3. We don’t have to make judgment calls unless God’s judgment requires it.
Whenever they can, followers of Jesus will avoid making judgments, and they’ll enjoy the freedom that brings to love people and serve God while they mind their own business. See Romans 14:1-4, 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, James 4:11-12, and especially Luke 12:32-38.
Two final Challenges:
- This part of Jesus’ teaching relieves us of the burden of making judgment calls, or having opinions, when God’s word hasn’t spoke or when it is unclear what should be said. We don’t need to speak, or have opinions, all the time.
- When I am criticizing someone, am I right at all? If I am thinking or speaking about a flaw they have, is it with a view to my own judgment? Am I addressing something forgetting that I will be judged by God, or because I will be judged by God.