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July 24, 2005
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Christian Love
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"Judge One Another?"
Matthew 7: 1-21
- We live in interesting times, when opinions are under scrutiny. It is a season in our history when people are more and more concerned with what is called "tolerance" than with what is called "truth." Indeed tolerance
has become the number one virtue in America. A transformation (in our) minds has occurred-from "you love the sinner but hate the sin" (which is now called negative tolerance) to "you love the sinner and praise and respect the sin" (which is called positive tolerance). Positive tolerance teaches that every belief, value, lifestyle, and truth claim is equal.
(Josh McDowell http://www.ag.org/top/church_workers/age_yth_interv_mcdowell.cfm)
In this era of tolerance, there is one Scripture verse being quoted above all others, and it is this one here in Matthew 7:1: "Do not judge, lest you be judged." Christians are even quoting it to each other. Newspapers and magazines are quoting it. The verse has been ripped from its context and is used as a weapon. Indeed, the new unpardonable sin is "judging"!
Worse still, Christians have begun to believe that this is what Jesus meant with this verse. So that, 2 weeks ago, when John stirred the waters with his question about making judgments about some of the teachers on the airwaves, the temperature dropped in the room, and the atmosphere became most assuredly tense. It was like he had said something blasphemous. Have we lost touch with what it means to be Christian? What did Jesus mean when he said, "Do not judge" in the first place?
Questions like this prompted me to ask if John would mind postponing his "answer" until this week. Then as he stirred the waters a bit more, we would have more opportunity to wade into them.
- So how do we reconcile "beloved, love one another," last week's message, with "judgment"? Can a Christian actually be expressing a huge measure of love for another by making a judgment about behavior? I'll leave you with that question for a moment, while we look back at Matthew 7.
So, Matthew 7 falls in the last part of a message Jesus preached on a mountainside above the Sea of Galilee. In it Jesus has told the people they are salt and light, and are to live lives that surpass in righteousness the lives lived by the scribes and Pharisees. They are to do this by living from a heart focused upon God the Father, a heart which wants to be like Him. Their actions are not to be done in order for people to applaud them but they are to walk in relationship to God knowing that He will reward them. In other words they are to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
The context is right living that surpasses the Scribes and the Pharisees, who placed themselves above others, who excelled in pride not humility, who thought they were better than everyone around them. In the middle of the 6th chapter, Jesus says "don't worry like the pagans" who are fearful regarding all of earth's supply, and then beginning with chapter 7 he says, in essence, "don't judge others like the religious cronies" either.
- So that is the context for Jesus saying, do not judge, or you will be judged in return. He is calling us to recognize that what we "dish out" we will also receive. If we make ourselves enemies of others by prideful, uppity, "I'm so much better than you" attitudes and behaviors, by making others less than we are, condemning others as less than human, then we can expect to be treated the same way ourselves by others and eventually to be so treated by God (Matthew 25:26-7).
For the scriptures say with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. In this way our words and actions will echo back to us. If I shout "I hate you" off a mountain over against another mountain, and listen, I will hear those words echoing back. If however I shout, "I love you," then that new message will echo.
So, in saying "do not judge, Jesus is saying, "do not be judgmental and condemning" of others. Do not make a noise you would not want to have come back at you.
But he is not saying "do not judge" at all. Indeed his beginning statement is almost like an attention grabbing phrase. For after he has our attention, Jesus then deals with judgment, the place of it, the kind to use, throughout the entirety of the passage.
Beginning in v. 3 Jesus places judgment squarely into the community of believers. He talks about making judgments, about seeing the "specks" in one another's eyes. Romans 2 tells us that at the point at which we judge another, we are condemning ourselves for the blemish (or sin) we see there in them exists also in us. So, Jesus, says, if you see a speck in a sister's eye, rest assured, you have the same speck, indeed a "plank" in your own eye. But what does Jesus say? Deal with your plank in order to help your sister with her speck that clouds her vision.
What is our tendency? Our tendency is to condemn the sister or brother for the speck, to talk about them to others, to feel ourselves superior, to do exactly what Jesus has said not to do in verse 1.
How would this look then among believers? First, let me ask you, have you ever noticed some attitude or sin in someone that you knew clouded their walks with the Lord? Have you ever thought, "Boy does she have an attitude?" or "Golly is he ever impatient!" or "Man does he have an anger problem!" Ever seen that in someone?
First, when you see it you do not SAY it to others nor to the person in whom you have
seen it, instead, pray. Pray for you know from Romans 2 and from this passage, that the speck in another is a plank, a huge log, a major impediment in you. So, first, you go to God over a season, you journal, you read the Word, you seek God to reveal the source of that block in your own life in order to remove it through repentance, God's mercy and grace.
- Second,
as God gives opportunity, after praying for them, you ask them for permission
to speak into their lives.
- Third,
you don't just say, "You have this problem," Nope. You say, okay, this is what I
am seeing, do you think that is accurate? Could I help you deal with this area of your life?
- Fourth,
you become a prayer warrior alongside that person in order that they can
become all that God wants them to be.
- That is how to judge in the community of believers, with your brothers and sisters, with whom you can share the wisdom God has given you, but not how you judge with the unbelievers in the world around you. With these Jesus uses the common Jewish terms of swine and dogs - they are people who are living in the sin that is normal to them. So you see the error of their ways, Jesus says don't just toss your wise insights out there, for they will not have a way to receive them, and will end up attacking you.
Instead of tossing your wisdom at them, Jesus says, pray, or as it says here, ask, seek, and knock. Place your trust in the gracious love of your Heavenly Father who will "give good gifts to those who ask him." And instead of casting your pearls of wisdom before them, live verse 12 with them: "do to them as you would have them do to you for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
So far we have said do not make any judgments except as you would have others similarly judge you, with all humility, love and mercy!
You see the whole of the Sermon on the Mount ties back to the idea of righteous living that surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, a life that fulfills the law. It is a life that makes judgments about what is right and what is wrong, it is a life that discerns and repents of heart attitudes which are as sinful as the actual actions. Friends, it is a life that enters through the narrow gate.
Jesus says clearly there are two roads upon which all people will travel. The great divide in humanity is not between pews, races, nor even sexual preferences, but simply between believers and unbelievers, between those who are on the narrow way, the Way of Life, and those who are on the broad highway, the way leading to destruction.
Our goal is to assist as many as possible to take one of the exits off of the highway to destruction and come onto the "narrow way." This we can do as we live in v 12, as we discern right from wrong and love people, in their sins, while calling them from sin to righteousness, from the broad way to the narrow way, to life in relationship to Jesus.
But Jesus tells us in the following verses that around us will be many who do not do so. There are false prophets, wolves in lamb's clothing, who are on the highway to destruction and are misleading others.
So, Jesus tells us to "watch out for them". He does not say applaud them, ignore them, nor follow them, but as the apostle Peter as written, to "be on your guard so that you may not be led astray by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position" (2 Peter 3:17).
These are teachers whose teaching will "tickle the ear" of the hearer, as Paul has written elsewhere. They will teach what entices our flesh, attracts our attention, or thrills our emotions. The false teachers are deceptive; they may seem good yet not be.
So, friends, if we are not making judgments about their teachings (about what is right and what is wrong) we could be led astray. What does Jesus say? We can know them by their fruit, which is whatever comes from their lives - either their individual behaviors or their teachings. We can know that they have prophesied falsely if one thing they promised would happen did not happen. That may not discredit all they have done or said, but is a negative "fruit" of their ministry. Especially important is how they speak and teach about Jesus. What do they teach about Him? Do they know Him?
- For notice in the next verses, this is what Jesus is concerned about, whether they knew him. You and I are warned to watch out for them, and know we do not have a right nor the ability to condemn them to hell, to say we know their true motives, because the real test will be on the day of judgment, when they will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The false prophets who have done all kinds of miracles, given all kinds of prophecies in Jesus' name, will face the most dreadful words imaginable: "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"
With any teacher, even me, friends, you are called to be like the Berean Christians. These are the people in the town of Berea who we read in the book of Acts were "of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (17:11).
So, this passage has dealt with what judgment is meant to be both in the body of believers and in the world and what it is not. It does not give us an excuse to be cutting, hateful, vengeful, demeaning, or rude. Nor need we be so fearful of judging wrongly that we fail to use common sense, decency, and a knowledge of God's Word to pass right judgment.
- So, how is this loving? First, if we observe something in the life of another believer, it is showing the utmost of love to care enough for them to be in prayer and repenting yourself for any place that sin you see has been rooted in you. And then to speak with them, to help them get free from whatever it is, is showing great love.
And what about someone in the world, whom you see is in bondage to sin. Do you really think it unloving to care enough to walk with them, pray for them, until they experience the freedom available in Jesus? On the contrary, it is the height of love.
Our judgment is not to condemn, but hopefully, eventually, to save
(some ideas prompted from http://www.bright.net/~1wayonly/judgingrightorwrong.html, Copyright © 2003 Kimberly B. Southall. All rights reserved and another article http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:ppx1pnV74VQJ:www.jason1365.com/getfile.php%3Fdl%3D1%26id%3D31+Matthew+7:1-2+%22Judging%22&hl=en)
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