With this post we enter the home stretch on the Sermon on the Mount. Today we go to Matthew 7:1-5.
“1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured out to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, but conciderest not the beam in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull the mote from 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.”
This is a very heavy passage. I was debating the concepts in this with someone who would not realize the damage she did with her judgmental treatment of a lifelong friend. I quit the debate before my own soul could be put in danger of judgment. Here’s the message: If you see a problem in another person’s life, and you begin to tell that person how to live, you are opening yourself up to judgment on your own lifestyle. What is sin is not the problem, the problem is what is my sin. If I examine myself I will discover enough missing of the mark of perfect holiness in my own life to keep me busy fighting sin for the rest of my temporal days.
Jesus gets very hard on the people who make judgments about others. He calls them actors, as in a play. The denotation is that they’re putting on a show for other people to think they’re more holy than the ones they judge. But everyone has something they need to work on. The ones who make a habit of judging others have that to work on. In a comment on a Facebook post about the woman caught in adultery, I pointed out that some people don’t recognize their own sins and pick up stones to throw, and that is their greatest sin.
The act of judging others hurts them more than it helps them. As Jesus pointed out the intent behind the judgment is that you make yourself look good by comparison to the sins of another. “See, I’m not as bad as he is. Look at his sins, not mine.” That's what Jesus meant when He called those who practice judgment hypocrites. This is the same Greek word in the previous chapter Jesus used to talk about people who make a show of public prayer.
If you intend to serve Christ in love, you will be too busy loving to have time to judge. If you intend to merely look good for other people in your church or around the town, judging others is one of your favorite pastimes. In this regard intent is easily discerned from the action. Diligently search your heart, find out what you intend in a situation before you act. Then make sure the intent of the act is the intent you would have presented to Christ at the Judgment Seat.
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