Writer: Charles Hegwood
One of the most well-known lines from the Bible is in Matthew 7:1-3. Even people who do not read the Bible know this verse and often use it. However, most of these people cannot find it. I’m talking about, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” This verse is often deployed when the person in question is called out for something wrong they are doing. It sounds like a solid argument. I, however, want to argue that this verse does not mean what they might think it means. We must understand in context God’s Word to us in Matthew 7.
After all, these are the words of Jesus. How do we argue against that? Does Jesus mean we cannot call any action wrong or a sin? Or is the Bible contradicting itself here? To make matters more confusing, if you look to 7:20, Jesus tells us we will know false prophets by their fruit which requires judgment. So what is going on in these verses? Let us break this passage down and see what Jesus is saying, and what He is not saying. And finally, let us see how we are to live out these verses in our lives. Jesus taught us how a citizen of Heaven is to navigate the world by living rightly in obedience to Him.
Don’t Judge
When reading and interpreting difficult passages, it is a good habit to examine the context of the verse. As you begin to examine the surrounding context in Matthew 7 you will see that Jesus is not telling you not to judge. After all, 7:2 says, “You will be judged.” So we can safely say that Jesus did not intend for us to abandon all judgments. What He did mean to say is that when we judge we need to do it rightly. Put this passage in its context of the Sermon on the Mount. As citizens of heaven, we should not judge like the world judges. That is to say, hypocritically. The world’s standard of judgment is one it does not want applied to itself. For citizens of Heaven, this should not be. We judge others by the same measure or standard that we would apply to ourselves. This is the standard of God’s righteousness, law, and grace. By doing this we open ourselves up to the same standard and judgment.
The Log in the Eye
Now we let us apply this thinking to the parable of the splinter in the eye in 7:3-5. This is another often-used parable I hear when sin is being called out. It goes a bit like this, “well, you should take care of the log in your own eye and not talk to me about what you think my problem is.” Ever had a conversation go that way? Well, as we look at this parable we see that Jesus does want us to help with the splinter in our brother or sister’s eye.
The problem in the parable is not the person wanting to help. It is that the person wants to help their brother all the while having a worse or similar problem and being blind to that problem. Jesus is saying, He does not want us to be hypocrites as we rightly help our spiritual family. This is why Jesus ends the parable with the statement, “Then go and remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” There is a place to call out wrong behavior, sin, and immaturity. Before we do though, we must first examine ourselves and make sure we are living rightly before God while holding ourselves to the same standard as our brothers and sisters.
Live it out
Jesus did not give us these words to just think about. He gave us these words so that we can live as citizens in God’s Kingdom while here on Earth. So the question is how do we apply these teachings to our daily lives? We must live them out. We should judge people. After all, we judge just as easily as breathing. It is how the world works. We make countless judgments every day. When it comes to judging a person, Jesus wants us to do so with a humble heart and fair judgment. We all know the brother or sister in church who judges everybody very harshly but cannot take criticism or judgment his or herself. This is not how citizens of the Kingdom are to live in community. We judge by the measure of Scripture and hold ourselves accountable to the same standard. Therefore we can judge what is sinful because God’s Word does. Now Matthew 7:20 begins to make more sense. We are called to examine a person’s fruit. The fruit of our lives will also be examined. And it is the fruit that we judge and are judged by.
We live out the parable of the log and the splinter the same way. We see a problem in the church. We want to address it. What is our first move? It should be self-reflection and prayer. We must examine our lives before we approach our brother or sister. After doing so, with humility and gentleness let us deal with the problem in the other person’s life. Jesus longs for us to be a community of humility and not a community of hypocrites seeking their own glory.
Conclusion
As we conclude this discussion, I want to reiterate that when we approach passages like this, the key is reading them in context. When we do so, we begin to see that these verses were never meant to be a series of one-liners to get people off our backs. Instead, these verses are a beautiful roadmap to Kingdom living. As we pursue friendships we must do so with self-examination, spiritual reflection, and humility. We will find ourselves dealing with people who we must call to repent. And when we do, Jesus has told us how. So let us breathe deep of the Word of God and live out our walks in gentleness and humility today.