June 25, 2020
We are going to spend the next two weeks together as a church reading Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount! The Sermon on the Mount is the first of Jesus’ major teachings recorded in the gospel of Matthew. In it, Jesus explains the ethics and values of the kingdom of Heaven as opposed to the ethics and values of the world. The values and principles that are to govern our lives as followers of Jesus and citizens of the kingdom of Heaven are wildly different from those that govern the various cultures of our world, including the culture in which we live.
Over the next two weeks, allow the words of the Lord Jesus to challenge the way you think, expose the worldly and idolatrous values and desires of your heart, and transform you to live in the new way that He has laid before us!
Jesus’ statement “Judge not, that you be not judged” is one of the most misused and abused verses of Scripture in the entire Bible! Those of the world, as well as many within the church, take that verse and understand it to mean that we are not to judge the actions of another person; their choices are their choices, and who are we to judge them? After all, we’re sinners too, right?
What Jesus is saying is not that we are to withhold all evaluation towards the actions of others, but that we are not to evaluate them with undue harshness, with a prideful, self-righteous attitude towards them. Jesus says that “with the measure you use it will be measured to you”: what Jesus is warning us about here is that the same standard we use for judging the actions of others will also be used to judge our actions, so we had better take a good, long look at our own hearts before we pronounce judgment on anyone else!
Jesus is, once again, going after the hearts of His audience here, warning them against hypocritical, self-righteous attitudes towards others. He tells us that we are to judge the actions of others, but only in order to help them in their journey towards holiness and only after we have come to terms with the reality of our own brokenness and sin!
Jesus calls us to recognize that, apart from the mercies of God, we are in the exact same boat as every other sinner on the planet. We have nothing and are nothing apart from him, so we have nothing in ourselves to feel prideful or self-righteous about! We are called to humble ourselves before the Lord and before others, acknowledging the reality of our inadequacy and sin; only then are we in the right position to help others in their struggle!
Matthew 7:1-6
Judging Others
7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 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? 4 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? 5 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.
6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Family Discussion Question:
- Why is this passage so often misinterpreted? How does a humble acknowledgment of our own need for God’s grace free us to help others experience it?