‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Matthew 7:1-2 NIVUK
These verses are some of the most misunderstood, and often misquoted, verses in all of Scripture. They are often used as blunt weapons against Christians.
‘You can’t judge!’ they sneer, ‘So anything goes. You have no right to tell me that anything I do is wrong.’
WRONG!
Why would Jesus spend most of His sermon teaching the difference between right and wrong, and then tell us that we could not differentiate between right and wrong? That is patently absurd.
The only people with this argument are those who need their lifestyles to be validated by the opinions of others and cannot stand it when anyone disagrees with them. That is both the attitude and behaviour of a kindergarten playground. But most of the people reading this are adults. So we should have a much more mature attitude to this.
Let me tell you this: people will judge you. That's life. Stop whining about it. If you can accept it when they approve of you, then you can accept it then they don’t.
People will judge you in education, in the workplace, online, even the very clothes you wear and the style of your hair. They will judge you to see if you are the right fit for a role or a responsibility or even if you are the right person to marry.
That will happen.
And not all of it is wrong or unfair. Some is right and fair, but when it's driven by bias or prejudice, that’s absolutely unacceptable and wrong.
But when it isn’t, we can have little argument.
So let's get this straight: Jesus is not telling us to throw away our moral discernment and allow everyone to do whatever they like.
Of course not.
But He is providing us with guidelines when it is and isn’t acceptable.
So when is it not acceptable?
Firstly, when we hold others to a higher standard.
Jesus uses a very simple, but also challenging, illustration here. Ancient trade relied on not only coins but also weights and measures. Unscrupulous traders would use two weights and measures to trick their purchasers into spending more. This practice was unequivocally condemned in the Old Testament as corrupt and dishonest (Deuteronomy 25:13; Proverbs 20:10, 23; Micah 6:10).
Jesus is saying that we should not judge people in this way, bending the rules so it suits us and condemns others.
He also says that it’s wrong when we don’t meet that standard. Verses 3 to 5 are some the funniest verses in the Bible – clearly satirical and, like the best satire, painfully true.
Jesus tells us that we can’t help a friend remove a speck from their eye if we have a beam (with the idea of a beam in a house, like a roof beam or a support strut) sticking out of our own.
The whole idea is absurd.
But that is Jesus’ point. We can’t criticise others, or even offer them help, if we commit the same sin. Before we hold our hand to show another the right way, we need to be on the right way ourselves.
Jesus is saying here that if you are conscious of your own sins and shortcomings then you really should not be quick to judge and condemn other people’s. If you do, then the situation is equally as absurd and bizarre as someone with a beam in their eye truing to help their friend, who has a speck.
However, Jesus then goes on to describe one situation, using two quite bizarre situations, where it seems that a form of judgement is required.
That situation is when others have no standard.
In other words, they are outside of the Kingdom, are utterly determined to remain there, and woe betide anyone who seeks to change that status.
Dogs and swine were both unclean animals. Dogs in particular were often used as a picture of Gentiles (see Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). If this seems slightly racist, that’s because, in modern terms, it was.
However, Paul inverts this and points it firmly at those from the Pharisee group who are hardened against the Gospel and cause him trouble as a result (Philippians 3:2).
So we can take this picture as referring to those who do not only resist the Gospel, but persecute those who bring it – something Jesus mentioned in the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-44; Luke 20:9-18).
All this means, quite shockingly to a Jewish audience, that these two images of unclean animals can refer to Jews as well as Gentiles.
What Jesus is saying is that if someone continually rejects the call of the Gospel and persecutes you for bringing it, then it’s time to walk away.
Jesus later tells the disciples to do exactly that:
But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God has come near.” I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
Luke 10:10-12 NIVUK
Paul also had the same strategy (Acts 19:9).
Given the context, it is not impossible for those hardened to the Gospel to be hypocritical, judgemental and hardened to it by a false sense of superiority.
We must exercise discernment here, but not judgement. We must realise when the time is to be silent and leave, but we have never and will never have the right to be judge, jury and executioner and write them off as lost. Although they may have rejected our message, we must leave the door open for their return.
After all, there was none so violent and obstinate as Saul, but when the Lord reached Him, He became Paul.
I’ve often said that the Gospel is the greatest leveller. It reduces us to sinners. It makes us admit that we all need Jesus to be saved and have no other means.
That has to humble us.
So, yes, we do have the right to say if something is right or wrong, even if others don’t agree and find the truth difficult to hear. And we are categorically not being judgemental if we point it out in a sensitive, loving way, looking for them to repent.
We are being horribly judgemental if we don’t hold ourselves to the same standard, and worse if we know that we don’t reach the standard.
But when they don’t have any standards and savage us for telling the truth, that’s the time to walk away and leave them to God.
Even if being in a sinner in the Hands of God is not always a comfortable experience.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, if I have been judgemental towards those who live differently – or even live the same – as me, please forgive me. Help me to repent. But help me also to know when it’s time to stop risking the sacred, precious message of the Gospel and to move on. Grant me discernment, I pray. Amen.
Questions
1. When is it right to judge and when is it not right to judge? What is the term for the type of judgement we should have?
2. Who will judge us if we judge incorrectly?
3. How will we know if it’s time to stop sharing the Gospel with someone?
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