Jesus and Being a Bit Judgy

Here is an excerpt from a sermon I preached on Matthew 7:1-5 about two years ago. Jim West reminded me of it.

Jesus and Judgment
Priorities for a loving and challenging community:

Stop judging, so that you won’t be judged, because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others. “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5 Author’s Translation)”

These words are spoken by the man who just earlier taught that he would see to it that all who heard him would receive mercy, see God, be filled with righteousness, and so-on (Matthew 5:3-10). What he is giving here is not merely sound moral advice for wise living, though it is that. What Jesus is teaching us here is how to live as sinners with a gracious God in a world full of people just like us.

What it does not mean:

1. Do not judge anybody ever, no matter what, under any circumstances, do not ever even think about ever judging anybody about anything no matter what, under any circumstances, without ever considering the possibility of judging an action or a person.
2. Never call bad things bad.
3. That as long as I’ve corrected my own faults I can make whatever harsh judgments I want upon others. (I have a good diet, so, “Hey, stop eating like a whale.”)

What it seems to mean:

1. Do not become a judge of others who is unaware of your own character flaws.
2. It means that making a habit of condemning others or correcting them when you do not have a habit of correcting yourself or receiving correction leads to judgment.
3. When it is okay to judge, the context shows that the comments made are not meant to be legal verdicts, but helpful comments which lead to correction (as the analogy to eye surgery makes clear). Different cultures and social groups tolerate different levels of harshness.
4. Character flaws include we should correct in ourselves include: lack of forgiveness, lack of kindness, nosiness, prayerlessness, and gossip. Because of this, learning the appropriate time to judge others (make a judgment for the sake of correction) means dealing with your own obvious sins, but also dealing with your less obvious ones which make judging others so satisfying.
5. The judging you can do takes place in the context of encouraging others to grow in grace (2 Peter 3:18).
6. That people might not be able to receive a helpful correction from somebody whose life is a wreck.
7. That the attitude necessary to help somebody else requires the humility of knowing your own flaws and the experience of God’s transforming grace.

Other passages of Scripture with this in mind: Proverbs 3:5-7, 1 Thessalonians 5:14 and 21, and Hebrews 3:13-14 and 10:24-25.