Cornerstone Barry Arnold May 27, 2018 Do Not Judge Matthew 7:1

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1 Cornerstone Barry Arnold May 27, 2018 Do Not Judge Matthew 7:1 Probably no three words from the Bible are better known, more misunderstood and more often misused than Jesus command: Do not judge. There is a righteous Judge. And it s not me. Neither is it you. The great Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, said that when Jesus gave this command: Christ totally forbids the human institution of any law court. Having clashed with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, Tolstoy concluded that whenever flawed humans try to judge, no matter what the setting, the result is not good. Do not judge is a favorite of people who say Christians are intolerant. (And for the record I sometimes agree when I hear that charge in the press. Christians can be intolerant, belligerent and heartless and that s why I ve wanted to preach this message for some time.) I don t agree that Jesus commanded his followers to turn a blind eye to the choices of others. I don t agree that no person has the right to say for another what is right or wrong. Every person gets to decide for themselves. That s a very scary thought if you take it out to its logical conclusion. Here s what Jesus actually said, Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. But what exactly did Jesus mean? The Greek word for judge is no help at all. My Greek professor, Dr. Ed Goodrick, frequently reminded us that knowing Greek is not magic. He said generally what it says in your English Bible is what it says in Greek. That s why they call it a translation. If four different English translations agree you can be very sure because between those four translations you are reading the result of at least 200 of the world s foremost Biblical languages scholars. The Greek word for judge can mean everything from pronouncing a sentence on someone convicted of a crime to simply weighing choices and deciding. Vanilla or strawberry ice cream. Judge. So we have to look beyond the word to the context to find meaning. As it turns out the context, Jesus makes the meaning very clear. He means don t set yourself up as a judge but that s not what some Bible teachers want to hear so they try to unsay what Jesus clearly said. Do not judge oh, but he can t mean do not judge. Yes he does! He said do not judge!

2 Jesus gave the command in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount. In the minutes prior to the do not judge command, Jesus had been condemning the empty rule-keeping promoted by the Scribes and Pharisees the religious authorities. They were obsessed with rules. Jesus said to the crowd gathered. Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. The religious leaders promoted their rules as the way to get in God s good favor. Jesus said the rules were worthless and in many cases actually pushed people farther away from God. After attacking the legalistic rules, Jesus went after what were called acts of righteousness. The Pharisees made a big show of how much money they gave to the synagogue and to needy people. When they went to give they paraded down the street with trumpets blaring to draw attention to their generosity. They prayed long, loud, flowery prayers on street corners and in public services so, Jesus said, Matthew 6:1 "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven...v.3 when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret (like many statements in the sermon on the Mount, that was hyperbole intentional exaggeration to make a point. It s not possible for your left hand to not know what your right hand is doing.)...verse 6 And when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And then Jesus addresses what the Pharisees are best at judging. Judging other people. Judging anyone who doesn t keep their rules. Looking down their noses at anyone who doesn t pray like them and give like them and fast like them. But they re not the only ones listening. His disciples are seated right in front of him. And between the disciples and the religious leaders were thousands of people. Jesus is talking to everyone when he says, Matthew 7:1-2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Do not judge is a categorical statement. There s no wiggle room. So what is it that Jesus is prohibiting and is there anything about judging that he permits? What he prohibits is judgmentalism. There s no Greek word for it but judgmentalism is a descriptive English word. Judgmentalism scrutinizes, accuses, tries, condemns and sentences others without even glancing at self.

3 That was the Pharisees and let's be honest. That is also a common reputation Christians have outside the church. Sadly, it also describes many Christians inside churches. Judgmentalism. Always bad. Jesus prohibits it because it always wounds and it never produces righteousness. Some of you are carrying hurts from judgment people. Someone believed they were doing the right thing calling you out just like the Pharisees believed they were doing right condemning anyone who didn t do exactly as they did. Judgmental people often believe they are doing right. They may even wrap their judgmentalism in a scripture verse or two. Lipstick on a pig. Jesus condemned it in the Pharisees and he hates it in the church. In a letter to Christians in Rome the apostle Paul equated judgmentalism with despising someone. Romans 14:10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. It is not our job to accuse and condemn and sentence people who don't agree with us. It seems like many Christians are more concerned about getting people punished than redeemed. God has never delegated the job of deciding who deserves grace and salvation and who doesn t. We all know John 3:16. How about John 3:17? God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him, (John 3:17) Of all people, Jesus had every right and every reason to condemn sinful people but He didn't. In fact, Jesus allowed Himself to be condemned and judged by unfair courts. He took on himself the punishment the people who killed him deserved. Jesus prohibited judgmentalism and he added a warning. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. This is a neon warning sign blinking, Judge at your own risk! The statement can be interpreted two ways: Jesus may have been saying that the way you judge others will be the way others judge you. That certainly happens, doesn t it. It s the eye for an eye. If you re critical of me, I m going to be critical of you. If you reject me, I reject you. What goes around comes around most of the time. The other way this could be understood is the way you judge others will be the way God judges you. I think this is what Jesus has in mind. Harsh judgmentalism betrays a self-righteousness heart and that is something God cannot and will not overlook either now or at the end times judgment.

4 You would think that would anyone from judgmentalism but it doesn t. In verse 3 Jesus told a story to show how judgmentalism often works. Matthew 7:3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank (some versions say a log)"why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Notice two things: 1. First of all this is a follower of Christ judging another follower of Christ. He s looking at his disciples. The speck is in a brother s eye. Not an enemy, not an adversary, not someone antagonistic toward God. This is between believers. 2. The biggest problem is not the speck but the plank or board. This is where many blogs and commentaries veer off. They say we cannot take do not judge literally because here Jesus says to remove the speck from the brother s eye. They say the fact that the brother has a speck in his eye proves that Jesus does want us to judge. No! Jesus prohibits focusing on minor sins and flaws in others while overlooking your own sins, which are much worse. A speck of sawdust in the eye is not nearly as dangerous as a plank. Instead of dealing with the log in their own eye, however, many Christians become professional speck finders. A guy wanted to meet with me once because he said every time he joined a church he noticed all the things wrong and he felt unappreciated because it seemed like nobody wanted to hear his opinions. He had a big old log called arrogance sticking out of his eye. In Cornerstone s early years a man who had been to a denominational seminary attended church and during my sermons he would fill the white space in his bulletin with criticisms of my message. Every few months we d have coffee and he would bring his notes so he could tell me where I went wrong in each message. I listened and always thanked him sometimes it was actually helpful but I also told him we were ever going to agree 100% because his criticisms reflected the seminary he attended. I was okay with that but he and his wife left the church. She was embarrassed and came back to tell me they left Cornerstone because her husband hated me. Really? I said, He hates me? I like him. Why does he hate me? Because you would not admit you were wrong and he was right all the time. And then she

5 added this happened in every church they attended. He had to be right always on everything. If you think your doctrinal statement or your rules or your standards are 100% correct and biblical you have a plank in your eye. Noone is that smart. Noone is that spiritual. Noone is right all the time. Jesus said instead of being judgmental, judge yourself first. Admit and fix your own issues and once you ve humbly confessed your shortcomings you may, you may have the privilege of kindly and carefully removing a speck from a brother or sister s eye. When it s done right, removing specks is not judgmental. It s the kind thing to do. Sawdust doesn t belong in the eye. It hurts and it can be dangerous. To leave it in a brother or sister s eye would not be Christlike! So this is the kind of judgment that is permitted only I prefer to avoid the word judgement because it morphs so easily into judgmentalism. What Jesus permits in fact what encourages -- is for his followers to use great discernment. Discernment is recognizing and clinging to what is good, helping others, rejecting evil and warning others about it, while avoiding irredeemably-hopeless situations like Jesus describes in verse 6. Matthew 7:6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Life requires us to make assessments hundreds of times every day. We re constantly assessing risk level, costs, time, appropriateness of speech or behavior. Godly discernment helps you make clear decisions and avoid harmful situations. In the ancient near east dogs were wild scavengers not pets. Pigs were particularly unclean beasts, especially in Jewish minds. Jesus is telling his followers not to waste time and energy trying to satisfy or change persistently vicious, unhealthy and dangerous people. Use discernment. To put someone into the category of pig or dog is a serious thing - but Jesus says there are those kinds of people. Don t waste your time and energy on them. Many of you will head out camping in the next several weeks. When you re in the wilderness it s fun to feed the squirrels, the chipmunks, grey jays and maybe even foxes but it s never wise to feed the bears. Don t feed the bears. Bears can be fun to watch but like the bear who came to Vicki s Villa at 1 AM last June, bears don t necessarily have your best interest in mind. Don t feed the bears because you never know when the bear might decide to take more than you are offering. Jesus tells his disciples to use their heads! Don t keep offering God s pearls to dangerous,

6 unappreciative, cynical people. It takes discernment to know when it s time to shake dust off your feet. This kind of discernment was what surely was on the mind of Paul when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 5 1 Corinthians 5:11-12 you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (Don t feed the bears!) What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? You can discern right and wrong without being judgmental. Be wise. Don t feed the bears. And if you need an overall rule, Jesus offers one a few verses later. Here s Matthew 7:12. Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. The Pharisees summed up the Law and Prophets with rules and judgmentalism. Not good. If you tend toward either of those things let me offer four suggestions in cl osing. 1. Remind yourself regularly of the grace God has shown you. Having received far more grace than you deserve, extend a little to others. When Christians are judgmental they send a conflicted message: God loves you but I don t. Judgmentalism is distorted and destructive. It's distorted because we can't see what God sees, and judgment belongs to him. It's destructive because it almost never helps the target person. And by the way, be very slow to judge someone when the evidence is hearsay or ambiguous. With the internet and smart phones, all it takes is a shred of gossip to ruin someone s life. With social media it is not innocent until proven guilty. It s scary how quickly a rumor can take someone down. 2. If you are tempted to judge, start with yourself. That ll keep you busy for quite a while. Instead of looking for faults in others, ask the Lord to point out your own.. Pastor Tim Keller said, "We (Christians) set standards that we use to judge not realizing that we will fail our own criteria." Before we utter a word, before we even form an opinion we would be wise to do some deep introspection. 3. Your primary job as a follower of Christ is not to judge people but to love them. It s easy to be more sensitive to sin in other people than in yourself. (Also hypocritical.) Much safer to leave judging to the only One who can do it absolutely fairly.

7 God is the judge. The Holy Spirit is one who convicts, and it doesn t help when we try to impose our standards on people with whom we have no relationship. We can sometimes force compliance, but only the Holy Spirit can bring true conviction. Our main job is not trying to figure out what others deserve but loving them into Christ s kingdom. Our job is to find lost sheep, lift up people who have fallen, give hope to broken people, and make the gospel look as attractive as it really is! At the beginning of his ministry Jesus described his mission. Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." The gospel is a positive message and we do it great disservice when we make it condemning and judgmental. The only people Jesus really came down on were the hypocrites. Jesus majored on love. I ll never forget a Bible Study in our living room, which included our neighbor, who was living with his girlfriend. We were studying Matthew s gospel. Our neighbor stayed after everyone else had left because he had a question. He said, You mean to tell me that living with my girlfriend is sin? I never knew that before. If you start with judgmentalism you never have those conversations. Last point. 4. If you have suffered from judgmentalism, wait for the fair and righteous Judge to even the score. If you have suffered condemnation, accusations or injustice you long for a judge who will set things right. Again and again in the Bible God urges his people to take a long view of justice. You ve probably heard the old story of a farmer who wanted nothing to do with God. He plowed his field on Sunday morning and mocked other farmers who passed by on their way to church. October came and the Sunday-working farmer had a fantastic crop - probably the best in the county. At the feed store where farmers swapped stories he couldn t help boasting, "Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can succeed." To which one old farmer replied, "God doesn't settle all His accounts in October." Memorize and recite often Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.