DO NOT JUDGE OTHERS
Matthew 7:1-6
When Eugene Peterson Yelled at a Child
Picking Flowers
The late pastor and writer Eugene Peterson
once told a story about walking in Yellowstone Park with his wife and three
children. Peterson wrote:
As my family and I were walking through a
mountain meadow in Yellowstone Park, a little boy of four or five, about 30
yards out in the meadow, was picking exquisite alpine flowers. It is against
the rules to pick flowers in national parks. I was outraged. I yelled at him,
"Don't pick the flowers." He stood wide-eyed, innocent and terrified.
He dropped the flowers and started crying.
You can imagine what happened next. My wife
and children, especially my children, were all over me. "Daddy, what you
did was far worse than what he did! He was just picking a few flowers, and you
yelled; you scared him. You ruined him. He is probably going to have to go for
counseling when he's 40 years old." My children were right. You cannot
yell people into holiness. You cannot terrify people into the sacred. My
yelling was a far worse violation of the holy place than his picking a few flowers.
Later, I had plenty of opportunity to reflect on this, as my children
frequently reminded me.
I do that a lot: bluster and yell on behalf
of God's holy presence, instead of taking off my shoes myself, kneeling on holy
ground, and inviting whoever happens to be around to join me.
He added, "If we begin by formulating a
problem, by identifying a need, by tackling a necessary job, by launching a
program, we reduce the reality that is before us to what we can do or get
others to do." Peterson concludes that everything we do in the Christian
life must begin with adoration, wonder, and worship.[1]
This
humble admission from one of the most successful pastors of our time reflects
our self-righteous attitude toward others who are different, less powerful, or
more vulnerable than we are. It exposes the holier-than-thou mindset of certain
Christians. They may have good intentions and be zealous to protect the
sanctity of our Christian faith, but, without realizing it, may be damaging the
souls of people created in the image of God. After encouraging His followers individually
and collectively to Seek First the Kingdom, He addressed a prevailing tendency
to judge others and a hypocritical attitude. "DO NOT JUDGE OTHERS"
Matthew 7:1-6
I. Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge, or
you too will be judged." The underlying theme of these verses is how we
are to relate to people in general properly, and even more so to those who
belong to the family of God. Some read this biblical command literally and
think, "I must never judge lest I be judged"; thinking so, they avoid
all forms of judgment. They believe every doctrine, never using God-given
discernment to find out what is right and what is wrong.
This Scripture does not mean we must avoid
judgment altogether. Scripture is consistent: as children of God, we must use
sound judgment about what is acceptable to God and whether it is beneficial or
harmful. Here is some advice that would keep us out of a lot of trouble.
Proverbs 3:21-24, "My son, do not
let wisdom and understanding out of your sight, preserve sound judgment and
discretion; they will be life for you, an ornament
to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in
safety, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will
not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet."
What did our Lord mean when he commanded his
followers, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged "? The Greek word
for "judge" has several meanings, depending on the context. In this
context, it means, "To judge, pass sentence, or give one's opinion in a
private manner. Let's look at other scriptures where the word judge carries a
similar meaning.
Luke 6:37: "Do not judge, and you will
not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Jesus exposed the
faulty standards of judgment of the Pharisees. John 8:15: "You judge by
human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are
true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me."
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones notes, "The man
who is guilty of judging, in the sense in which our Lord uses the term here, is
the man who is hypercritical, which means that he delights in criticism for its
own sake and enjoys it. He approaches anything which he is asked to criticize
expecting to find faults, almost hoping to find them."[2]
The Pharisees were hypercritical of Jesus in
all He did. They held wrong views of Him because He hung out with sinners. They
misunderstood His true intentions and called Him names. How many of us are
guilty of being hypercritical? We form certain, often negative, opinions of
people who are different from us or hold different ideological or religious
views. Those opinions may be private, yet in our hearts we pass judgment and
condemn them to hell.
We hold Prejudices or stereotypes against
certain people or races. Prejudice means "an unfair and unreasonable
opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge."[3]
When we judge others, we must exercise righteous judgment. Here is what it
looks like. John 7:24: "Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead
judge correctly."
A Baptist minister and the civil rights
leader, Martin Luther King Jr., rightly noted how we are to judge people: "Judge
people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. -
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To judge correctly, it doesn't happen at first
glance.
To get to know that individual and find out
what kind of person they are, we need to spend time with them; it takes time.
If you are in the habit of judging people based on their outward appearances, hold
off! Usually, those of us who are in the habit of hypercriticism of others can't
handle it when others treat us the same way.
Therefore, if you don't want to be judged
wrongly by others, we must stop judging them and treat them with respect even
when we don't agree with them. We would save ourselves from heartache if we
follow Jesus' command, Matthew 7:1: "Don't pick on people. Jump on their
failures and criticize their faults unless, of course, you want the same
treatment." (The Message)
II. The Speck and The Log
Matthew 7:3-4, "And why worry
about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you
think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your
eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? (NLT). The Lord's
argument here is that our own condition is such that we are quite incapable of
helping others.
At times we focus on people's little faults,
which amount to a speck, and we jump to fix them while ignoring a log-sized sin
of our own: hypercriticism. The Lord condemns such a hypocritical attitude,
saying, Vs 5, "Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then
you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." How
true this statement is.
The principle here is: before trying to fix
other people's minor faults, first deal with your own big sin of
judgementalism. The fact is that we are not really concerned about helping our
brothers and sisters in the family; we are only interested in condemning them.
We pretend to care about helping while our motivation may be condemnation. The
Lord sees what is in our hearts.
III. Exercising Spiritual Discernment:
After addressing these two wrong ways of
relating and dealing with primarily our brothers and sisters within God's
family, Jesus concluded with this statement: 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." After all we have heard from Jesus about not wrongly
judging people and not being a hypocrite while trying to help others, this
statement seems to contradict his message. Not really! It encourages us to use
spiritual discernment.
As we share the most valuable and holy
message of the gospel of love, we must discern where people are: Are they open
or closed, hostile or friendly? Are they proud? Accordingly, we share the truth.
We need the Holy Spirit's help to exercise this spiritual discernment.
