April 16, 2019

BIBLE READING: MATTHEW 7

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

This passage does not teach that we should not judge. This passage is teaching that we should be very careful before we decide to judge, because if we do, then we will be scrutinized with the same kind of judgment. I do find it interesting that it does not say who will judge us with the same scrutiny. It does not say who will give us the same measure of judgment and mercy as we give to others. It never specifically says. I have the feeling that if we judge others with great scrutiny, then we are opening ourselves up to that same judgment from the Lord. I believe that, simply because in Colossians and other passages, God has said that He is the judge, and that we are not to step into God’s position.

One of the problems that arises when you and I determine that we are going to judge others is that we end up judging others for far less things than we have in our own life. We often are guilty of worse since than the ones we accuse others of. It is very hypocritical. In fact, when we judge others, we often cannot even see the faults that we have. We are so minded to scrutinize others that we do not put that same scrutiny on our own lives.

God tells us in verse five that the best thing we can do is to work on the sins and faults in our own life first. We need to “pull the beam out of thine eye”. It would be much more profitable for us to judge ourselves, and with God’s help, to better ourselves than it would be for us to try to fix everyone else.

Let me mention one other little detail that you may not have noticed. In verse five, after we have dealt with our own sins, God does not say to you to now “point out” the moat in your brother’s eye. He says to “pull out” the moat out of thy brother’s eye”. So instead of judging, we should be helping. Instead of announcing that our brother has a fault, we should be helping our brother to fix it that fault. I don’t know about you, but I think that is very good advice.