September 17, 2023
Matthew 7:1-5

“We human beings display a vast capacity for self-deception.” We forget that everything we have flows from the grace of God. We forget that everything from our faith and energy in the kingdom comes from the grace of God. We can often dismiss that our holy desires and actions are because of God grace. The propensity to start thinking that we are the source of godliness and thus becoming a haughty prig is always a real possibility. We can easily become backbiters and nitpickers that make rulings of others while we stand in our cancerous self-righteous that eats away at our standing towards God and others. The first century people of faith were no different from us. They too struggled with what we struggle with. Therefore, in this passage Jesus will teach us what to do and what not to do when this describes us. (Carson, The Sermon …, 97 f)

The title of the sermon is “Judging in Carefulness and Caution.”

The outline:

1. The grace lifestyle.
2. The charge.
3. The fix.

The grace lifestyle. 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

• This is an especially plucked verse without regard to its context by unbelievers and backsliden Christians alike.¹
• Here is the 6th and 7th of the term “judge” or a variation. This seems to be a hot topic for Jesus.
• One would be hard-pressed to find a Greek word that has more meanings that this Greek word. There are about 25 distinct meanings for the term in given contexts. So each, separate context must drive the meaning in the biblical usages.
• The most used meanings in antiquity means “to separate …; to pick out, select, choose” (Thayer, et al.) and “distinguish” (LSJ) >>
• In this context, judging here seems to mean when we pick out behaviors that we find disagreeable or unholy. We are choosing what is to be the proper behavior for another.
• Jesus offers an important substitution here: Do you want a grace filled judgment? Don’t judge.
  • Does this have an earthly application or a heavenly one?
  • Both
• As we are judging, we are daily creating our own courtroom, jury, and sentencing. For many of us, this jury will be a frightening one for sure. Our standard will be our own.
• We are fashioning our own judgment with our very mouths and actions toward others. It may have condemning eyes and it may have the same harshness that we extended toward others.
• We live by God’s grace but when looking at most Christians we would never know it.
• This was a real problem in the Roman Church also. Romans 14:10-12, “Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”

APPLICATION

• Are we critical of others? God will be critical towards us.
• Are we fault finders? God will one day vividly show us our faults.
• Everyday we evaluate others we are building our own standard for our own judgment. That’s the height of justice.
• Congress has made laws that they themselves are excluded from obeying.
• Politicians often espouse policies that they ignore.
• We judge when we should have instead remained prayerfully silent.
• The wise option here is to be merciful, be graceful, and thereby receiving the same.

TRANSITION
The Grace Lifestyle --> The Charge

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

• Jesus illustrates common deficiencies in judges here: 1) the lack of spiritual vision.
  • Guess what. We do the same sinful specks but in log form.
  • The blinded judges are often biggest fault finders. They are guilty of much more sin than they rant about.
  • We see this often: We see clearly the very small specks of imperfection in others, but we often fill our lives with comforting grace talk as we continue our ungodliness and sharpness towards others.
  • We also often hold out standards that we don’t keep at all.
• Jesus teaches that we have a lack of spiritual precision in verse 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?
  • We need spiritual optometrists. But most of us are not equipped or trained in procedures regarding our fellow brothers and sisters’ imperfections.
  • “It is almost impossible for any man to be strictly impartial in his judgment. Again and again we are swayed by instinctive and unreasoning reactions to people.” (Barclay)

Are we then to make no judgments at all in this life? Glance at verse 6. Here we see Jesus label some people pigs and dogs. So is He the only one who makes a judgment in the NT? Well, no. Paul pronounces judgment on a man in 1 Corinthians 5 and demands that the Church hand the man be handed over to Satan so as to cause repentance of his wickedness. He further instructed that the Church was “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Corinthians 5:11) Paul made another judgment of the false teachers in Galatia when he wished that they would “emasculate themselves” due to their false yet persistent demanding that Church members be circumcised. There was certainly a judgment there. ¶ There are in fact about 148 or so occurrences of the terms of “judge,” “judging,” etc. in the NT alone. They break down into arguably into 42 contexts. (I placed these verses and categorized their contexts on CrossPoint’s website.) ¶ Therefore, to have an accurate theology regarding judgment, one must consider all the verses of the Bible before coming to hard conclusions. This is an often neglected part of Bible study. ¶ Verse 7:1 is beloved by people, and for many their theology starts and ends with this verse. But as we continue we see that Jesus doesn’t say don’t judge anything ever; He instead teaches what the proper lifestyle of the judge must be.

TRANSITION
The charge --> The fix

The first thing a judge must not be is an actor. Verse 5a You hypocrite, Literally, you actor! Jesus charges many judges of being in the theater of life.

• Non of us likes a hypocrite. It turns out, God doesn’t either.
• He points to the ongoing problem He will face in His earthly ministry: people that stand in judgment are often self-righteous actors.
• But this is what we often do also: we act like we have things together when in reality we are a spiritual mess. To comfort ourselves we throw rocks at others.
• Jesus begins with the remedy to this unflattering behavior in verse 5b first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
  • Here Jesus is teaching that critical, judgmental people are often guilty of greater sins than they are looking to remedy in others.
  • Others are shocked that a self appointed judge would even dare be a judge in someone else’s life due to their utter sinfulness. >>
  • We have seen it plenty. This is when the worst gossip is complaining about someone letting a loose sentence slip off their tongue once a year.
• Another principle Jesus is teaching is that discipleship starts with self then helps others.
  • He calls for judgment to be done in the right way and by the people who have applied themselves to holiness. >>
  • We are not be judge with firewood in our face.
  • When godly people judge the sin of another, they are able to draw on their own past sins that far out weigh the sins of others.
  • Often this is because of the school of discipline. >>
  • In other words, A judge comes along and says, I have seen the end road of the sin you are starting to struggling with. This became a blinding difficulty for me. I am hoping to help you not to have the same consequences in your own life.
  • The Holy Spirit wrote the same message through Paul in Galatians 6:1-2, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

ILLUSTRATION

• In a discipleship group we recently got on the topic of TDCJ murderers.
• One in attendance mumbled, “I can’t believe anyone could ever do that.”
• I replied will the biblical standard regarding murder. 1 John 3:15a, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” If you have hated two people you are a serial killer.
• When God’s standard is accounted for we all stand as humble sinners.
• Hillel the famous Rabbi said, “Do not judge a man until you yourself have come into his circumstances or situation.” (Barclay)
• Barclay wrote about this truth best. He said, “The man brought up in a good home and in Christian surroundings knows nothing of the temptation of the man brought up in a slum, or in a place where evil stalks abroad. The man blessed with fine parents knows nothing of the temptations of the man who has the load of a bad heredity upon his back. The fact is that if we realized what some people have to go through, so far from condemning them, we would be amazed that they have succeeded in being as good as they are.” (Barclay)

APPLICATION

• When we do correct properly, we have reflected and come to accurate conclusions about our own failings before correcting others.
• When we are walking according to the Spirit, we correct with sympathy and understanding as Christ does. Listen to Hebrews 4:15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
• A test: he, he, he, she, she, she, you, you, you. Compare that to we, we, we, us, us, us.
• “You, you, you, he, he, he, she, she, she” is a speck finder.
• “We, we, we, us us us” is a spiritual optometrist, a disciple-maker, one who is sympathetic to the faults he sees in others for he knows that he carries —not only the potential for such things he is assisting his brother with, but he also knows that he carries like guilt.
• If we are are not walking in devoutness towards God, with solid biblical understanding of our own depravity, and with corresponding acts of repentance towards our own sinfulness, we are in no condition to correct our brothers or sisters.

So in closing these are the applicational points of this part of the Sermon on the Mount.

• We should be applying the Father’s judgments to our lives and helping others better understand and apply the same. >>
  • Therefore, we must be familiar with the Bible. How do we ever expect to live the Bible if we don’t know the Bible? How will we ever be good judges if we have not studied all of what God has said in these matters?
  • Applying the right judgment, at the right time, in the right way is harder than it even sounds. We must have a handle on the various truths of the Bible regarding judgment.
• Discipleship starts with our own lives.
  • Instead of our earthly judgmental standard in haughtiness, a heavenly standard in holiness is demanded and needed.
• We should rebuke people at times. The Bible teaches, “Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.” (Leviticus 19:17b) But we need to remember that we serve a merciful, kind, graceful God. We are to more often mirror this grace to others.
• Let us walk in grace as we together pursue perfection together as a family.

Notes

^{Notes from above may not be in numerical order.}

¹ Hal Haller Jr. made an important point when he wrote, “Clarification on the matter of judgment is needed today because Matt 7:1 is often used against Christians to intimidate them from engaging in scriptural judging. The verse is used to promote tolerance of erroneous and destructive beliefs and practices by associating their critics with mean-spiritedness and arrogance. Those who say ‘Judge not’ are often among the first to judge the Bible for what they say are its ‘politically incorrect’ affirmations, examples, prescriptions, and prohibitions.”[693] Constable cited Hal M. Haller Jr., “The Gospel According to Matthew,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, 1:33.

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and I usually include other citation information from Constable as well (e.g. authors’ names).

Other Works Cited

Note: All of the resources below were cited in at least one of the sermons in the Book of Matthew but not necessarily this one.

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. May be sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/1up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Carson, D. A. The Sermon on the Mount : an Evangelical of Matthew 5-7 Exposition. 1978, Baker Book House, fifth printing, 1989. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/sermononmounteva0000cars/page/54/mode/1up

_______. When Jesus confronts the world : an exposition of Matthew 8-10. Originally published by Inter-Varsity Press in 1988, Paternoster, 1995. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/whenjesusconfron0000cars/page/n3/mode/1up

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, web ver.

Davies, W. D. and Dale C. Allison, Jr. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew. T. & T. Clark, 1988. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/criticalexegetic0001davi/page/n7/mode/1up

Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-Luke. Victor, 2003. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/bibleknowledgeba00crai/mode/1up

France, R. T. The Gospel According to Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985.

France, R. T. The Gospel of Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000fran/page/n6/mode/1up

Harrington, Daniel J . The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 1, A Michael Glazier Book, Liturgical Press (publ.), 1991. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000harr/mode/1up

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Plumptre, E. H. “Matthew.” Commentary for English Readers, Charles John Ellicott, Compiler/Editor, Lord Bishop of Gloucester Cassell and Company, Limited, 1905. Sourced from BiblePortal.com. Click here for a list of the authors of the CER.

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

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