“Do Not Judge!”

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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?”. (Matthew 7:1-3 ESV).

Jesus continues his teaching to the multitudes on the Sermon on the Mount by explaining that His hearers should not set themselves up as the standard for judging how others live. Remember to whom Jesus was speaking. He was addressing Jews who were living under the Old Testament Law, and who were being taught by Pharisees and scribes who were adding to God’s Law and setting up additional standards for the people to meet. Remember when Jesus was once again teaching, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matt. 23-1-5).  Did you notice that he says the religious leaders are setting themselves up as judges and are trying to hold the people to standards that they themselves will not follow? Which is, by definition, being hypercritical, judging someone by standards that you yourself won’t keep. That is what Jesus addresses in Chapter 7 when He says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.”

Jesus addresses the human tendency to look at someone else’s life and “set in judgment” of them with our own biases.  He is telling everyone not to set themselves up as the standard, not to think they have the right to judge someone else, and not to be a hypocrite. Jesus further tells his followers not to set themselves up as the Law giver and judge, but to realize that they have problems of their own that should be addressed. “You hypocrite, 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.” (7:5). How can we help someone else with a “sin” in their life when we have such a blatant sin of self-righteousness in our lives.

Jesus is saying that they should not set themselves up as the judge of someone else, but should help one another keep the Law as Moses gave it to them. (Again, see Matt. 23:1-5). So, Jesus specifically addressed the hypocritical Pharisees, who judge others when they sin even greater sins than those they judge, and told the people not to do as they did but to do what Moses told them.

Now, where most of us go wrong is that we take this exhortation from Jesus and let it run wild. We say that we are not to judge anyone on anything, that we should “respect” the individual choices that others make, and let them live their lives unimpeded by our standards. Unfortunately, they point to Matt. 7:1 as their biblical basis for this position.

Remember, “context is king,” and we can arrive at some very incorrect conclusions when we take a verse out of its context. Jesus never told his followers “not to judge others,” but He was telling them “not to judge as the Pharisees judge,” not to hold others up to standards that we can not keep ourselves, not to set ourselves up as the standard givers, but to use God’s Word as the standard for all to keep.

For the New Covenant believer, we can take this Biblical truth and apply it to our lives as well. We and our Church leadership often set non-Biblical standards for others to follow, while not following them ourselves. To make matters worse, when we do see a brother or sister in sin, we set ourselves up as the judge and condemner, instead of trying to help them with their sin. There is nothing wrong, in fact it is Biblical, for us to help other believers who have been overcome by a sin and not to judge them according to our standards, but to restore them to fellowship, and help them with their burdens.

So, let’s understand the whole counsel of the words of Jesus, and not just stop with “Judge not lest you be judged!” Instead, let’s do what the Pharisees would not do, and let us help our fellow believers “lift their burdens,” and let’s show them the same grace that God has shown us.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"