Jesus’ Teaching on Judging

1. Read: Matthew 7:1-6

2. About the Text:

1) Psychologists say that the number one judgment that we make daily is whether people are good or bad.

a. We want to know whether we can trust someone or not.

b. We have different levels of trust with different people.

a) Coworkers

b) Church Members

c) Spouses

d) Children

2) The problem comes in when judging creates permanent barriers between people.

a. We judge someone as undeserving of our time, attention, money, etc.

b. If God did that with us, then where would we be in our relationship with Him?

c. We must apply the grace of God in our lives toward others.

d. Judging prevents us from doing that.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. What is judging in general?

1) Judging is an act of discrimination based upon some sort of standard.

2) It means to separate, pick out, put apart, or choose.

3) Based on this definition, everyone judges other people.

4) Jesus is speaking about judging in the sense of condemning another.

2. Jesus’ basic command is “Do not judge.”

1) “No judging ever about anything” – That’s not what Jesus is saying.

2) “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces” (Matthew 7:6).

a. Who are the dogs? Who are the swine?

b. This requires some judging!

3) Jesus also said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

4) “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

5) God does not want us to “write people off.”

6) Everyone deserves a chance and a second chance if they are willing to repent.

7) We are not THE judge; we do not condemn others.

a. “Those who are outside God judges” (1 Corinthians 5:13).

b. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

c. Judging other Christians is outside our purview per (Romans 14:9-13).

8) We share God’s message with them.

9) God’s word does the judging.

10) “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).

11) Our job is to go with people as far as they are willing to go without judgment.

1. Many people want to judge without being judged.

1) Jesus says, “You can’t do that.”

2) When you judge, you open yourself up to being judged.

3) This is basic fairness.

4) If you are going to evaluate someone else, it is only fair that they have the opportunity to evaluate you back.

5) If you don’t let them do that, you are proclaiming yourself better than them.

6) “I have the right to judge you, but you don’t have the right to judge me!”

7) We are all equal in God’s sight – “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

8) We must treat each other as equals.

2. Judging may be used as a form of revenge.

1) If you judge me, then I will judge you back!

2) This is sometimes referred to as the “rule” of reciprocity.

3) Do unto others what they do unto you.

3. Jesus calls us to a higher standard.

1) “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

2) “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

1. Why do we look at (blepeis) the speck in our brother’s eye but do not consider (katanoeo) the plank in our own eye?

2. It is easier to judge someone else than to judge yourself.

3. Why do we not consider the beam that is in our own eye?

4. “I love my beam!”

1) My parents loved it. My spouse loves it. My children love it.

2) Society loves it.

3) It makes me feel good.

4) Does the Lord love it?

5) “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:24-25).

5. “My Beam is not a problem!”

1) This is denial of reality.

2) It is self-deception.

3) “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

4) “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

6. “I don’t want to think about my beam!”

1) If I stop looking at my brother’s life, I will need to examine my own life.

2) It is so much easier to criticize other people than change our own lives.

3) Thinking about our beam means self-examination, which is hard work.

4) Self-examination means that we must own our lives and take responsibility.

5) “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

7. “If I put my beam down, I won’t know what to do.”

1) Many people use sin as a habit/hobby.

2) It’s exciting; it makes them feel “alive.”

3) “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28).

8. “If I put my beam down, I will have to go to work. My beam is my excuse.”

1) Your beam is preventing you from doing the Lord’s work.

2) Evangelize, “but I can’t because I’m holding this beam.”

3) Get involved with the church, “but I can’t because I’m holding this beam.”

4) Visit/help the needy, “but I can’t because I’m holding this beam.”

5) “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

9. “I am afraid of what will happen if I put my beam down.”

1) Don’t let fear control your life.

2) This is a sure path for failure.

3) “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours” (Matthew 25:24-25).

1. If we are truly interested in helping other people, we’ve got to get our own life right first!

1) “My beam is me!”

2) It is an “I” problem.

3) We need to get ourselves out of the way by repenting.

4) That is the big beam that is preventing us from being what the Lord wants.

2. “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

3. This is the big problem the Lord Jesus had with the Pharisees.

1) They were hypocrites.

2) They were always telling other people what to do and how to do it.

3) They themselves were unwilling to do it!

4) What is the bigger issue? The person who is trying but makes mistakes? Or the person who constantly criticizes others without changing his own life?

1. Jesus’ Teaching on Judging is . . .

1) Do Not Judge

2) Judging Creates More Judging

3) Why do we judge?

4) How are we to judge?

2. Invitation