Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 7, verses 1 through 6. when all the time
there is a plank in your own eye. You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and
then you will see clearly to remove the speck
from your brother's eye. 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. The word
of the Lord. Order, I say. Order. Order. We're
going to begin this, call this service to order.
Order. These are awesome. Does anyone have one
of these? These are fantastic. Order. You're
out of order, Ted. Ted, you are out of order.
Bailiff, remove this man. Remove this man. These
are way too fun. I think I want to take one of
these to the next advisory board meeting and
just take it over, just start hammering away
at that thing. I think the truth is we all love
to play the judge, right? We all love the idea
of having the gavel in our hand and making decisions
about what's right and what's wrong and what's
good and what's bad. But the question, of course,
is are we supposed to be? The ones with the gavel
in our hand? Are we supposed to be people who
judge? Now that is the question we're going to
attempt to tackle today. Because we're in the
middle of this teaching series, which is called
The Bible Doesn't Say That. Where we're looking
at some verses that are in the Bible. At least
we think that they're in the Bible. But they
might actually not be in the Bible. But even
if they are in the Bible, maybe they don't mean
what we think that they mean. And today we are
coming to this one. Of course. Don't judge. Just
about everybody believes, assumes, and knows
that the Bible says don't judge. And it's not
just that we think the Bible says that, but we
like to say that too. We live in a culture where
we're always saying, don't judge. Don't judge
me. You can't judge me. You know, somebody decides
to eat a whole family -sized bag of potato chips
in one sitting. And they look at you and they
say, don't judge me. right? Or they decide, you
know, they're going to walk in 10 minutes late
to church with Starbucks in their hands, and
they say, don't judge me. Or maybe you, you know,
you still like to listen to Nickelback, and you
say, no, don't, don't judge me, don't judge me.
My kids tell me this, you know, at the dinner
table, sometimes if we're sitting down, hearing
about their day, and if I say, oh, if I do that,
then, oh, dad, don't be so judgy. Right? That's
the language of the day. And celebrities, if
they get into trouble and they do something that
they shouldn't do, they just say, hey, you can't
judge. Don't judge me. Right? It's like a get
her to jail free card for their conscience. Right?
So we need to talk about this phrase because
we're always talking about this phrase. The other
reason we need to talk about this is that it
is... Believed, I think, by a great many people
that in the church, Christians do way too much
judging. In fact, there were two researchers,
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. And I don't know,
10 or more years ago, they wrote a book called
Un -Christian. The book was based on lots and
lots of research. They asked like tens of thousands
of people who weren't Christians. They asked
them just one simple question. And the simple
question was this. What words best describe your
impression of Christians? That's what they asked
10 ,000 people who weren't Christians. And the
answers were very sobering. The top three, I
only listed the top three, but were anti -homosexual.
That's what came to their mind right away. Second
was judgmental, and third was hypocritical. Now
again, those numbers don't reflect the actual
behavior of every Christian or their actual beliefs,
but this is the perception. This is the perception.
Judgmental is right up there at the top. So we're
known. As the gavel people. Christians are known
as the people who wield the gavel. We're judgmental
according to their impression. And you can check
out some quotes from this book. It's actually
got some pretty telling quotes. One is, we have
become famous for what we oppose rather than
what we are for. It's interesting because Jesus
was famous for how he extended compassion and
welcomed to sinners. But now Christians have
become famous for their disapproval. of others.
Another quote was, the primary reason outsiders
feel minimized and rejected by Christians is
that they believe Christians are too focused
on pointing out other people's faults. That kind
of speaks for itself. Or this one, they say we're
judgmental, not because we tell people that they're
wrong, but because we act as if we are right.
So it's not just what we say, but it's our posture,
it's our tone, it's our attitude. Here's the
deal. On the one hand, you've got a culture that
loves to go around and say, don't judge. You
can't judge. On the other hand, you've got a
church who is known for judging. So we've got
to talk about this, right? To judge or not to
judge. To hold the gavel. Or not to hold the
gavel? That is the question. And so what we're
going to do today is we're just going to go through
that passage that J .P. just read for us. It's
like literally the most famous passage on the
topic of judgment right in the Sermon on the
Mount. Matthew 7, verses 1 to 6. And this is
the thing. I know we're looking for easy answers
for questions like this, but you're not going
to get an easy answer with this one. In fact,
when you come to this passage and you ask, should
we judge others? I think this is actually the
answer that you get. You get this answer. Should
we judge others? Should we judge? No. But in
some ways, yes. But seriously, Jesus says no.
But then again, he says yes. But then in the
end, he says, maybe not. No, I'm not trying to
be silly. I'm not trying to be cute or funny.
I actually think that if we read this, we'll
see this is not a simple yes or no. This is not
a simple either or. There is a tension, a back
and forth in this passage that we have to wrestle
with. I've given you some sermon notes if you
want to follow along. Let's dive right in. Should
we judge? The first answer is no. Simplest answer
is no. Most straightforward reading of this passage
is no. Jesus says in Matthew 7, put the gavel
down, put the gavel away. He says right off the
hop, do not judge or you too will be judged.
Sounds conclusive, sounds open and shut. And
at first glance, it's like Jesus saying, never
judge, ever judge. He actually goes on to say,
don't judge or you too will be judged. Now that
I find is interesting. Because Jesus doesn't
actually tell us who will judge us if we are
the type of people who judge. Who exactly is
this person who's going to judge us back? Well,
I think there's probably a couple answers that
you could support from the Bible. The first is
that other people will judge you back if you
judge them. If you're harsh, critical, and cynical,
if you're always pointing at other people's faults,
then guess what? It's not a surprise when it
comes back. to you, right? People are going to
respond in kind. And you know what? People will
start to avoid you. They'll be defensive. They
might retaliate. Because there's this thing about
human relationships that you kind of reap what
you sow. I'm not saying it's karma, but you reap
what you sow, Jesus says, right? So Jesus actually
adds on to this. He says, because with the measure
you use, it'll be measured to you. Now this is
interesting because this is actually language
from the marketplace. When you went to the grocery
store in Jesus' day, when you went to the market,
you didn't buy pre -packaged goods. You would
buy... stuff in bulk. And so it would have to
be weighed out. It would have to be measured
out and poured out. And the trouble was, some
vendors were really shady. So they'd have a little
scoop. They'd say, oh, I'll give you three scoops.
But in the bottom of the scoop, there was a bump.
So the scoop didn't actually hold as much as
you thought it did. Or, you know, they would
have scales that had weights, counterweights
on them. But the counterweights didn't actually
weigh what the counterweight said that it weighted.
Or vessels that were deceiving. You know, you
thought you got a liter of oil, but instead all
you really got was about 800 milliliters of oil.
And the point is you got less than was fair.
You got less than you deserve. And if you got
caught doing that kind of thing in the marketplace,
then actually other vendors would start doing
the same thing to you. They'd start ripping you
off. They would cheat you right back. And so
the image that Jesus is kind of using here, he's
saying, listen, if you short measure, people,
then you know what? If you judge and criticize
other people, don't be surprised when that same
measure gets used against you. So don't judge
or you too will be judged. Okay, I think it's
safe to say yes, we will be judged by other people
back. But I think it is also true that Jesus
could be meaning that if you judge others, you
will also be judged by God. harshly in return.
So Paul seems to say stuff like this in some
of his letters. He says, you then, why do you
bother to judge your brother or sister? Or why
do you treat them with contempt for... We will
all stand before God's judgment seat as if to
say, like, listen, if you're going to be real
harsh on the people around you and treat people
around you with contempt, you better be worried
when you step before God's judgment seat because
God will judge you back with the measure that
you judged. Is that where it's going? You know,
then, therefore, judge nothing before the appointed
time, Paul says. Wait until the Lord comes. Judging.
is his job. That's Paul's point here. You don't
know someone's whole story. You don't know what's
going on in their lives. You see their actions,
sure, but you don't see their motives, right?
Only the final judge, the real judge, God, can
make those kind of judgments about a person.
So you put the gavel away. It's not your gavel.
It's God's gavel. God is the one who gets to
judge. And he will judge you. in the way that
you judge others. And by the way, I should just
state that this inclination that we have to judge
goes right back to the Garden of Eden. This,
you could say, the original sin was that we wanted
to be the ones to decide what is good and what
is bad, what is evil and what is true, right?
Adam and Eve were told, don't eat of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. But they couldn't
resist. They wanted to be the ones to know what
was good and evil and to decide what was good
and evil and to make those decisions. And so
whenever we judge others, it's the same temptation
that happened to Adam and Eve. We're trying to
play God. We're trying to do God's job. So there
you go. It should be an open and shut case. Should
we judge? No, Jesus says. No, no, no, no. But
actually, It's not that simple, because in some
ways, yes. Yes, of course, in some ways we should
judge. You might be like, Rob, what do you mean?
You can't just do that? Yes, you can actually,
because if you look at the Greek word for judge,
which is the word krino, it's like the English
word for judge. It's got all sorts of different
meanings to it, right? So at a basic, basic level,
to judge simply means to decide, to make a decision.
To look at two options, oh, there's this and
this. Which one will I choose? And to choose
one is to krino. That is to decide. So let's
give you a few examples. If you had to choose
between chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream,
how many would choose chocolate? How many would
choose vanilla? You just judged. You guys are
so judgy. Or how about this one? You're trying
to replace your phone. Are you going to go with
an iPhone or an Android? How many say iPhone?
How many say Android? Trevino, you're not even
answering. Come on, what's going on? All right,
get in there. This is supposed to be interactive,
right? So yeah, you guys are so judgy. You're
always making these judgments. You're crino -ing
all the time. That's what judging is. It's just
making a decision. I'll give you another one.
Dogs or cats? What do you think about this? How
many say dogs? Hey, how many say cats? Yeah,
so you gotta make a good judgment. Some of you
have impaired judgment, apparently. But see,
we're always making these judgments. And this
kind of judging, Jesus is not saying, don't judge,
don't be a thinking person. No, no, no. I mean,
there's a way we're supposed to judge, to decide
things. Then, of course, there is the way to
understand a judge is just like a judge judge.
Like when you're watching TV and there's these
people on stage and they're singing. and they're
dancing, and they're throwing flaming batons,
and there's this group of people that are staring
at them, and they're, what are these people?
They are... They're judges, right? So they're
trying to decide. Do we give them the golden
buzzer? Do we pass them? Do we fail them? Do
we say yes? Do we say no? Or you go maybe to
the Aaron Fall Fair, and at the Fall Fair, there's
this guy in a ball cap, and he's taking these
tastes of these butter tarts, and he's making
notes in a little piece of paper. Oh, this one's
flaky. This one's burnt. This one is the winner.
He's a judge. He's judging. Or, of course, everybody's
favorite judge has got to be Judge Judy. right?
My favorite Judge Judy line is, don't pee on
my leg and tell me it's raining. Isn't that great,
right? Now, she's actually a judge. She's a judge,
and we need judges to exact justice and to have
a society that works. My point is, I'm just trying
to say, this word, crinno, To judge has all these
different meanings. It's not always bad. And
in fact, sometimes judging is really, really
important. In fact, in the Bible, judging is
often associated with discerning, making a wise
and careful decision about something going on
in your life. It's the same Greek word. So for
example, when Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus
to avoid spending time in the province of Asia,
for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem. Paul,
that's the same verb. Paul crinoed. Paul made
a judgment about where God was calling him as
he went about his missionary work. Or the early
church leaders were trying to decide how to welcome
Gentiles into the church. And James stood up
and he said, it is my crino, therefore, that
we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles
who are turning to God. Again, an important,
godly judgment. had to be made there. In fact,
let's just throw this whole thing on its head.
Jesus goes so far as to basically say, you guys
need to judge correctly. Judge, go ahead and
judge. He says, stop judging by mere appearance.
Instead, judge correctly. So there you have it.
Jesus just told us to judge, but to do it correctly.
He's encouraging a kind of judgment, right? but
do it wisely. So that's why I say, that's why
I said that to judge can also mean just to discern.
To discern, to do the right thing. And actually,
as followers of Jesus, we need to be very discerning.
As we grow in our discipleship, as we grow in
our following of Jesus, we have to be able to
judge between what is good and what is bad and
what is true and what is evil and what is better
and what is best. Jesus wants us to grow that
way by crinoing, by judging wisely. Okay, so
should we judge? No. That's Jesus' first word.
But in some ways, yes, we have to learn how to
discern between good and bad. But he's not done.
Because then Jesus says, actually though, seriously?
No, you should not judge. And what Jesus is saying
here is he is talking about a certain type of
judgment that we must never do. This is the type
of judgment that makes people look at Christians
and hate the way that they act. Because what
he is talking about is not, good discernment
or wise decision making. No, no. He is talking
about self -righteous condemnation. That is serious
And that is a serious no -no. Whenever we claim
a position of superiority and we make a decision
about someone based on their actions or based
on their appearances, or even we make a decision
on where they stand before God, often judging
them way more harshly than we would ever judge
ourselves, Jesus says, no. Seriously, no. That
type of judging is off limits. And to get his
point across, Jesus has this absurd sense of
humor. He tells this little parable. He says,
why do you look at a speck of dust in your brother's
eye and pay no attention to the plank in your
own eye? Some translations would say beam. In
your own eye or log in your own eye. How can
you say to your brother, let me take the speck
out of your eye when all the time there is a
plank in your own eye? Jesus says, don't you
dare try to do microsurgery with tweezers on
your brother's eye when you have got a two by
four sticking out of your face, right? This is
silly. It's exaggerated. It's funny. But don't
laugh it off because there are two things in
here. The implications are huge, okay? Here's
the first implication. The first implication
is if you see someone doing something that seems
wrong or self -destructive from your point of
view, you need to assume that you do not see
it clearly, right? Because you've got a two -by
-four. in your eyeball, right? You think you
can see, but you can't see. So you've got your
own issues going on. You've got your own blind
spots, your logs, your beams, your planks. You
have impaired vision. You might be able to see
their behavior. You might be able to see what
they're doing, but you cannot see their motives.
And human beings are really, really complex creatures.
So Jesus says, here's what happens. Just assume
you're missing something. Oh, you see someone
and they look like they're doing something destructive.
Just assume you saw it wrong, you're seeing it
wrong, that your vision is distorted, right?
That should be your first thought. That's normally
not our first thought. Our first thought is condemnation.
Our first thought should be, I must not be seeing
this right, right? What Jesus is saying through
this parable. You've got a log in your eye. You
can't possibly be seeing this right. That should
be your first assumption. Your second assumption,
though, is even maybe more convicting. You have
to assume not just that you can't see properly,
but you have to assume actually that your own
problems are bigger than theirs. I mean, look
at Jesus' language. There is a speck in your
neighbor's eye, but you have a two -by -four
in your eye. Who has the bigger problem? You
do, right? He doesn't say you both have logs
in your eyes. He doesn't say you both have specks
in your eyes. He says this deliberate reversal.
You are the one with the bigger problem. That
totally flips your feeling about judgment. It
means that if I am ever tempted to judge someone,
I should actually start by assuming they are
doing way better than I am doing. And that the
issues and the sins in my life are actually way
worse than in theirs. In other words, we are
not called to condemn. We're called to deal with
our own plank first. We're not called to prosecute
people's faults. We're called to do the hard
work we have to do and humble ourselves to deal
with this thing that's in my life, this thing
that's in my eye. Start with yourself. Do honest,
hard reflection because it is only when you recognize
the depth of your own need and your own need
for grace that you will actually stop swinging
the gavel and you will instead start reaching
for the cross, right? That's a huge shift in
thinking. So let's go back. So should we judge?
No. But in some ways, yes, we have to be discerning
as we grow as followers of Jesus. But seriously
though, no. No, no condemnation, no self -righteousness
is allowed. You think that would be the end of
it, but it's actually not the end of it because
Jesus kind of continues to say, but then again,
then again, yes, there is a time, there is a
place for you to still speak truth into the life
of one of your brothers or sisters if you think
that their decisions are harmful, if you think
the decisions they're making are misguided. Let's
just go back to the reading. Go back to the reading.
Did Jesus say we should never say anything? To
someone else. Let's read it together. Is that
what he said? No. He said, first, take the plank
out of your own eye. And then you will see clearly
to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Okay? So, actually, you can remove the speck
from your brother or sister's eye. But it's only
after... You've dealt with your own issues. So
yes, you can help others. Yes, you can speak
truth to others, but only from a position of
humility. Only when you've admitted you got your
own two -by -four. Only when you see that there's
a telephone pole coming out of your own eyeball.
It's only when you admit. That you are a person
in desperate need of the grace of God and that
you have serious, serious issues. It's only after
you have gone to Jesus and you have said, Jesus,
I'm messed up. And it's only after you've heard
Jesus say to you, I don't condemn you, I love
you, I forgive you, I've got lots of grace for
you. It's only after you've heard that and it's
only after that grace has transformed your heart
and transformed your life that it's only then
only then and only then do you have the ability
to go to another person and say with the same
grace and the same compassion that Jesus just
showed to you, friend, I need to talk to you
about something. I'm worried about you. Can we
have a conversation? That's the only way it can
be done. And that's why I actually think it is
really important that every week here at Trinity
we... we do this thing called communion. Because
when you come forward to communion, do you know
what you're saying? You are not saying, I'm better
than anybody else, or I've lived a more holy
life than anyone else. No, all of us come to
communion basically admitting I'm guilty as charged.
I've got a plank in my eye. I have blown my life.
My life is totally a mess. I cannot live my life.
In fact, my life is so shot that I actually need
somebody else to live my life for me. I need
Jesus. I need the grace of Jesus. Jesus had to
die for me. Things were that bad in my life.
That's what you're saying, actually. Every time
you walk up here and take the bread and the wine,
you're saying, my only hope in this life is Jesus.
If we all do that every week, then you know what?
That changes us. Because pretty soon, we realize
we're not a community where one person is set
over and against another. No, we are all with
each other. And we all needed Jesus to die for
us. We all needed his grace. That's the way forward.
It's the way forward. It's the only way forward.
Once we've been humbled, only once we've been
humbled to that degree, can we help others with
their speck. Will these conversations we have
with people be tough and messy? Absolutely. But
we can do it. We can do it. In fact, your neighbor
needs you to point out the speck in their eye.
And you need your neighbor to point out the speck
in your eye too. But it only happens in a community
where there are less gavels and more mirrors,
more self -reflection. So, That should be it,
right? You think that's where Jesus should probably
end with, but he actually doesn't. He says, should
we judge? No, we should not judge. But in some
ways, of course, yes, we have to judge to discern.
But seriously, no, no self -righteous condemnation.
But then again, yes, once you've done that humbling
work, then you can, in fact, go to your brother
and sister and talk to them about the speck in
their eye. But Jesus says, but actually, in the
end, in the end, maybe it's still not a good
idea. to have that conversation. Because even
if you've removed the log from your eye, and
even if you've humbled yourself, and even if
Jesus has gotten right to the heart of you, and
even if your wisdom is right and what you have
to say is important, even then you may not want
to say anything to them because they're not ready
to hear it. They're not ready to hear it. Jesus
says, don't give to dogs what's sacred. Don't
throw... your pearls to the pigs. If you do,
they're just going to trample them under their
feet and they might even turn and tear you to
pieces. What a strange story that is. What is
he talking about? This is important. Jesus is
making a serious point that pearls are... A pearl
and sacred things are the wisdom you have to
offer someone else. It's the hard -earned insights
that you have learned through a life of discipleship
and spiritual growth, and you want to share that
with your brother who has the speck in their
eye. You want to, but Jesus is warning, don't
share it with people who just aren't in a place
to hear it yet, right? There are times... When
people aren't ready to hear it, they're too hurt
still, or they're just too defensive, or they
don't trust you enough, frankly, to hear it from
you. And if you push that conversation, if you
push too far, too fast, it can go very badly,
like dogs and pigs ripping you to shreds very
badly. It can go very badly for you and for the
church community if we're not ready to have those
conversations. It can backfire. So that's why
the take -home here is that even truth, must
be shared with wisdom or else it gets trampled.
Wisdom isn't just knowing what to say. It's knowing
when to say it. It's knowing how to say it. And
it's knowing that sometimes the most loving thing
you can do is actually stay silent. Keep praying
and wait for the right moment. Timing is everything.
And trust takes time. So, what? does the Bible
say? Should we judge? No. But in some ways, yes.
But seriously, no. But then again, yes. But in
the end, maybe not. And somehow, if we as a church
can learn to live out that messy, complicated,
tensioned way of life, then it will be messy,
but it'll also be beautiful. It'll be beautiful,
and maybe then the world will actually start
to see Christians not as judgmental people, but
as gracious people, and as good people, and as
people who reflect Jesus himself. So thanks be
to God. Amen.