Judgment (Matthew 7 - P 15)

As we continue in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, His treatise on life in His kingdom, read Matthew 7: 1 - 12 today.

What is it about being human that so delights in passing judgement on other people?  Why are we so quick to decide other people's motives?  Why do we presume to know the hearts of others?  Does it somehow make us feel better about ourselves?  Is it that old syndrome of putting someone else down in some weird attempt to build myself up?  That's twisted!  And Jesus leaves no room for it.  He is quite clear ... not difficult to interpret ... quit doing it!  Just stop.  Now.

There are very practical reasons why we should not pass judgement.

1. You cannot know everything there is to know about any circumstance or any person.
2. You cannot be impartial - impossible.
3. You are not good enough to take on the responsibility.  
4. You will have enough trouble handling yourself.  

Psalm 9: 7 - 8 says, "The LORD reigns forever; He has established His throne for judgment.  He will judge the world in righteousness; He will govern the peoples with justice."

Oh ... I see ... God is the judge - not you - not me.  He is the judge because He knows how to judge in righteousness.  

James picks up the theme in his little letter to the church.  We hear him in James 4: 11 - 12 say:

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters.  Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy.  So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

In our common vernacular, we perhaps could translate this as:  Mind your own business.  To judge another is God's business.  You will have enough trouble tending to your own business.  

But lest we interpret these words to mean that we are never to discern between good and evil ... never to make 'judgments' between right and wrong, Jesus adds the words of verse 6 - words that may seem strange on the surface.  Walter Kaiser in his book, Hard Sayings of the Bible writes:

It comes immediately after the injunction "Do not judge, or you too will be judged", with two amplifications of that injunction  you will be judged by the standard you apply in the judgment of others, and you should not try to remove a speck of sawdust from someone else's eye when you have a whole plank in your own.  Then comes this saying, which is a further amplification of the principle, or rather a corrective of it:  you must not sit in judgment on others and pass censorious sentences on them, but you ought to exercise discrimination.  Judgment is an ambiguous word.  In Greek as in English, it may mean sitting in judgment on people (or even condemning them), or it may mean exercising a proper discrimination.  In the former sense judgment is deprecated; in the latter sense it is recommended.  Jesus himself knew that it was useless to impart his message to some people; he had no answer for Herod Antipas when Herod "plied him with many question." (Luke 23:9)

Jesus then paints a picture of God as a loving, caring Father - one that longs to give good things to His children.  So take your concerns and cares and longings and hearts' desires to Him ... trusting His care for you.  Trusting Him with your very life.  

Close your meditation time today with the words of verse 12.  William Barclay calls this verse "the Everest of ethics".  And as you consider it yet again ... read the words slowly ... not allowing familiarity to rob them of their power.  And think - would my behavior toward ____ (person) or _____ (circumstance) change if I allow this to be the check-point through which everything I say and do must pass?  May it be ... from Jesus' heart to ours ...

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.