Matthew 7:1-5

CHAPTER SEVEN

F. THE DANGERS FACING THE WISE AND GODLY MAN

(Matthew 7:1-27; Luke 6:37-49)

1. THE DANGER OF HARSHLY CRITICIZING OTHERS.

(Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37-42)

TEXT: 7:1-5

1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
5. Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a. What is the connection of thought between the message of this seventh chapter and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount?
b. What is a generally universal psychological trait in godly people that makes it necessary for Jesus to begin talking like this to them?

c. What does John 8:7 have to do with the teaching of this passage, if anything?

d. Why does Jesus call a man, who judges harshly, a hypocrite? In what does his hypocrisy show itself, according to Jesus?
e. Must we be free from all faults before correcting others? Prove or explain your answer.
f. What is the connection in which Luke introduces this passage? What does that connection prove about the meaning of this section?
g. Why should Jesus have singled out harsh judgment as such an evil particularly to be avoided by His followers?

PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY

Stop criticizing others, so that you may not be criticized. For exactly as you judge others, you too will be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Make allowance for others and they will make allowance for you: acquit and you will be acquitted, Give, and gifts will be given you. They will give you good measure: pressed down, shaken together and running over, they will pour into your pockets, By your standard of measure others will measure back to you.

Then He told them this illustration: One blind man cannot lead another blind man, can he? Of course, they will, A student cannot rise above the level of his teacher. Rather, when his training is complete he will reach his teacher's level,

Why are you looking at the tiny speck of dust that is in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the girder that is in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me get that speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is that great plank in your own? You hypocrite, first get that log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to take the speck out of your brother's!'' Will they not both fall into a pit?

SUMMARY

Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If he presents himself as a man of superior righteousness and carping critic of others, they will throw his merciless judgment back in his face, and God will also judge him according to the severity he used toward others. But if he judges with a merciful disposition to acquit and his personal generosity is obvious, others cannot do enough good to be generous to him. And God's mercifulness will certainly not be outdone toward such a man who has made allowances for others.

A man whose moral vision is warped is quite incapable of offering himself as the ethical teacher of others whose vision is also distorted. A man cannot teach any better than he himself is willing to be, with the natural consequence that his students, by following his instruction, rise no higher than the source of their moral education. Therefore, self-criticism is in order before criticism of others is even possible, much less allowable.

NOTES

Though it seem that the Lord is changing the subject rather abruptly, yet Luke's narrative (Matthew 6:27-34) shows that the ideas of this chapter have a close logical connection with the principles that Matthew has introduced earlier (Matthew 5:43-48), After having shown how perfection (Matthew 5:48) is spoiled by hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-18), greed (Matthew 6:19-24) and anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34), Jesus now returns to the theme of love of one's neighbor (Matthew 5:43-48) by showing the fallacy of common censorious criticism of others (chap. 7). To Jesus, any religion which leads men to harsh judgment and scorn of others must necessarily be false, because of its lack of love and its legalistic self-righteousness. Nor can any correction of others be really an expression of love if it does not lead to real repentance. We are often tempted to prostitute our powers of discriminating judgment to harmful purposes rather than use them for helping others. So, after He preached against premature, unloving judgment, He balanced His instruction with a clever, proverbial antithesis (Matthew 7:6), arguing that proper distinctions be made. Next He called upon His hearers to make a profound moral judgment regarding their dependence upon God (Matthew 7:7-11), a step, incidentally, which ties the sixth and seventh Chapter s together. Jesus proceeded to urge the audience to judge themselves before judging others (Matthew 7:12) and pointed out other critical areas where very exacting judgment must be exercised (Matthew 7:13-27).

The connection of chapter seven with the rest of the Sermon is also a psychologically necessary one. Those who have attained a measure of growth in the character of Christ are tempted to criticize rather harshly those who have not attained to their measure of perfection. This is especially true if one is conscientious and sincere, because, what one hates in himself as a defect in character he notices more consciously in others. Such high standards mentioned in Chapter s five and six might cause men harshly to judge others who have not even completely understood them, to glory in their own superior holiness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees) and to despise all others. (Cf. Luke 18:9; John 7:45-49) This is possible in spite of the fact that Jesus has, in various ways, hinted at the merciful grace of God and openly stated some of the ethical implications that must be-' operative in the life of the pardoned sinner (Matthew 5:7; Matthew 5:45; Matthew 6:8; Matthew 6:12; Matthew 6:14-15) Now He must make those implications explicit.

Matthew 7:1 Judge not that ye be not judged. That this prohibition is evidence of Jesus-' return to the subject of love, as shown by Luke's close connection (Luke 6:35-37), is clearer when the full command to love one's neighbor be heard (Leviticus 19:15-18):

Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am Jehovah, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am Jehovah.

Even the command to rebuke one's neighbor, rather than let him destroy himself, must be obeyed in the framework of love. Otherwise, the opposite effect is produced, Rather than lead him to see his own sin and repent of it, we cause him to start looking for our sins to judge us. But our responsibility for our neighbor requires that we form some opinion about his conduct, Therefore, let us see

1. What judgments Jesus does NOT intend to prohibit:

a. It is not the ACT of judging in itself which is at stake here, but the SPIRIT of the judge, for Jesus later commands that judgment be made in many areas of life (Matthew 7:12-27). He also immediately qualifies His prohibition with exhortations and prohibitions which touch only the spirit and attitude of the one who must judge (Luke 6:36-38).

b. This ban on judging is no easy-going tolerance of evil, for the Lord requires that we form an opinion about the conduct of others in light of all that He reveals about evil, He expects us to match conduct, both ours and others, against His standard. His word becomes the standard of judgment we must use,

c. Nor can he mean the decisions of civil courts (Romans 13:1-7; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-15).

d. He cannot mean the decision of the Church against sinning brethren (Matthew 18:15-18; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:14; Titus 3:10) nor the decision of brethren in private litigation (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).

e. He cannot mean anything that contradicts the plain commands to judge or the exhortations and information how to go about it. (Cf. Luke 12:13 b, Luke 12:57; John 7:24; Romans 14:5, 2 Corinthians 5:14; 2 Corinthians 5:16; 2 Corinthians 13:5 f; Galatians 6:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 Timothy 5:22; James 2:13; James 5:19-20; 1 John 4:1-6)

Therefore, it is a pious hypocrite that many times advises others never to judge the other fellow, for he may be using the phrase, Judge not. as a protective smoke-screen to escape the valid conclusion of those who know the facts. After all, a dog or a pig or a wolf might subtle try to use this text to shield themselves from the exposure of their real character. But, a dog must be regarded as a dog and a pig as a pig, and they must not be mistaken for priests or pearl merchants! A wolf must be dewooled-' and must not be taken for one of the sheep. Judgment must be made. So what kind of judgment does Jesus mean to prohibit?

2. Jesus means only unmerciful criticism. Luke (Luke 6:36-38) records this prohibition in the context of personal mercifulness. (Cf. James 4:11-12) The evil He forbids is condemnation based upon suspicion and surmises, insufficient evidence or upon unloving opinions or sheer ill will. He is talking about those judgments which are motivated by no real purpose to help the object of the criticism and which are more often nothing but smug self-righteousness. Jesus is hitting hard at the love of finding fault, that secret joy felt when one discovers another's failures, that strong inclination to find the neighbor guilty upon slight proof, that presumptuous investigation of motives and that hell-ignited desire to tell it.

To judge or criticize another is to put oneself in a. position superior to, and removed from, the one he criticizes. But as long as we are men, we do not enjoy that privileged position. A critical spirit makes us hard, cruel and vindictive and, worse yet, quite convinced that we are indeed superior men. This spirit causes us to lose our right enthusiasm for people, permits us to admire none, stifles any spontaneous and whole-hearted approval we might have given, causes us to suspect every motive and depreciate everyone. Thus, our own life is inexorably exiled to our own small desert island of perfection.

Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:

and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.

These two lines, spoken in Hebrew thought parallelism, mean the same thing. Censorious criticism provokes the one judged to retaliate by returning due retribution both in kind and quantity. Jesus has deliberately not named the one who will judge and give back equal measure to the unrighteous critic, because this is an ethical principle that will be used against the critic by:

1. God. To judge implies a knowledge of the standard by which the judgment is given; knowledge of the standard requires perfect fulfilment of its requirements. (Romans 2:1-5; Romans 2:13; Romans 2:17-24) Strict justice requires that every fault, every sin, every indiscretion be accounted for (James 2:9-11), but mercy could waive the sentence (James 2:13). Therefore, Jesus very clearly taught that our personal generosity and willingness to try to understand others' position will determine how the law of divine justice will be applied to us. (See Notes on Matthew 5:7; Matthew 6:12; Matthew 6:14-15; cf. also Matthew 18:21-35, esp. Matthew 18:32-33; Galatians 6:7; Proverbs 26:27) Normally, God is so generous that He would not think of judging men by measure (Cf. Psalms 103:8-14), unless man self-righteously and unmercifully holds his brother to strict justice. In this case, God deals back judgment to the critic just as he dished it out to others: measure for measure, (Cf. Isaiah 65:1-7) It shall be measured to you renders more acute the need for mercy, because it intensifies the severity of judgment, but, ironically, mercy is out of the question because of the unbending hypocrisy of the man who needs the mercy for himself but had never shown it to others. Who would dare stand up before God demanding to be judged just as he judged his fellows? If God judged us like that we would be in hell already! Even if we could be sure of being perfect in everything else, desiring to condemn others would damn us, because such a spirit is so far out of line with the character of a God who takes no delight in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11) and desires that none perish but all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

2. Men. We all tend to respond to the kind of treatment others give us, by paying them back in their own coin, whether it be love, appreciation and generosity, or whether it be lynx-eyed criticism, fault-finding and no more helpful service than is absolutely necessary. Luke (Luke 6:37-38) graphically stimulates us to be open-hearted, understanding, forbearing and generous.

3. Ourselves. Worse yet, we deal out to ourselves what cruel depreciation we use against others. Those who are hypercritical of others, by a process of projection, believe that people are just as carpingly cynical of them. They are forced to beware of all others, feeling that others are looking at them with severely critical eyes. Such a feeling of tension is built up in them that they cannot relax.

With what standard they judge others, they thus judge themselves.

A little mercy could break this vicious round of self-condemnation.

For these reasons we must grow sceptical of our best estimates of human character, because our decisions are so temporary, so fallible. Based on such incomplete data as they are, God may easily and justly reverse them completely. Humility on our part is what Jesus wants, because only thus could He save us from the conceit, hypocrisy and beastly self-righteousness involved in such a rebuke of others. (Cf. Ezra 9:5-15; Nehemiah 1:4-7; Psalms 106:6; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 3:25; Daniel 9:3-20) The thought of facing the cruel sentences we have handed down to others should drive us to immediate repentance and confession of sin! As you would that others should judge you, judge them accordingly.

Matthew 7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? How can you even see (blepeis) the mote, that speck of sawdust, straw or anything significant, in another's eye and not even notice (katanoeo) the beam, or huge timber used as a beam or rafter, in your own? This humorous but pathetic scene Jesus describes is that of a man with a rafter sticking out of his eye who tries to get a good look at his brother's eye to remove something almost invisible. The Master emphasizes the ridiculous character of the hypercritical censor who would condemn others without realizing or admitting his own failures. The lesson stings: he who has a serious and disgusting character fault but overlooks it and goes around offering his services to one who has some small fault is exactly what the Lord called him: ahypocrite. Jesus regards as one of the worst sins of the spirit the attitude of being intensely critical of others and, at the same time, without the least power of self-criticism.

Beams are any fault, any sin, any inconsistency with the truth. that hinders correct, righteous judgment. One of the biggest beams is one's inability to form a correct judgment, This is true because he usually possesses an attitude that disqualifies him for doing the best for those who are the objects of his criticism. Without self-knowledge and self-reform, one's work is but presumption not love. He is also disqualified because of the common but glaring failure to know all the facts in the case. (Cf. John 7:24; 1 Timothy 5:24) Appearances are deceiving to us too. Some men's good and evil remain hidden to us, perhaps at the very moment when we are gathering our facts upon which our judgment will be based.

Another beam in our eye is the possibility of our condemning in others what is not really sin, Jesus and Paul were condemned for revealing God's true will as against the popular views, We will be castigated for our relation to Jesus, Eli misjudged Hannah (1 Samuel 1:12 f). Job's three friends had falsely accused him.

A third beam is the fact that we are not ever sympathetically aware of the strength of the temptations before which he has fallen, or the length of time our brother resisted without our help before he fell (Galatians 6:1-7; 1 Corinthians 10:13) nor have we rightly considered how we would have reacted to that which felled him (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Another beam may be our tendency to judge ourselves and others, not according to perfect justice, but by that standard which we ourselves have reached. Besides using a false standard, we only expose our ignorance and immaturity, (2 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 10:18)

A fifth beam might be that our own faults and prejudices tend so to warp our judgment that what we see in this is but a projection of our own faults.

A sixth beam might be our presumptuous seizure of the divine prerogative, because the right of such censorship does not belong to us. (Romans 14:10-13; 1 Corinthians 4:3-5; 2 Corinthians 5:10) It is a meddling in God's domestic affairs (Romans 14:4),

Not the least, to be forgotten, is any sin about which the human judge seems so little concerned, Considerest not does not mean that the judge concealed his sin; it means that, for the moment, he had conveniently forgotten it. But is this really possible to a person who matches his imperfect brother up against the law I which must certainly point out the critic's own faults? At best, the critic must pretend to be far better than he is, to be so pained by the presence of some trifling fault that h is forced by his sensitive conscience (which ignores his own sin!) to try to remove his brother's error. Many are zealous to convert the world when they are themselves yet unconverted. What is worse, they may be so completely blinded by their self-righteousness as to be perfect unaware of their true condition, feeling themselves to be sincere and right in lashing their neighbor.

Matthew 7:4 How wilt thou say? What kind of brazenness does it require to adopt this patronizing tone of smug condescension! A classic case in point is the self-righteous elder brother (a. Matthew 15:25-30) who graphically portrayed the Pharisees and scribes (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus is not denying that the other brother did have a mote in his eye.

But He is more concerned with the impudence of the severe critic who would justify himself by claiming, But I am just telling the truth; I am just calling them as I see them! Jesus argues, So what if it is true that he has a mote? How can you pretend to be qualified to remove it?

Luke (Luke 6:39-40) records two sparkling proverbs that Jesus used to illustrate this basic principle of judgment:

1. Blind leading the blind: both fall into the pit. Before offering our leadership to others, we must first examine our own conscience lest we be mere hypocrites who want to provide more direction to other sinners. In this context, this proverb has nothing to do with our being blind men who follow blind guides (as in Matthew 15:14), but with our being morally unqualified to be such guides as we pretend to be. The point is not: Beware of blind leadership, but -Beware of giving blind leadership.

2. Disciple not above teacher, but when perfected will be like him. Plummer (Luke, 190) notes: Disciples will not get nearer the truth than the teacher goes; and therefore teachers must beware of being blind and uninstructed, especially with regard to knowledge of self. The disciple will not excel his master; at the best he will only equal him. And, if the master has faults, the disciple will be likely to copy them.

Matthew 7:5 Cast out first. Consistency requires this first step. But before we can cast out that which hinders our vision and judgment, we must retreat in shame and embarrassed confusion, confessing that the beam is there. We must arrive at the point where we admit: God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am! I have sinned! This confession of sin, when truly and deeply felt, psychologically prepares us to be fitter judges, because it restores our humility, our knowledge and fear of personal failure and destroys our cocksure self-righteousness. The more critical we are of ourselves, the more merciful we will tend to be toward the failures of others, but the one who feels he is so g d as to need little mercy from God, will have but meager compassion for others. As Jesus observed elsewhere (Luke 7:36-50), the ability to love may be in direct proportion to how much we think we need forgiveness. But if we admit that God has forgiven and helped us remove our greater fault, we can never despair of anyone, for God is able to make him stand. (Romans 14:4)

And then thou shalt see clearly to cast out. Jesus has never denied, but rather here reaffirms, the necessity to form a critical opinion about a brother which may issue in a rebuke of his sins, True love for him absolutely demands that he be helped by such an admonition (see on Matthew 7:1), but he who so admonishes him must proceed from an entirely different spirit, and when painfully conscious of personal weaknesses, will actually do so.

This section is an important context in which to study Jesus-' warnings about false prophets (Matthew 7:15-19), because a man whose own life is not in order is in no position to unmask the falsity of the other, When the glaring failures of a Christian are put up beside the conduct and character of a false prophet, the false prophet always gains by the comparison, Detection of the false prophet becomes even more difficult when he is camouflaged by the inconsistencies of the flock. But where every true disciple of Jesus living in a state of constant repentance and conduct consistent with their confession, the false would become more readily noticeable by contrast.

Again this section is humbling to those who must judge the false prophets, because Jesus does not intend to reveal the sin and unbelief of the false prophet in order to make His disciples self-righteous and smugly satisfied with their orthodoxy. They must never arrive at the point where, even with respect to a false teacher, they say, Thank God, I am not like him! They must ever recall that there, but for the mercy of God, stand they.

FACT QUESTIONS

1. List at least 10 NT passages which require that a Christian, to be faithful and obedient to God, make judgments, and which tell him how to make such judgments.
2. What limitations are placed on the prohibition against judging, by these passages listed above?
3. What kind of judging is actually forbidden?
4.

Who will judge us as we have judged others?

5. What additions to Jesus-' general discussion of judging does Luke record, and what point are these additions intended to convey? In what connection does Luke introduce them? How does this connection help to get at Jesus-' meaning, even as it is introduced by Matthew?
6. What is a mote and a beam? What is the meaning that they are intended to convey in Jesus-' comic representation?
7. Explain the connection between this section and what Jesus has to say about false teachers.
8. Does Jesus, in this section, admit the necessity to judge a brother? If so, under what conditions?