Matthew 7:1-6

¹ “Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ⁶ “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.

Commentary

The Lord Jesus’ now moves into the realm of judging, an area of life that can be most problematic for some of us. Now Jesus’ teaching here is often misinterpreted to mean not to judge anyone or anything. But obviously that is not what He meant, for there are evil people and evil works that are done in the earth; and sadly sometimes even in the church that need to be strongly spoken out against, and so the Lord Jesus Christ is not saying don’t “judge” those things (consider vs.6. ; Matt. 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5:1-13; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; 11:1-4; 1 Tim. 5:19-20; 6:5; 2 Tim. 3:8; Jude 3-4; Rev. 2:20-23 etc.). Therefore what the Lord Jesus Christ is warning us about here is the careless, reckless, and or heartless judgment of others that so easily pervades (and corrupts) people’s hearts, thoughts, mouths and lives (consider John 7:24; James 2:1-4, 5-13); especially when this involves “comparing” oneself to another, something that we should never do (consider Luke 18:9-14). For it those kinds of judgments that are so blind to one’s own faults and failings, that they leave little or room for the reconciling of others to God (consider Luke 15:1-31). And so when your “judgment” of another person is only based on our own biases, fears, or only (and often arrogantly) judges them by outward “appearances”, (or worse what others have told you about them), than such judgment is wrong. Same with the self-justifying judgment of others that is so often blind to one’s own sins and transgressions and yet condemns another for theirs (consider Rom 2:1-29).

Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ by commanding us not to judge wants us to end our justifying our judgment of others; for all judgment has been committed to the Son, not to us (John 5:22). And as the Lord Jesus Christ says here if you judge another you will be judged, and by what judgment you use, you will be judged, and the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And so before we go judging others, just as the Lord Jesus Christ says here we need to first look at ourselves and deal with those things that are wrong with us before we start pointing out all the faults and failings in others. Clearly then the Lord Jesus does not want us to focus on the minor faults and failings of others while being totally blind to the major faults of our own. And so Jesus uses a carpenter’s analogy to strongly make His point, saying: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”^{vs. 3} In other words Jesus is saying to us all why do you scrutinize the tinniest of faults of your brother/brethren while you ignore or overlook the major faults that are your own? All too easy to do, to point out others peoples faults and failings, while being willfully blinded to one’s own, and all too often practiced by us all. For that is just being a hypocrite (not a righteous person) as the Lord Jesus dramatically points out in verse five. Therefore we are to first deal with our own faults and failings before we go around scrutinizing anyone else. Now when we do we will soon come to the realization that we need the grace of God just as much as anyone else. Now again this does not mean that we don’t render spiritual and moral judgments as Christ’s disciples or as members in His church Body. But we always do so with great care and caution because we are finite, and thus we must base our “judgments” on facts, not feelings, not gossip and slander, but facts that take into account all of the circumstances, and all of the parties involved, and then we let the Scriptures guide us into how to approach each and every individual and matter, because no two are ever the same. As well we should never think ourselves capable of judging anyone’s motives about anything, because judging motives is one of the areas that Satan often sows discord amongst brethren, since it requires nothing other than he plant a negative thought in one’s mind about another and one believe it. And so be careful what you “believe” about another if your “belief” is only based upon your own thoughts, biases, or fears. Facts not fears (nor gossip and slander) is what we base our “judgment” of others on. Now in the N.T. there are also clear areas where we are not to judge another believer, especially in regards to matters of conscience (that is how they live their lives and practice their faith regarding all non-moral things). For we are not to be each other’s “judges”, judging each other’s person and faith in regards to all non-moral things (see Rom 14:10-12). For each and every believer has been given absolute liberty and freedom by God to do as they think best in regard to how they live their lives, use their gifts, talents, and resources, and ultimately exercise their glorious liberty that Christ purchased for us all on the Cross, so that we can all live rich and full lives (John 10:10). Therefore before anyone gets up on their “high horse” or “throne” and starts looking down upon all the sins and faults of others, they had better make sure they got their own house in order, because the Lord Jesus Christ does not look kindly on the unjust, unfair, and unmerciful judgment of others (James 2:13), just as He does look kindly on the self-righteousness and the self-justifying of oneself.

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.