Go Ahead Judge Me, I Need It: Understanding Matthew 7:1
Years ago I worked as an Account Executive for a direct mail advertising agency. The General Manager of the agency was a prominent Christian who often gave his testimony at community-wide evangelical events. He would begin our sales meeting each day with an inspirational devotional thought from scripture. He openly shared his testimony and Christian faith with his employees and clients. As I sat in those sales meetings I sensed something was wrong. The atmosphere was just not right. His clear presentations of the gospel were ridiculed by the other sales people. Then I found out why.While he proclaimed the gospel verbally he, a married man, was involved sexually with a married sales woman. I was disappointed, hurt and embarrassed. His actions not only discredited his testimony. It discredited mine. Any attempt I made to share the gospel with my colleagues was met with derisive comments about what the couple was doing. One day I very carefully and quietly discussed my frustration with another Christian employee.
Our first concern was that the business had been founded on the Christian testimony of it owners. Our boss was discrediting that testimony. Second, the manager and saleswoman, both our mutual friends, were engaging in behavior that could potentially destroy their families, their personal lives, and called their eternal destiny into question (1 Corinthians 6:9). As we prayed and talked about our responsibilities to our friends, and as employees in a company founded on a Christian testimony, we felt compelled to gently and respectfully confront our boss about his sinful behavior:
"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." (Galatians 6:1 ESV)
Our conversation with the General Manager went exactly as I expected it to go. When we talked about the awkward and uncomfortable mood in the sales meetings, he acknowledge the affair, but found ways to rationalize his behavior with his Christian testimony. He agreed that it was inappropriate for him to start the weekly sales meeting with biblical devotionals as "the situation would make some people uncomfortable." When we exposed the hypocrisy of his personal life and the impact his actions were having on him, the woman, their families, and the business, he became very defensive saying it was none of our business and and accused us of judging him and quoting, Matthew 7:1 :
“Judge not, that you be not judged."
My friend and I were prepared for this response and I said to him, "We are prepared to be judged, and the integrity of the kingdom of God and the testimony of Christ and his church is our business, because your actions dishonor God and destroys our credibility as Christians in this office." We both thought we would be fired that day; instead, after dismissing us from his office he stopped giving devotionals in sales meetings with out comment or explanation. There were never any change in his personal life. His relationship with myself and the other employee, with whom he had been a life long friendship, became strained because in his view we were judgmental.
Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged," is perhaps the most well known and misused statement of Jesus Christ. When understood in context, the passage, is not a shield for an immoral person to hide behind.
We live in an amoral culture; anything goes. Moral is what feels good and keeps the peace. The church is not much different. Most of American Christianity practices what evangelist Billy Graham used to call "cheap grace," that says the law has no influence on our lives. Many live the Christian life as if it doesn't matter how you live as long as you believe. It is a heresy that theologians refer to as being antinomian, living the Christian life without relationship to any moral law. Yet even a casual reading of the scripture shows that while it is not how we live that save us, salvation changes how we live (Ephesians 2:8-10). We do not conform to the law, but we are transformed by the power of the Spirit in accord with the Law (Romans 7:1-8:11). That transformation clearly puts us at odds with the way people live in the world.
The difference is rooted in how we think:
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.(Romans 12:2 ESV)"
If we think like the world thinks, we will live like the world lives, but if our mind is transformed by the Spirit we will carry out God's will perfectly. Because behavior is the result of our belief. Our actions show what we believe. The Sermon on the Mount is about how people whose lives are transformed by the Spirit. We live in a culture much like Jesus' where righteousness is often mis-characterized. There are plenty of people going around condemning the behavior of others when their's is no better. We all know people who set themselves up as a sort of morality police, who in the name of Christ call opinions or behaviors anathema if they disapprove or disagree with them. We call these kind of people Pharisaical
While far from discouraging confrontation Matthew 7:1 is a caveat for those of us who are called to confront sin, to avoid either antinomian heresy or Pharisaical disapprobation. The phrase is one small statement in the longest Sermon Jesus preached, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1 -7:48) which is about how to live righteous lives in an unrighteous world (5:13-14). Jesus says he came "to fulfill the law,"and to teach his followers to live in a way that exceeds the righteousness of the "scribes and the Pharisees." The Sermon on the Mount is the moral code for the Christian. Its purpose is to dispel the notion that the gospel has no moral requirement and to discredit the kind of disingenuous external conformity of the Pharisees. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 ESV). To use "Judge not lest you be judged" to offer his audience an excuse a justification for their sin would discredit the entire sermon.
So to argue that Matthew 7:1 means that we must accept sin because we may ourselves be guilty of sin mischaracterizes the verse. Or to go to the next step that Christ's follower should ignore belief or behavior that seems to be inconsistent with the gospel makes discipleship a travesty. There are several examples in the New Testament where Christians are commanded to separate from other believers (1 Corinthians 5:1-5; 2 Timothy 4:9-13; 1 John 2:19) due to their behaviors or beliefs. Jesus made it quite clear that the gospel carries with it a moral authority (Matthew 16: 18-20; 18:15-19; John 20:21 &22) and a transforming power (2 Corinthians 5;17; Galatians 6:15). Since the Sermon on the Mount is an admonition to display the righteous life of the gospel in the world, and since we are admonished to correct one another, what is meaning of Matthew 7: 1?
“Judge not, that you be not judged." is set in the concluding section of the sermon where Jesus compares the truth of the gospel with the hypocrisy of Pharisees and the dis-ingenuity of the antinomian (Matthew 7:15-22). He says,“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2 ESV). Only judge if you are willing to be judged by the same standard you use. The way we judge others is the way will be judged. The self-righteous, punctiliousness of the Pharisees was inadequate to transform the human heart. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 ESV). The "it doesn't matter how you live as long as you believe" attitude of the antinomian life is counterfeit religion (Matthew 7:15-20). Never let the standard of judgment be something you can not meet. Never measure anyone's righteousness by yours. Ask people to be holy as he is holy, not to live the same way you do:
" Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5 ESV)
When we counsel or correct someone for their sin; we do so in full consideration of our own sin. The father who counsels his daughter about how her immodest attire may affect men she encounters has a far more serious problem if he then goes into his office to view pornography on the computer. Earlier Jesus made it very clear that when anyone who makes her own righteousness the visible standard of conduct gained no recognition from the Father, because no individual can ever meet his perfect standard of righteousness (Matthew 6:1-6). So the father correcting his daughter must first affirm to the girl and to God that he is speaking as one who is himself a fallen person subject to sin, judgment, and correction by God and her, and that we have no solution in ourselves
We advise those whom we correct that only God's grace is the solution. "Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:4 ESV) One of the difficulties we face when we are talking to friends or family about inappropriate behavior is that they know us. They see our foibles and sin clearly. They know we are no better than they; our sin may even be worse. Our message to them must never be to live like we live, to be like us. We are neither the standard of righteousness nor the model of behavior. None of us can pay the price for another person's sin:
" Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit." (Psalm 49:7-9 ESV)
In this sermon Jesus uses hyperbole. I can never "take the speck out of someone else's eye," because of "the speck in my own" to emphasize God's grace. No effort of my own will make my life any better. Therefore I have no solution of my own to offer anyone else. Our activities or religious rituals are no example for people to follow. This is why the argument we parents often use, "I didn't raise you this way," falls hollow. Our children know the difference between what we told them we believe and how we behaved when confronted with the tensions in the world. It is his Holiness that judges us and His Spirit alone who transforms us.We are dependent on grace not works for our transformation, and without his grace we stand condemned. We ask the person we are confronting to cast their lives on his grace to avoid condemnation. Though our actions are not perfect we can be an example of contrition and faith
Jesus does say that a pupil will be like his teacher (Luke 6:46). Paul does admonish believers to follow his example (1 Cor 11:1; 14:6). Peter admonishes us to embrace suffering in response to Christ's example of suffering (1 Peter 2:21). So we present our lives as examples, not of right living, but of contrition, grace and spiritual transformation that God alone can accomplish. The gospel is our judge and the judge of the person to whom we speak. The gospel judges us. It is the same standard of judgment in Matthew 7:1. Dishonoring the gospel with the way we live brings disgrace on a holy God and his people. It is demeaning that which is sacred or precious
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you."(Matthew 7:6 ESV). There is no greater blessing than to be redeemed; no more precious gift than salvation by grace. It is a normal reaction of one who has received a precious gift to live in appreciation of it. A righteous and holy life is the appreciative, normal and expected lifestyle of one who has embraced the life of Christ. Sin diminishes the glory of that gift. Christ is dishonored and so are each of the other recipients of that gift. People who have paid a great price in defense of their country feel disrespected when their country's flag is disgraced. When God's glory is defamed by my unrighteous living, so is the reputation of every believer. When I take the priceless pearl of the life transforming power of the gospel and dishonor it with my life, I devalue God, the gospel and all who embrace it, throwing the gospel to the swine. I demean the gospel and the church. I cast my inheritance before the swine of the unredeemed the same way the prodigal son wasted his inheritance by working among the swine (Luke 15:15). We disgrace the gospel when we stand by and say nothing about public sin or when we treat it contemptuously. We cannot ignore sin in our lives or the lives of others.
Our first concern was that the business had been founded on the Christian testimony of it owners. Our boss was discrediting that testimony. Second, the manager and saleswoman, both our mutual friends, were engaging in behavior that could potentially destroy their families, their personal lives, and called their eternal destiny into question (1 Corinthians 6:9). As we prayed and talked about our responsibilities to our friends, and as employees in a company founded on a Christian testimony, we felt compelled to gently and respectfully confront our boss about his sinful behavior:
"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." (Galatians 6:1 ESV)
Our conversation with the General Manager went exactly as I expected it to go. When we talked about the awkward and uncomfortable mood in the sales meetings, he acknowledge the affair, but found ways to rationalize his behavior with his Christian testimony. He agreed that it was inappropriate for him to start the weekly sales meeting with biblical devotionals as "the situation would make some people uncomfortable." When we exposed the hypocrisy of his personal life and the impact his actions were having on him, the woman, their families, and the business, he became very defensive saying it was none of our business and and accused us of judging him and quoting, Matthew 7:1 :
“Judge not, that you be not judged."
My friend and I were prepared for this response and I said to him, "We are prepared to be judged, and the integrity of the kingdom of God and the testimony of Christ and his church is our business, because your actions dishonor God and destroys our credibility as Christians in this office." We both thought we would be fired that day; instead, after dismissing us from his office he stopped giving devotionals in sales meetings with out comment or explanation. There were never any change in his personal life. His relationship with myself and the other employee, with whom he had been a life long friendship, became strained because in his view we were judgmental.
Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, that you be not judged," is perhaps the most well known and misused statement of Jesus Christ. When understood in context, the passage, is not a shield for an immoral person to hide behind.
We live in an amoral culture; anything goes. Moral is what feels good and keeps the peace. The church is not much different. Most of American Christianity practices what evangelist Billy Graham used to call "cheap grace," that says the law has no influence on our lives. Many live the Christian life as if it doesn't matter how you live as long as you believe. It is a heresy that theologians refer to as being antinomian, living the Christian life without relationship to any moral law. Yet even a casual reading of the scripture shows that while it is not how we live that save us, salvation changes how we live (Ephesians 2:8-10). We do not conform to the law, but we are transformed by the power of the Spirit in accord with the Law (Romans 7:1-8:11). That transformation clearly puts us at odds with the way people live in the world.
The difference is rooted in how we think:
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.(Romans 12:2 ESV)"
If we think like the world thinks, we will live like the world lives, but if our mind is transformed by the Spirit we will carry out God's will perfectly. Because behavior is the result of our belief. Our actions show what we believe. The Sermon on the Mount is about how people whose lives are transformed by the Spirit. We live in a culture much like Jesus' where righteousness is often mis-characterized. There are plenty of people going around condemning the behavior of others when their's is no better. We all know people who set themselves up as a sort of morality police, who in the name of Christ call opinions or behaviors anathema if they disapprove or disagree with them. We call these kind of people Pharisaical
While far from discouraging confrontation Matthew 7:1 is a caveat for those of us who are called to confront sin, to avoid either antinomian heresy or Pharisaical disapprobation. The phrase is one small statement in the longest Sermon Jesus preached, The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1 -7:48) which is about how to live righteous lives in an unrighteous world (5:13-14). Jesus says he came "to fulfill the law,"and to teach his followers to live in a way that exceeds the righteousness of the "scribes and the Pharisees." The Sermon on the Mount is the moral code for the Christian. Its purpose is to dispel the notion that the gospel has no moral requirement and to discredit the kind of disingenuous external conformity of the Pharisees. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 ESV). To use "Judge not lest you be judged" to offer his audience an excuse a justification for their sin would discredit the entire sermon.
So to argue that Matthew 7:1 means that we must accept sin because we may ourselves be guilty of sin mischaracterizes the verse. Or to go to the next step that Christ's follower should ignore belief or behavior that seems to be inconsistent with the gospel makes discipleship a travesty. There are several examples in the New Testament where Christians are commanded to separate from other believers (1 Corinthians 5:1-5; 2 Timothy 4:9-13; 1 John 2:19) due to their behaviors or beliefs. Jesus made it quite clear that the gospel carries with it a moral authority (Matthew 16: 18-20; 18:15-19; John 20:21 &22) and a transforming power (2 Corinthians 5;17; Galatians 6:15). Since the Sermon on the Mount is an admonition to display the righteous life of the gospel in the world, and since we are admonished to correct one another, what is meaning of Matthew 7: 1?
“Judge not, that you be not judged." is set in the concluding section of the sermon where Jesus compares the truth of the gospel with the hypocrisy of Pharisees and the dis-ingenuity of the antinomian (Matthew 7:15-22). He says,“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2 ESV). Only judge if you are willing to be judged by the same standard you use. The way we judge others is the way will be judged. The self-righteous, punctiliousness of the Pharisees was inadequate to transform the human heart. "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20 ESV). The "it doesn't matter how you live as long as you believe" attitude of the antinomian life is counterfeit religion (Matthew 7:15-20). Never let the standard of judgment be something you can not meet. Never measure anyone's righteousness by yours. Ask people to be holy as he is holy, not to live the same way you do:
" Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5 ESV)
When we counsel or correct someone for their sin; we do so in full consideration of our own sin. The father who counsels his daughter about how her immodest attire may affect men she encounters has a far more serious problem if he then goes into his office to view pornography on the computer. Earlier Jesus made it very clear that when anyone who makes her own righteousness the visible standard of conduct gained no recognition from the Father, because no individual can ever meet his perfect standard of righteousness (Matthew 6:1-6). So the father correcting his daughter must first affirm to the girl and to God that he is speaking as one who is himself a fallen person subject to sin, judgment, and correction by God and her, and that we have no solution in ourselves
We advise those whom we correct that only God's grace is the solution. "Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:4 ESV) One of the difficulties we face when we are talking to friends or family about inappropriate behavior is that they know us. They see our foibles and sin clearly. They know we are no better than they; our sin may even be worse. Our message to them must never be to live like we live, to be like us. We are neither the standard of righteousness nor the model of behavior. None of us can pay the price for another person's sin:
" Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit." (Psalm 49:7-9 ESV)
In this sermon Jesus uses hyperbole. I can never "take the speck out of someone else's eye," because of "the speck in my own" to emphasize God's grace. No effort of my own will make my life any better. Therefore I have no solution of my own to offer anyone else. Our activities or religious rituals are no example for people to follow. This is why the argument we parents often use, "I didn't raise you this way," falls hollow. Our children know the difference between what we told them we believe and how we behaved when confronted with the tensions in the world. It is his Holiness that judges us and His Spirit alone who transforms us.We are dependent on grace not works for our transformation, and without his grace we stand condemned. We ask the person we are confronting to cast their lives on his grace to avoid condemnation. Though our actions are not perfect we can be an example of contrition and faith
Jesus does say that a pupil will be like his teacher (Luke 6:46). Paul does admonish believers to follow his example (1 Cor 11:1; 14:6). Peter admonishes us to embrace suffering in response to Christ's example of suffering (1 Peter 2:21). So we present our lives as examples, not of right living, but of contrition, grace and spiritual transformation that God alone can accomplish. The gospel is our judge and the judge of the person to whom we speak. The gospel judges us. It is the same standard of judgment in Matthew 7:1. Dishonoring the gospel with the way we live brings disgrace on a holy God and his people. It is demeaning that which is sacred or precious
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you."(Matthew 7:6 ESV). There is no greater blessing than to be redeemed; no more precious gift than salvation by grace. It is a normal reaction of one who has received a precious gift to live in appreciation of it. A righteous and holy life is the appreciative, normal and expected lifestyle of one who has embraced the life of Christ. Sin diminishes the glory of that gift. Christ is dishonored and so are each of the other recipients of that gift. People who have paid a great price in defense of their country feel disrespected when their country's flag is disgraced. When God's glory is defamed by my unrighteous living, so is the reputation of every believer. When I take the priceless pearl of the life transforming power of the gospel and dishonor it with my life, I devalue God, the gospel and all who embrace it, throwing the gospel to the swine. I demean the gospel and the church. I cast my inheritance before the swine of the unredeemed the same way the prodigal son wasted his inheritance by working among the swine (Luke 15:15). We disgrace the gospel when we stand by and say nothing about public sin or when we treat it contemptuously. We cannot ignore sin in our lives or the lives of others.
When a person quotes Matthew 7:1 as an attempt to deny their accountability to God and his people for the way they live their lives it is a misuse of the text. As a believer seeking to live his life to God's glory, I need the correction of believers. I need to be held to account. I need to see how my life dishonors God. Recently my 21 year old son pointed out to me how badly I had treated a telephone customer service representative with whom I was angry and frustrated. My son was right. I dishonored Christ even though my anger and frustration were justified, I dishonored the testimony of Christ by my attitude toward the person. I got down in the gutter and cast the pearls of the gospel before the swine. I could have responded to my son, "don't judge me unless you want to be judged. You have no right. You have don't know how incompetent those people were. You did not hear what he was saying to me," but I didn't. I thanked him, confessed my sin to God, and hopefully will walk in his grace next time. I needed that corrective. So go ahead judge me when I need it. My former boss was mistaken, "it was my business," to counsel him in a spirit of contrition, not to live as I lived, but to be holy as God was holy by depending on the gracious work of Christ alone. Because only he can make us right.
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us."(1 Thessalonians 5:23-25 ESV)
"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. Brothers, pray for us."(1 Thessalonians 5:23-25 ESV)
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