Matthew 7:1-6
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 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? 5 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.
6 “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.
Matthew 7:1-6 questions
ReplyDelete- So are we not supposed to condemn sin in the world?
- Are we not to correct each other in the church?
- Even if we are suppose to take sawdust out of our brother's eye, should we not even try when we have planks?
- If we can't judge people as dogs, how can we not throw pearls at them?
- What does that mean?
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_christians_judgmental.html says:
ReplyDeleteWhat is clear from the context is that Jesus was talking about people making personal judgments against others, when their own behavior was much more seriously compromised than the persons they were judging. Even when taken in context, the object of Jesus' statements is not readily evident in this sermon. However, in other preaching, Jesus made it clear that He especially had a problem with the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders of His time. In other confrontations with them, Jesus made some pretty strong statements against those leaders
There are many other verses that indicate that Jesus was more unhappy about the behavior of hypocrites than just about anything else He encountered.3 So, His warning against judging others was primarily aimed at those who thought they were superior to others. In other words, get your own house in order before you criticize others.
(Concerning the women caught in adultery in John 8) Did Jesus excuse the woman's sin? No! In fact, He told her not to do it again. Instead of being an example of the "non-judgmental" Jesus, it is yet another story of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. In addition, since Jesus had told her not to sin again, He would be accused of being "judgmental" by many people of our time.
If Jesus wanted people to not be "judgmental" or judge other people's sin, He certainly did not take His own advice. In fact, Jesus often told people how to behave and specifically told them not to sin.5 If Jesus really did not want people to be judgmental, why was He that way Himself?
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)
(part 2 of 2 - continued from last article - http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_christians_judgmental.html :
ReplyDeleteSo, it would seem that Jesus' major concern is that people do not make snap judgments from what they guess might have happened. Many people (both Christians and non-Christians) tend to fall into this kind of judgment problem, if they are not careful to check the facts carefully. For example, one should not judge a person based upon the group to which he belongs. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Christians are hypocrites. Not all atheists practice rampant immorality. Notice that the verse does not tell us not to judge at all, but to judge according to righteousness. If we cannot verify the truth about an accusation, we should keep our mouths shut. For this reason, you will not find any personal judgments about others on this website. This does not mean that we will not dispute the facts or opinions expressed by certain individuals. However, such critiques are not personal attacks, but are usually related to a defense of the Christian faith.
So, people who make the claim that Christians are judgmental are really referring to Christians' judgment between right and wrong. However, every person (with the possible exception of those who are judged to be criminally insane) on earth makes judgments between right and wrong, in order to make decisions about how to live one's life. Of course, the reasons why people say that Christians are judgmental is because they disagree with the moral judgments we make.
Jesus asked people why they would not judge what was the right thing to do,7 and instructed believers to admonish those brothers who practice sin.8 Paul reprimanded the Church at Corinth for not judging sin within their assembly.9 In fact, the Church is directed to condemn and remove sin from among its ranks first and foremost.10 The news media loves to point out sin committed by famous pastors and other hypocritical Christians. However, we are admonished that we need not judge individuals outside the church, since they be judged by God.
Conclusion: Christians are often accused of being judgmental. However, what most people consider to be judgmental is merely telling others what the Bible says are unacceptable behaviors. Christians tell others what the Bible says about behavior because we are commanded to do so, so that others may lead morally acceptable lives. However, we are specifically commanded not to judge the behavior of individuals for whom we do not have absolute certainty of the truth regarding their actions. The Christian Church is to remove sin from within its own ranks first and foremost before condemning the actions of outsiders.
https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/does-the-bible-tell-christians-to-judge-not/ says:
ReplyDelete. . . the concept that truth is determined by each individual, not by God. This has led many people to conclude that making judgments on anyone (especially coming from Christians) is wrong because the Bible says ”judge not”
Scripture makes it very clear that there is one supreme Judge of all—the Lord God—and that He alone has the authority to determine right and wrong motives and behaviors.
Let us consider the idea of judging as it relates to believers and unbelievers. The methods are different when dealing with these two groups, but the goal is reconciliation. Unbelievers need to know Christ and be reconciled to Him, and believers need to grow in Christ and be reconciled to each other.
When we consider the concept of judging, especially as it relates to the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells us to be discerning, not condemning.
There are significant logical problems with the claim that believers should not make judgments. The first becomes evident when we read the context of Matthew 7:1.
Here, Christ is warning believers against making judgments in a hypocritical or condemning manner. That type of judging is a characteristic often associated with the Pharisees during the ministry of Jesus. Many people who quote “judge not” from Matthew 7:1 fail to notice the command to judge in Matthew 7:5, when it says, “Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” The point Jesus emphasizes here is to judge yourself first before you make judgments about others. (Also, notice the discernment and judgment required in Matthew 7:15–16, (20).) In the broader context, Jesus is telling believers to be discerning when it comes to false teaching and false prophets because they “look” Christian, but their goal is to lead the flock astray
Realistically, people make judgments all the time. Now, if one person commits murder, should a Christian look at that action and say, “That was wrong because God’s Word says not to murder,” or should he say, “I’m not supposed to make a judgment”? And what if someone steals from you? Would you say, “That was wrong because God’s Word says not to steal,” or would you say, “I’m not supposed to make a judgment”? Furthermore, when someone tells us that we need to stop judging others, they have actually just judged us. So they are guilty of doing the very thing they tell us not to do.
(Conclusion): Those people who call for tolerance and quote “judge not” out of context are not using sound thinking. Their call for tolerance is impossible because as Christians, we are called to judge righteously, and judging between right and wrong is something we do every day—and it should be a part of biblical discernment in every believer’s thinking. But it is God’s Word that makes the judgment on morality and truth, not our own opinions or theories.
What’s the purpose of judging error in a biblical manner? The church is to be built on the foundation of Christ and the authority of His Word (Ephesians 2:20)—and that means believers should examine their own lives regularly and also lovingly challenge Christian brothers and sisters who are in error or commit sin. To do this, believers must be bold for Christ, but they also have to be humble, loving, and kind.
My 2 cents:
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I want to let you know the pattern of the posts. When a post starts with a url, I am summarizing what I think is the thinking of prominent Christian teachers. I do NOT necessarily agree with it (in fact I'm finding issues with a lot of things that they say). When I start a article with "my 2 cents", it's me summarizing and giving my opinion on what the scripture means. I usually don't mix articles. A single article is usually either all someone else or all me.
Anyway my two cents on do not judge: All of the articles I read say that Jesus is not really telling us not to judge, but that we can't judge hypocritically. Since we are all hypocrites, that doesn't make sense to me. People use the follow up to make their point, saying that Jesus is telling us to remove the plank from our own eye before we can help others. My opinion is Jesus is making a witty point about our state. "Yeah guys, you all have planks in your eyes - remove those first then maybe you can break the do not judge rule - as if."
There's logical fallacies with saying "I can judge as long as I'm not a hypocrite". 1. I will always be a hypocrite. 2. If you assume that you can judge everyone on anything you are not guilty of, that leaves a lot of room for judging.
If Joe has a gambling problem, and Fred has a pornography addiction, are they free to judge each other? They are not guilty of each other's sins. I say no they are not. I also say that they are commanded to love each other and condemn the sin that each other is committing. Did I just say the opposite thing? I just said that Joe and Fred shouldn't judge each other, yet confront each other on the sin the other is committing in love. Even if Joe and Fred both had a gambling addiction, I think the answer would be the same - that they are commanded to not judge each other, yet are commanded to confront each other's sin in love.
More on this tomorrow.
My 2 cents continued:
ReplyDeleteClarification from the last post. I said that when there is a link at the top, I am summarizing another's post. By summarizing, I mean that I am copying portions of their articles. I don't change their text at all or summarize in my own words, except for the occasional contextual remark (such as "Summary").
On to judging others. I probably should do a word study, but I'm not sure that I would find anything (since apparently no one else did). I said in the last post that there were logical inconsistencies in saying we can judge when we are not hypocrites. But, I said that the only thing that makes sense is that we can't judge at all - yet we must make judgments on behaviors so that we can correct each other and identify evil.
So, I'm thinking that the key is the target of our judgment. We are not to judge other's hearts (only God can judge that), but we are to judge between good and evil behaviors or results. If Joe is gambling obsessively, I need to use my knowledge of the Bible to judge his behavior. After making a judgement, I can then go to Joe and discuss the problem. I may (and certainly do) have my own addictions. Yet love for Joe insists that I confront him anyway - even if I am a hypocrite in doing so.
If my heart is humble, being aware of my own addictions, I will not judge Joe, but will urge him to seek the way out from his addiction. If my heart is not humble, I will judge Joe and be sinning.
So what about not throwing our pearls before swine? I think that Jesus is giving us a principle of what happens when we do this. However, when we think of a person as swine, we are judging them. It is true that sometimes people are not in a listening mood and we need to be wise enough to stop confronting a person who doesn't want to hear it.
In conclusion, the key to the difference between judging and confronting in love is the state of our hearts (which seems to be the key behind everything in the Beatitudes).
Today, I hit this from a logical point of view. I wish I could do more to prove or disprove my point from the Bible (perhaps I'm too lazy).
Finally, http://www.acts17-11.com/discern.html says:
ReplyDeleteF.F. Bruce: "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 depreciated; in the latter sense it is recommended."
For clarity, let's use the word discern for the judgment that God encourages, and criticize for inappropriate judgments. By context, try to identify whether the word judgment, when used in Scripture, means discernment or criticism.
Are we to "judge" teachings, situations, and even people in the church? Many Christians are fearful of making judgments, and unclear if this is the mission and duty of the church. After all: "Judge not!..." (We will consider hypocritical judgment, or criticism, in a moment.) This fear of using proper judgment may come from a simple lack of understanding of God's will, or from superstition (Col 2:18-19), or even from a lack of the Holy Spirit (Jude 17-19). Scripture is useful for correcting such conditions (2 Tim 3:16-17).
1 Cor 5:12-6:6 (Phi) Those outside the church it is not my business to judge. But surely it is your business to judge those who are inside the church--God alone can judge those who are outside... When any of you has a grievance against another, aren't you ashamed to bring the matter to be settled before a pagan court instead of before the church? Don't you know that Christians will some day judge the world? And if you are to judge the world do you consider yourselves incapable of settling such infinitely smaller matters? Don't you know that we shall judge the very angels themselves--how much more then matters of this world only! In any case, if you find you have to judge matters of this world, why choose as judges those who count for nothing in the church? I say this deliberately to rouse your sense of shame. Are you really unable to find among your number one man with enough sense to decide a dispute between one and another among you, or must one brother resort to the law against another; and that before those who have no faith in Christ!
Suppose you think that your have "discerned" something. A good test of whether this "realization" is from above or from below is: what you feel. Does your discernment lead you to help, heal, love, share? Does it lead towards purity of the body, towards Christ? Then the Holy Spirit may have given you a taste of His perspective: the truth, with love. Your actions will prove the validity of what you think, and deeper fellowship and/or humility will be the result.
But if what you feel in your heart as a result of the discernment is superiority, scandal, bitterness, or a desire to detach yourself from the body of Christ, then it is not of God. Whether it is correct, or not, is not the issue: The "knowledge" comes from below, not above--as judged by its fruit. God looks at the heart. If what you "know" about others isn't useful to them or you, forget what you "know". It's poison.
(Not so finally): http://www.goodnewsarticles.com/May98-4.htm says:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, there is a big difference between judging someone,
and discerning evil. The two are not the same at all. In
the Bible, the word "judge" is often a woeful translation of the
Greek word "katakrino." This word literally means "to judge
against." In other words, it really means "to condemn." But there
is another Greek word, "krino," which is often translated
"to discern." "Krino" literally means "to separate." Or, to put it
more clearly, it means "to separate the good from the bad."
These two words aptly show the contrast between judging
someone, which God forbids, and discerning, which God desires.
"To judge" means to condemn. It means to render a sentence
against someone as if you are God. And "to judge," the way
Jesus forbade it, is always a product of a bad attitude. It stems
from never having seen that you are as needy as the one whom
you are condemning. "To discern," however, carries no
desire to see someone "get what is coming to them." True
discernment doesn't condemn at all. It simply sees things as they
really are, with the mind of Christ.
First of all, there is a big difference between judging someone,
and discerning evil. The two are not the same at all. In
the Bible, the word "judge" is often a woeful translation of the
Greek word "katakrino." This word literally means "to judge
against." In other words, it really means "to condemn." But there
is another Greek word, "krino," which is often translated
"to discern." "Krino" literally means "to separate." Or, to put it
more clearly, it means "to separate the good from the bad."
These two words aptly show the contrast between judging
someone, which God forbids, and discerning, which God desires.
"To judge" means to condemn. It means to render a sentence
against someone as if you are God. And "to judge," the way
Jesus forbade it, is always a product of a bad attitude. It stems
from never having seen that you are as needy as the one whom
you are condemning. "To discern," however, carries no
desire to see someone "get what is coming to them." True
discernment doesn't condemn at all. It simply sees things as they
really are, with the mind of Christ.
About throwing pearls before pigs (and a really good answer in my opinion), http://www.gotquestions.org/pearls-before-swine.html says:
ReplyDeleteThe analogy of the dogs actually comes from Proverbs: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Swine are also described in this way, as illustrated by Peter: “Of them [false prophets and teachers] the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud’” (2 Peter 2:22). The dogs and swine here are representative of those who would ridicule, reject, and blaspheme the gospel once it has been given to them. We are not to put forth the gospel of Jesus Christ in the direction of someone who has no other purpose than to trample it and return to his own evil ways. We identify such people through discernment, which is given in some measure to all Christians (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).
This does not mean we refrain from preaching the gospel. Jesus Himself ate with and taught sinners and tax collectors (Matthew 9:10). In essence, the instruction in Matthew 7:6 is the same that Jesus gave to His apostles when He said, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town” (Matthew 10:14). We are not to judge others, for we are guilty of the same things they are. Reserving judgment, however, does not prevent us from discerning those who would accept, or at least respect, the gospel from those who would ridicule, mock, and trample it, and then turn on us and abuse us. Balancing judgment with discernment is the wisdom of serpents Jesus refers to in Matthew 10:16.