Whatever you do, wherever you are, it is virtually impossible to do anything without being criticized by someone. I know it has been said that Baseball is America’s favorite pastime, but I don’t think it is. I think judging others is now our favorite game to play in the modern world. We all could give many examples of this. Here’s a few popular criticisms that I and other pastors have received.[1] If a pastor is too young they’ll say he lacks experience, but if he’s too old they’ll say he won’t be relevant. If he has a six or more kids people will say he’s irresponsible, but if he has no kids people will say he’s setting a bad example. If he uses tons of illustrations some will say he’s neglecting the Bible, but if he barely uses any illustrations others will say he isn’t being practical. If he doesn’t call out sin where sin is they’ll say he’s soft, but if he does call out sin where it is many others will say he’s too hard. If he drives too old a car some will think he’s shaming the congregation, but if drives too new a car others will think he’s far too worldly.
I know many of you could produce a list like this, and maybe a longer one about the work you do, displaying the number of ways you’ve been criticized before. There are even YouTube channels that exist solely for the purpose of critiquing others. This is the world we live in. But this is not just a trend in our own age, it’s been true in every age because the critical judgmental spirit, sadly, is part of what it means to be a fallen man or woman.
Yet Jesus has much to teach us about this very thing. There’s even a consistent theme of destructive tendencies we can see in the Sermon on the Mount. Last week we saw the end of Matthew 6 where Jesus taught us much about our destructive tendency to grow anxious about our earthly possessions, so much so that we don’t possess our stuff as much as our stuff possesses us. This week as we come to the start of Matthew 7 Jesus teaches us much about our destructive tendency to make hasty, critical, and condemning judgments about one another.[2]
Did you hear that last part? In our text today Jesus teaches about our destructive tendency to make hasty judgments about one another. Remember Jesus is speaking mainly to His disciples here in the Sermon on the Mount, which means He’s speaking mainly to His followers, to us. We might think the critical judgmental spirit is only something found out there in the world, but it’s alive and well within the Church. Many thrive on it and some even think it’s their spiritual gift and call of God on their lives to be so critical of others, disguising this in the labels counsel or encouragement.
Does this critical judgmental spirit reside in you? Church, the Lord has a better way for us.
Matthew 7:1-6 is before us. It easily divides into four sections, we’ll take them one at a time, aiming to see and savor what’s here and apply it to our lives.
The Critical Spirit Exposed (v1-2)
“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.”
Here we come to it. This is one of those passages that almost everyone on the planet knows and quotes when they feel judged by others, especially by Christians, or churches, or various ministries. Is that what Jesus means? That of all people it is Christians who must never judge regardless of the situation, and that those who do judge others in any way are really the ones Jesus is coming down against? There are many in our day within the Church who would affirm this, and have you believe this and adopt such a posture into your life. As there has always been those within the Church in every age who have affirmed and taught this nonjudgmental way of life. What I’ve often found about such a person is that they’re the kind of person who majors on love and minors on actual thought. They dislike definitions of doctrine and precision in theology, they want peace to be everyone’s aim but in practice it’s really the desire to avoid anything contentious. ‘Anything for a quiet life’ they say.[3] More so, this is the what the world thinks of us, and thinks we ought to be. If someone asks us about a matter of morality and we give a negative opinion of the matter they’ll respond with something like, ‘That’s awfully judgmental of you isn’t it? Don’t they deserve to be happy? Who made you judge over them?’
Does Jesus mean this? No, of course not. We’ll see firsthand later on in our passage, in v6, how we’re commanded to be wise and discerning as we make judgments about others and the situations we find ourselves in. Thus it is very important for us, living in the time we do to get this text right because so many get it so wrong.
So what then is actually in view in v1-2 as Jesus commands “Judge not…”? Let’s look at it.
The word judge here is key to zoom in on. In English we understand the word well enough. Normally this word judge is defined broadly, referring to any critique or assessment made of another thing, but in Greek there is a bit more narrow of a meaning. The Greek word is krino. It comes from the courtroom or legal setting in the first century, and it was often used when a judge would state the verdict or final decision of a case, as if they were slamming down the gavel in passing sentence. It’s not a far stretch then to translate v1 saying, ‘Condemn not, that you be not condemned.’[4] This condemning critical spirit, then, is what we’re to avoid doing. We know this too well. This condemnation comes from a self-righteous spirit, from a feeling of superiority, that we ourselves are alright while others aren’t. This kind of posture is ever on the trigger, always eager to pronounce condemnation toward others, and once they do condemn a wicked satisfaction follows, a gladness to see the worst of all possible motives in another being exposed for all to see. This doesn’t only describe what the Pharisee’s did in the first century, it really has in view all who have the spirit of the Pharisee within them.[5] This is the critical fault-finding, condemning spirit.
I think this is problem many Christians have with those they’ve never met. This is rampant on social media. Someone famous out in the world or someone ‘Christian famous’ who we’ve never met, and likely will never meet, but nonetheless we remain eager to provide critical commentary on their life and choices rather than eager to be merciful. It hits closer to home when we realize we also easily have this critical condemning spirit toward those we do know. Whether they’re acquaintances we see every now and then, or friends we see all the time, or fellow church members. Someone says something offensive, someone does something out of bounds, maybe it’s even as little as that person looked at me the wrong way…and we go to town critically condemning the whole of them.
The command against this is in v1, but see more in v2. There we find the reason why we should avoid this. See it. To be so condemningly critical of others is to invite not only others to judge you in similar ways, it’s to invite God to judge you in similar ways. You see that? The measure we use in our judgmental criticism of each other will be the measure in which we will be judged by in the end. What a sobering and searching thought that is! One early Church father John Chrysostom said if we do this to others we will make “…the judgment-seat dreadful to ourselves…”[6] Think on this. The judgment of God in v2 is not a judgment to heaven or hell, but the judgment all Christians will experience. Paul speaks about this in 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether or good or evil.” We need to see what’s at stake in our judgment of others. Do we want to set ourselves up as a judge of others? Do we want to set ourselves up over them as the authority? Very few of us would ever pray, ‘God judge me in the end by how I’ve judged my brothers and sisters.’[7] No way. We want mercy for ourselves! We need mercy! Yet, how crooked are we that we are so quick to judge others? Church, there are few things as ungodly as a critically glad condemning spirit in a Christian.
This is how Jesus begins His explanation of this. Next, He illustrates it. So see…
The Critical Spirit Illustrated (v3-4)
“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?”
Here the point made in v1-2 is driven home in v3-4 with a ridiculous word picture. It explains itself doesn’t it? One person brings up a matter of sin. The one being called out for sin truly does have sin, but it’s small, just a speck of dust, easily dealt with. Ironically the one bringing all of this up has sin to a far greater degree, so much that his is said to be a log in his eye, something huge and hard to deal with. The detail that makes this illustration humorous is that the guy with the log, doesn’t know the log is there! But there he goes, log and all, off to correct someone else who barely has a speck. We would all laugh at this, if it weren’t so tragically common!
The point is this. It’s not that in every situation the one passing judgment on another is a worse sinner, no, the point is that what this ignorant person finds wrong with his friend is a very small matter compared to his own sin.[8] The irony is sad and destructive, we far too easily call out sins in others when we have far greater sins in our own lives remaining undealt with. And part of the problem in this is that we tend to believe all our own sins are specks while all the sins of others are logs.[9] Again, we would all laugh at this if it weren’t so tragically common!
So the point has been taught and illustrated in v1-4, now see v5 where…
The Critical Spirit Corrected (v5)
“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.”
This is clear Church. Log carrying speck inspectors are hypocrites.[10] If we truly want to help others we will do something before we attend to the sins of others. What will we do first? We’ll deal with our own sins. The log carrier must remove the log in his eye if he is to be help to those with all the specks he sees. Then, clarity of sight will come and true help can be given. If we refuse to do this, and continue to major in the sins of others while minoring in our own, we will be hypocrites, who will walk through life in a sad combination of ignorance and arrogance.
What is the principle being taught here? I think it’s this. The remedy to the critical condemning spirit is to get a true sight of ourselves as sinners. The remedy is to see ourselves as a sinner who justly deserves the sovereign displeasure of God. When we do this, and when we approach others in that spirit, we won’t be critical of others, we’ll be merciful with others, because we’ll be grateful for the mercy of God shown to us in the gospel and we’ll want others to enjoy His mercy too.
Jesus says we’ll see clearly after we remove the log from our eye, enabling us to help get the speck out of our brother’s eye. That clear sight is deeply needed in speck removal. The eye is, after all, one of the most sensitive and delicate parts of our bodies. Removing specks from it requires clear sight, patience, calmness, and sympathy. Bring all that idea over into the spiritual realm and we see something of what v5 is teaching us.[11] If you are going to handle, care for, and correct a soul in sin…it requires the same kind of care. Every soul is precious in the sight of God, and so it must be treated as such by us. Clear sight, patience, calmness, and sympathy is needed in the care of souls. You can’t see all the sins of others as nails and yourself as the hammer. You’ll crush everyone around you. Sometimes the hammer is needed, certainly, but most of the time a gentle touch is best when correcting a soul in sin.
Another way to say the same thing is this. Judgment, if it’s true and godly judgment, must begin with ourselves. We’re to be as scrupulous with ourselves and our sins as we think we should be with others. Why? Remember, the measure we use with others will be the measure used with us.
So we’ve been taught the main point, seen it illustrated, and driven home in correction, now see…
The Critical Spirit Helped (v6)
“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.”
At first glance this is a strange verse, right? It doesn’t really seem to fit with v1-5 or with v7-11 after this. But upon further looks at it, I really do think it fits very well with v1-5. Why? Because it provides further help for the critical condemning spirit. We’ve already said that it is wrong to believe Christians should never judge. We’ve seen how to judge wrongly, and here in v6 we learn how to judge rightly. Or, in v1-5 we saw how we can easily judge too harshly, now in v6 we see how we can easily judge too naively.
Jesus uses two of the most derogatory labels of His day, dogs and pigs. These are terms the Jews would’ve used for Gentiles. But we know the Jews could be just as wicked as the Gentiles, so I think its best to see dogs and pigs here as referring generally to all those who are wicked and who reject Christ and His gospel in every age. And the other terms pearls along with what is holy I think refers to the gospel message itself and all that comes along with it. These things are indeed precious.
So what is being taught in v6? We’re not to be critically condemning and judgmental toward others, but we must wisely judge and discern others and the situations we find ourselves in. Generally speaking, the gospel truths so precious to us are not to be continually given to wicked people who have no appreciation for them. Like pigs the wicked will trample on these precious truths and like dogs the wicked will tear them to pieces (and maybe us too!).
Yes, we’re not to be judgmental hypocrites, but we’re also never encouraged to not be discriminating.[12] We must be able to discern the difference between specks and logs and between those who receive the precious truths of the gospel from the dogs and pigs.
The disciples did this. As they went out preaching the gospel if the message was received they stayed and shared further, but if it wasn’t they shook the dust off their feet and left. Paul also did this, at one point even turning entirely away from the Jews to preach to the Gentiles. Something of the same is to be true of us as well. This requires discernment and wisdom. God has given us the gospel of Christ, the pearl of great price. We’re not to take it and keep throwing it at those who will treat it as no different than pig slop.
Conclusion:
Church, never are we to foster or allow a critical condemning spirit to take root or to grow in us. But God does want us to be discerning and wise in our handling and sharing of the gospel. This is a weighty call indeed. So weighty that we would be right to respond by saying who is sufficient for these things? Only One is sufficient, the Lord Himself, the just Judge of all and over all. To Him we must continually turn.
[1] R. Kent Hughes, The Sermon On the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom – Preaching the Word Commentary (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2001) 231.
[2] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew – PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992) 164.
[3] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1971) 2:160.
[4] R. C. Sproul, Matthew: An Expositional Commentary (Sanford, FL: Ligonier, 2019) 162.
[5] Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2:167.
[6] Chrysostom, quoted in Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 165.
[7] Hughes, The Sermon On the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom, 234.
[8] Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 166.
[9] Sproul, Matthew: An Expositional Commentary, 164.
[10] Hughes, The Sermon On the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom, 235.
[11] Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2:181.
[12] Lloyd-Jones, 2:184.
