Judge Not? Matthew 7:1-6, 15-23

Do not judge so that you will not be judged! Shouts the angry teen girl after her parents have forbid her to date a boy they know is detrimental to her spiritual life.
A friend is in sin you know it, they know it, we all know it, and you lovingly challenge him on it. Do not judge so that you will not be judged, he says. How can you respond?
The pastor preaches on sin and God’s judgment against sin. Monday he receives a couple of phone calls with concern about his judgmental sermon. Do not judge so that you will not be judged pastor.
It is nice to have a verse like 7:1 in Matthew to prove what you already want to believe. Matthew 7:1 has been used to convey the idea, “You live your lifestyle and I’ll live mine. But you don’t tell me how to live, and certainly don’t try to impose your standards of morality on me.
Is this what Jesus means by this? Are we supposed to be weak and wishy-washy when it comes to sin?

Matthew 7:1-6, 15-23

Jesus is confronting an attitude that was prevalent in His day. It was an attitude of self-righteous hypocrisy in judgment. In Luke 18:11, Jesus gave the example of a Pharisee who judged in the wrong way. The Pharisee said, “God I thank you that I am not like all other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector.” In saying this, the Pharisee was judging the tax collector standing beside him. He was saying, I am good, you are no good.
This condemning, despising attitude toward others is wrong.
The Pharisees were used to judging others self-righteously. Jesus said stop it. That overly critical, nit-picking attitude that digs and searches for faults, and suspects the worst is wrong.
He is not talking about judging open and obvious sin, or false teachers. He is talking about hasty unloving, holier than thou, jumping to conclusions judging, which is at the heart of gossip and rumor.
There are two types of judgment: one is the judgment of a man’s actions and behavior, and the other is the judgment of the man himself. We are not to judge character, motive, thought, inner life or soul, but we are to judge action and behavior.
If we are to judge action and behavior how do, we judge correctly?
Verses 3-5
Remove the plank in your own eye the plank of a self-righteous, judging, condemning, and hypocritical spirit. Jesus says remove that sin, and any other from your life first. Then deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. Once we have removed the plank from our eye we will be more humble, and sympathetic towards others. When we start judging ourselves, we stop judging others, not only that we are able to see clearly we can see others as God sees them, with love and mercy. We still see the speck, we want to help remove it, but the condemning spirit is gone.
Galatians 6:1-2 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
You who are spiritual not self-righteous help those who are struggling under the load sin, help them find freedom.

Don’t Judge, Deal with the log, and then Jesus says, make right judgments. Jesus acknowledges the need for making decisions concerning people and behavior that is detrimental to our Christian lives. Jesus doesn’t condemn all judgment, in fact He commands us to make some judgments. Pigs, Dogs, and False Prophets. Don’t justify sin. Sin is sin and must be dealt with in our lives. And sin is sin in others and when we are in a position to deal with it we must. How you deal with it is Jesus concern. Deal with it from the point of a clear conscious, a right heart, and love for the other. Listen to what’s being taught and judge based on what the word says. We can recognize false prophets by their fruit that is by their teaching and their work. False prophets teach only the easy and pleasant things of Christianity if they even teach Christianity at all. How does it line up with the Bible? False prophets will also show us through their actions a consistent lifestyle of sin that is not dealt with. In fact they will often justify their sin by their teaching. See it and leave it.

It settles here, love God, love people and believe great things happen when God and people get together. Love God, keep a clean heart and log free eyes. Love people to believe the best about them and deal with them in love. Believe great things happen when God and people get together, confront sin and bring God into the situation through your right heart and right dealing with the hurting friend.