The Judging Sin Issue

Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “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? 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? 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. “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.

My cousin asked me to explain what I meant by "the speck and plank issue, but not allowing it to paralyze true Christian love and care". Of course that comes from the Sermon on the Mount Bible passage by Jesus (above). Saved or unsaved, we are all sinners, and this side of heaven we have the sinful flesh desires of adamic fallen mankind. So, the saved by grace through faith Christian must say, "except by the grace of God, there walk I”, having compassion on the lost in sin". Pride has no place, but God's holy Word, Will and Way does because salvation is completely by way of the grace of God. I love the way that Jesus uses emotional word-pictures of massive contradictions as illustrations. We can picture how ridiculous it would be to try to take a speck of sawdust out of our brother’s or sister’s eye, while we have a full-size 2'x6"x8' board sticking out of our own eye. The point is clear that we must "clean up our own act" before we can be critical of others. That is the speck and plank issue. We "get our act together" with the Lord in repentance, forgiveness and regeneration to a restored relationship with God, than help other find forgiveness of sin and salvation at the foot of the Cross through the blood of Christ. There is no time for prideful hypocrites among the children of God / Kingdom Workers.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

I heard that the first verse of this seventh chapter of Matthew passage from Jesus in the "sermon on the mount" discourse is the most quoted verse in the Bible now-a-days - “Judge not, that you be not judged." When skeptics say, "Don't judge me!", what they are saying isn't that they only want God judging them. They actually want nobody judging them because they love their sin and hate God's law against it, which is the standard that all are measured and judged against. "Don't judge me" is usually followed by: "you holier than thou," or "you narrow-minded bigoted hater". They have to counter because their willful immorality of sinful thoughts, words and actions are being exposed by the “light of truth” (John 3:20). The best defense is a strong offense, so they attack with verbal abuse and lying accusations to discredit the Christian character and reputation in an attempt to paralyze the opposition. This is the "not allowing it to paralyze true Christian love and care" part. We are to proclaim "truth" and "expose sin" (Ephesians 5:11), so how can we not judge right from wrong. Realistically, to let someone die in their sins without hearing the gospel truth from a child of God wouldn't be fulfilling the "Great Commission". The Bible does not say that we are to live and let die in sin. It was explained to me that the first word in the passage ("Judge") is actually in the "present and active" tense in Greek, so can be correctly translated: "Do not be continually judging."- aka judgmental. That makes sense in light of the last verse in this passage: “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you." How do you tell if someone is unholy without knowing the holy scriptures of God and judging if they are or not by those scriptures? God's Word is truth. Christians have to judge right from wrong based upon the Bible. Acts 17:11 "These (the Bereans) were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."

Jesus wouldn't say "don't judge ever" in one verse and say "judge" in the next. The purpose is to get as many as possible off of the wide road to destruction because the highway to hell is the consequence of sin (Matthew 7:13-14), and get them on the "straight and narrow" path to heaven via the gospel of Jesus Christ. To correct; not condemn. There is an old saying: “All it takes for evil to advance, is for godly people to remain silent". You don't bring the love and light of Christ by keeping your mouth shut, but by proclaiming and living out the gospel of Jesus Christ. See clearly, walk purely and speak the truth in love. This little light of mine; I’m going to let it shine, that the lost may be found and saved, saying: Psalm 18:1 “I will love You, O Lord, my strength.” 

Does that make sense?

1 John 3:9 “Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”

In Christ, Brian