Daily Devotional For Friday, November 8, 2024
It’s not Freaky Friday, but Fantastic Friday. We are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. We are currently in Matthew 7:1-6:
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. (2) For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. (3) Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (4) Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? (5) 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. (6) “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (NASB).
This Greek New Testament word translated as “judge” is [κρίνω, krino]. In the context Jesus uses it here, it means “to condemn.” Anytime we judge someone, and in this case, condemn them without compassion because we believe they have done something wrong or their motives are wrong, we have elevated ourselves to deity just like the devil did in millennia when he rose up against God. We are not God, but we so often act as if we have the ability to figure out people’s motives when we don’t like something they do.
The truth is – we can’t figure out our own motives many times. Do you see the hypocrisy, arrogance and idolatry here? It is hypocritical for us to unfairly judge or condemn someone with their motives when we can’t figure out our own. It is arrogant for us to think we have the ability to read people’s hearts as God does. It is idolatrous for us to do this because we are actually worshiping ourselves over God, who alone is only able to do this.
An early 1800 Christian poet by the name of Adelaide Anne Procter wrote these lines in a poem:
“Judge not the workings of his brain, And of his heart thou cannot see. What looks to thy dim eyes a stain, In God’s pure light may only be, A scar brought from some well-won field, Where thou wouldst only faint and yield” (Source: http://findingthewaytotheheart.blogspot.com/2015/12/judge-not-by-adelaide-anne-procter-1825.html).
Jesus is not asking His disciples to not be discerning, but to avoid the temptation to play and be God. This is why we must heed James 4:11-12, “Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it. (12) There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?” (NASB),
The religious leaders believed they were superior to others and there are disciples of Jesus who believe the same thing about themselves. Jesus warns us all that the measure we use to judge others, God will turn that same measure back on us. There is no way for any of us to know and have all the facts or know the motives and thoughts of people. Only God can do that. So, the very way we judge others with limited knowledge, God will have others judge us the same way. This is one reason there are so many misunderstandings in relationships. We assume we know something when in reality, we do not really know. We think we know. We believe we know. We act like we know, but only God really knows.
As much as we dislike and detest when people misjudge us, we are guilty as sin for practicing and doing what we ourselves do not do. God never has had double standards and He detests them in us. Double standards ruin relationships in marriage, family, parenting, business, friends and church. This is what the Apostle Paul denounces in Romans 2:1-2, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. (2) And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things” (NASB).
Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this:
“But God sets none of us as the final judge above others, and we dare not set ourselves as judges above others. Other people are not under us, and to think so is to have the wrong view of them. To be gossipy, talebearing, critical, and judgmental is to live under the false illusion that those whom we so judge are somehow inferior to us.
Such judgment is a boomerang, Jesus says, and will come back upon the one who judges. Self-righteous judgment will become its own gallows, just as the gallows Haman had erected to execute the innocent Mordecai was used instead to hang Haman (Esther 7:10). Just as the cruel Adoni-bezek had ordered the thumbs and big toes cut off seventy other kings, so his own were eventually cut off (Judg. 1:6–7).
In ancient Persia a certain corrupt judge who accepted a bribe to render a false verdict was ordered executed by king Cambyses. The judge’s skin was then used to cover the judgment seat. Subsequent judges were forced to render their judgments while sitting on that chair, as a reminder of the consequences of perverting justice. To be judgmental is dangerous to the victim because of the bias against him. It is even more dangerous to the judge, because by the standard of measure with which he judges others it will be measured to him” – (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,’ p. 434).
Every single one of us who are Christ followers, disciples of Jesus Christ, battle this issue of being judgmental. Many of us have this struggle because we are concerned about holiness, godliness and righteousness. When we encounter people, even people who claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, who are unholy, ungodly and unrighteous, we are offended by their hypocrisy, arrogance and blatant defense of sin and evil. It is in these moments especially that we must be careful lest our own pride, arrogance and self-righteousness overtake us.
Jesus’ point here is that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not better than others. If you doubt that, just look at Jesus’ original 12 disciples. By all standards today, probably none of us today would have chosen them. But that is what separates Jesus from us. He didn’t limit His choice of disciples as to where these men were at that moment, but where they could be. It is not an issue of being better, but an issue of becoming. We are not the standard, others are not the standard, Jesus Christ is. This means we should be becoming more and more like Jesus Christ every day. We are to compare ourselves to him, not compare others to us. I like what New Testament scholar Bruce B. Barton writes:
“Judge not, that you be not judged” may be the most-often-misquoted text from the Bible. People frequently apply it as if it were a flat command against all moral judgment. In fact, people use it to judge what they consider a judgmental attitude on the part of another. Jesus, however, gave these words as one negative application of the Golden Rule. That is, we should not treat others as we do not want to be treated. We should seek to measure ourselves and others by the same standards” (Source: Bruce B. Barton, The Life Application Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 129).
My mother was right. When we point the finger at someone, we have 3 pointing back at us. Tomorrow we will say some more about this. Why? Because we all struggle with this. We all tend to believe our own self-righteousness is better than the next person. The truth is: if we are a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, we must remind ourselves in those moments of vulnerability that all of us are sinners saved by His grace. We are not sinners saved by our own place or space in life, but by His grace. The moment we forget this, we will look down on others as their jury, judge and executioner.
Questions To Consider
- Why do you think we tend to judge others? Why do you think we get angry when others judge us?
- What is the biggest challenge for you personally in judging or not judging others? Why?
- Who do you think you are “better” than in life? Is it an individual person? A specific group of people? Why do you center on either this person or group of people? If you chose instead to compare yourself to Jesus Christ, then how do you compare and why? What does this teach you and why?
- Jesus’ admonishing us not to judge is a reverse of the Golden Rule. Why?
- Why do you think it is hard for us to remember we are saved by His grace alone?
Scripture To Meditate On: Romans 14:3-4, “The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. (4) Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, please forgive me when I make myself the standard to judge others. Please forgive me when I forget or ignore that I have been saved by Your grace, not by my own place or space in life. I don’t want to be this kind of person. Help me to be more like Your character and to use You as the measurement of my own discipleship. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly