Below is the second part of a talk I delivered at Crossroads Presbyterian Church.

3. What Did Jesus Mean

So if Jesus did not command us to refrain from judging others, what does he teach in this passage? I think Jesus is not, in this passage, telling us to “not judge.” He is instead telling us how to judge. He is contrasting judgments that are accurate, useful, and constructive with judgments that involve hypocrisy and grandstanding. He is telling us to avoid the latter so that we can effectively carry out the former.

Several features bear this out. First, let’s look at the passage. The phrase translated in the NIV as, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged,” was originally written by Matthew in Koine Greek and then transliterated. What is stated is, “Do not judge that you be judged” (Matt 7:1, Interlinear Bible). Note the phrase “that.” In Greek this is not a disjunctive “or,” which suggests alternatives. It is a conjunction which spells out the result, and it is in thesubjunctive tense. What this means, in layman’s terms, is that the passage states: do not judge if that judgment results in you being judged yourself. This is a reference to a particular kind of judgment, not judging in general.

This is clearly borne out when we look at the context, which states: “With whatever verdict you judge you will be judged.”

Here is the point: when I make a judgment about someone else’s character, I implicitly reference a standard which applies to myself as well as to them. If I condemn my brother for stealing, I am assuming it is wrong to steal. That means I am admitting stealing is wrong. If I say an action is wrong and blameworthy, and practise that action myself, I have in essence admitted I am doing wrong and am worthy of blame. I stand condemned by my own words.

Now let us return to the passage and look at the commandment “judge not” in context:

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 then turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:2-6)

Here the qualifications are evident. One is not to judge in a way that brings judgment on oneself. For (because) the standard one uses to judge others is the standard by which one’s own behaviour is measured. Jesus goes on to illustrate, with a sarcastic example, precisely what he is talking about: a person who nit-picks or censures others’ minor faults (taking the speck out of their brother’s eye) yet ignores the serious, grave, moral faults in their own life (the log in one’s own eye). This, as Jesus points out, is hypocrisy. His point is that such hypocrisy actually blinds the person’s ability to make competent moral judgments. This suggests that Jesus is focusing on a certain type of judging and not the making of judgments per se.

In fact, Jesus condemns this type of hypocrisy so that we can judge correctly. Rather than engaging in the kind of judgment Jesus has condemned, a person should “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” In other words, one should try to rectify the serious moral flaws in one’s own life precisely so one can assist others with theirs. Jesus’s point is that one needs to avoid hypocrisy in order to make constructive and effective moral judgments about others.

Why is this? Two reasons.

First, in order to teach people any subject or skill, you actually have to be proficient in that subject or skill. I am a theology teacher. I have had some success, and the reason I have had some success is because I am trained in the relevant disciplines. When I read an essay, I can give constructive feedback because I have spent decades reading theological writings, writing such articles, and thinking about theology. When a student writes, I can give constructive feedback because I have become so proficient and familiar with such writings that I can just see what is lacking or needed.

Second, the nature of hypocrisy itself blinds people. People often think that a hypocrite is someone who doesn’t practise what they preach. This is incorrect. Anyone who has high moral standards will at times struggle and fail to live up to them due to weakness of the will. The Greek word translated “hypocrite” is actually the word for “actor.” A hypocrite is an actor on a stage who puts on a mask to play a role in front of others. Off stage they don’t play that role. A hypocrite is someone who is pretending—they want to appear virtuous by appealing to standards in front of others, telling them what is right and wrong, but they have no real commitment to those standards.

So if your values are so warped that you only care about how you appear—what others think, and not what God, who sees all, thinks—your value system is distorted and you cannot make competent moral judgments. The key point is that we need to avoid hypocrisy precisely so that we have the discernment we need to make constructive judgments that will actually enable us to help both ourselves and others in making wise, as opposed to foolish, judgments.

I think you see the same thing in the reference to “pigs and dogs” in verse 6. Dogs and pigs, to Jews, were unclean animals, and the terms were frequently used to designate people considered to be of low moral character who were “unclean” before God. In this verse Jesus is simply repeating the Old Testament teaching found in Proverbs 9:8, which states, “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” The reason one is exhorted not to do this is because it fails to be constructive. It is not going to do any good. The implication again is that one should try to make constructive judgments rather than simply provoking anger.

I can appeal again to my experience as a teacher. When you teach five classes a day with over 25 students a class, you learn to be discerning. There are some students you will invest a lot of time in, giving constructive feedback, because you know they are motivated and will listen and want to improve. There are others you know are switched off and won’t listen or care no matter what you say. You don’t spend a lot of time giving constructive feedback to these students; sometimes doing so will simply provoke a confrontation that wastes your time.

Just in case I have not belaboured the point enough, my interpretation is further reinforced by what follows these passages:

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:15-23)

Here Jesus actually instructs his disciples to make moral judgments about others. He tells them to judge whether a person is a false prophet or not by their “fruit.” Anyone familiar with Old Testament prophetic literature (as Jesus’ hearers were) would know that fruit is a metaphor for character. Isaiah’s use of the metaphor is paradigmatic:

1 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. 3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” 7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. (Isaiah 5:1-7)

The fruit looked for is such things as right conduct, justice, etc. Paul uses the same metaphor when he states that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23a). Jesus makes it clear that he is utilising this metaphor. He goes on to stress that, in this context, the fruit of a prophet is whether he or she “does the will of my Father” and is not an “evildoer.” It is clear then that Jesus here is exhorting his disciples to make moral judgments about other people, to critically evaluate other people’s lives and actions, and to make judgments about their spiritual authenticity based on these judgments. All this would be very odd if it were wrong to judge.

This is an important skill. In an age of people like David Koresh from Waco, Texas, or Jim Jones, or groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda who advocate terror in the name of God—or even the many contemporary secular political cults today—people need to be able to make discerning moral judgments about where to lay their allegiance, what is the will of God and what is not.

So what is the take-home here? I think it is this: the church is called to go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptise them, and teach them to obey what God has commanded. Its role is to be a source of moral education, to help people answer the question: How should I live? by providing credible answers—answers that are true and helpful. People need these answers to make important decisions. God wants us to become proficient at this, to do it well, both by learning how to live well and by teaching others how to. That means we need to be able to make moral judgments.

In this passage Jesus tells us how to do this. There are several things he says here:

1. Learn to live well in your own life.
2. Teach others out of this practice.
3. Use discernment in reading your audience; know when to speak and when to be silent—when it is pearls before swine.
4. Finally, avoid hypocrisy and grandstanding. You should be trying to live a life pleasing to God, not giving lip service to certain ideas in order to impress others with your virtue.

Doing this enables you to make constructive judgments that enable the church to be salt and light in a world—a world so confused that it regularly expresses the moral judgment that you should not make moral judgments.

Tags:   Judging · Sermon on the Mount · SermonsNo Comments