In Matthew 7, Jesus Christ touches on several subjects: 1. Being wise in judgment; 2. Being persistent; 3. Living a holy life; 4. Being a true servant of GOD; and 5. Being obedient to His Word. There is so much to learn from this one passage alone, so I won’t try to tackle it all at once. Instead, I’m breaking it up into five parts, making this a series called The Many Lessons Of Matthew 7. The first part I’ll be looking at involves being wise in judgment.
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
I have heard people abuse and twist this passage, choosing to emphasize the first verse while totally ignoring the following verses. In this passage Jesus Christ isn’t telling us to not judge at all, but to instead be compassionate and merciful in our judgments . And to also wise when attempting to discern or weigh things. Jesus Christ’s example of the speck versus the plank is similar to the idiom of “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” But we see in the example Jesus makes this is a grave issue.
Think of the size comparison between a plank and a speck. In the original King James Version, it is a beam versus a mote. The one attempting to discern, or judge, in this matter has something huge like a 2×4 preventing him from seeing clearly. While the person he is attempting to guide has only something the size of a grain of salt perhaps impeding his vision.
- Strong’s Concordance explains that “judge” as used in this passage is from the Greek word “Krino,” which has several definitions (not dealing with the law):
# to separate, put asunder, to pick out, select, choose
# to approve, esteem, to prefer
# to be of opinion, deem, think, to be of opinion
# to determine, resolve, decree
# to judge
- Per Dictionary.com:
Judge: –verb (used with object) 8. to form a judgment or opinion of; decide upon critically: You can’t judge a book by its cover. 9. to decide or settle authoritatively; adjudge: The censor judged the book obscene and forbade its sale. 10. to infer, think, or hold as an opinion; conclude about or assess: He judged her to be correct. 11. to make a careful guess about; estimate: We judged the distance to be about four miles.
How is that we want to criticize others while totally ignoring the fact that we need some serious work, too? How is that we want to tell people they are wrong for doing certain things, when we do the same things and worse? As Jesus says, we have to take a good, honest look at ourselves first in the mirror (i.e., the Word) and make sure there is nothing keeping us from being able see clearly. Once we do some honest self-evaluation, by the light of GOD’s Word, then perhaps eventually we can be of use to someone.
In the last line of this passage, Jesus talks about giving what is holy to dogs and throwing pearls before swine. Who would give something that is holy and precious to a dog that returns to its own vomit or to a pig that wallows in its own filth? They wouldn’t be able to appreciate this holy and precious thing, and in fact would seek to destroy it and then turn and try and destroy us.
Have you ever known a person who seemed in need of some kind of help and you felt moved somehow to offer that help? But at every turn, instead of mending his/her ways, this person always seems to return to that original pitiful state. And again, you feel moved to help him/her. This goes on like a cycle, repeatedly. At what point do we stop and realize (or acknowledge) that this person is behaving like a dog or swine and will one day eventually turn on us no matter how much we’ve done to try and help?
But if we use righteous judgment, that is, discern wisely through the Word, we may be able to keep ourselves and the holy and precious things we hold dear from being trampled by worthless individuals who want no real part with us and our LORD Jesus Christ.
(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
[Of course, I welcome your input and insight. This is what I make of this particular passage and would be grateful to know if there is anything I have overlooked or failed to highlight. I do this for myself and for you...]
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