Why Not Judge?

The Sunday evening message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on October 8, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:1-5.

            “Do not judge, or you, too, will be judged.”  It’s probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible.  But a lot of people have a lot of different reactions to it.  And sometimes we, ourselves, have different reactions to it, depending on what’s going on at the time.

            There are times when we love this verse.  When we get criticism that we don’t want to hear, when someone tries to tell us that what we want to do is wrong, we love to pull this verse out.  “Who are you to judge me?  Jesus told us not to judge people.  You can’t tell me what to do.”

            But on the other hand, when other people are doing things we don’t want them to do, and especially when those things affect us, we don’t like this verse at all.  We feel like we should have every right to judge people.  “How dare you do that to me.  Who do you think you are?  You can’t do that to me.”

            So what did Jesus actually mean by this verse?  What was he actually talking about?

            Well, first, let’s look at the context of what he said.  Right before this, Jesus talked about how we should not worry.  Don’t worry about what you eat or drink.  Don’t worry about what you will wear.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Instead, Jesus said, seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness.  If we do that, God will take care of all these other things, so we don’t need to worry about them.

            And right after this verse, as we read today, Jesus talks about seeing a speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and not seeing the plank in our own.  He tells us to first take the plank out of our own eye, and then we’ll be able to see the speck in someone else’s eye.

            But before that, Jesus said one other thing.  Jesus said that if we judge others, we’ll be held to the same standards that we use in judging them.

            So, where does that leave us?  Well, let’s add one other thing to the mix.  Two of the things Jesus spoke against most often were self-righteousness and arrogance.  In fact, if we go back even farther in Matthew, right before telling us not to worry, Jesus criticized people who make a big fanfare about giving to the poor, or who give long, flowery public prayers to impress people, or who fast in a way that they make sure everyone knows they’re fasting.  And of course, Jesus’ biggest criticisms of the Pharisees were that they were always trying to make sure everyone knew how righteous they were.

So, putting all that together, I think what Jesus was telling us is that our focus should not be on the behavior of others.  Our focus should be on ourselves and on God.  And when I say “our focus should be on ourselves”, I don’t mean that in a selfish or self-centered way.  I mean that we need to focus on our own behavior, on our own thoughts, on our own words.  And we need to focus on the kingdom of God.  We need to do all we can to make sure our own behavior, our own thoughts, and our own words are pleasing to God.  We need to make sure those things honor God and glorify God.  We need to make sure those things are things that are worthy of God, to the extent it’s possible for humans to do things that are worthy of God.

            And really, when you think about it, that’s a big enough job right there, right?  If you’ve tried to do that–if you’ve tried to improve yourself in that way–you know how hard it is.  We work on things, we try to live our lives in ways that are pleasing to God.  And sometimes, we feel like we’re making a little progress.  But then, the next thing we know, something happens, and we slip right back to where we were.  

            So think of it this way:  if it’s that hard for us to change ourselves, what makes us think we can change someone else?  And if we cannot change someone else, why are we judging them?  What good does it do?  

            Now that does not mean we have to approve of everything other people say or do.  Of course not.  Jesus never set forth an “anything goes” philosophy.  Jesus was quite clear that certain things are right and certain things are wrong.  In fact, Jesus said that certain things are good and certain things are evil.  And it’s okay for us to say that, too, as long as the things we say are right and wrong are the same things that Jesus said are right and wrong.  But the point is that our focus should not be on other people.  Our focus should be on living our own lives in as Godly a way as possible.  And the best way we can do that is to keep our focus on God and on God’s kingdom.

            I think that’s something we don’t do enough.  I don’t, anyway.  We focus so much on the things of the world.  On “earthly concerns”, as Jesus told Peter he was doing.  We don’t focus enough on “heavenly concerns”.  We don’t focus enough on God and God’s kingdom.

            That’s not to say that we don’t pray–I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do.  It’s not to say that we don’t love God, either–again, I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do.  And it’s not even to say that we do not believe in Jesus as the Savior–I’m sure most of us, maybe all of us, do that, too.

            What I’m saying is that we don’t think enough about who God really is.  Now, I realize I should not make that as a blanket statement.  Maybe you think about who God is a lot, I don’t know.  If so, then just know that this part of the message does not apply to you.  

            But I think what can happen is that we take God for granted.  And we take prayer for granted.  It’s easy for us to forget what an honor it is to be allowed to pray to God.  It’s easy to forget what a privilege it is to be allowed to pray to God.  We start to think God owes it to us to listen to our prayers, when in fact God does not owe us anything at all.

            Think of it this way.  Imagine that you were God.  I mean, it’s not easy to do, but try.  Imagine you were an all-powerful being.  You could do anything you wanted and you could create anything you wanted.  You could be at all places and at all times in the universe at once, because you’re eternal and you created it all.  And not only are you all-powerful, but you are also completely holy, completely righteous, and complete good.

            If that was you, would you want to hear from human beings?  These small, whiny, sinful, imperfect little creatures?  These people who, as Isaiah said, are like grasshoppers compared to you, and yet they have the nerve to complain to you and try to tell you what to do?  These people for whom you’ve done everything, for whom you’ve given life itself, for whom you even sent your son to die for their salvation, and yet most of the time they don’t even seem to appreciate any of it?  If you were God, would you want to hear from people like that?  I don’t think I would.

             And yet, God does.  God does want to hear from us.  For all that God is, and for all that we are, God wants to hear from us.  In fact, God is eager to hear from us.  God is interested in us.  God wants to hear everything we have to say–the good, the bad, the ups, and the downs.  Anything we want to say to God, God is willing to listen to.  God loves us that much.  God loves you, and God loves me, so much that God wants us to go to Him with everything.  There’s nothing too big and nothing too small for us to go to God with.

            Before we start to pray, we should think about that.  We should think about who God is.  We should think about what an honor and a privilege it is to be allowed to pray to God.  I think doing that will help us put our focus on God, and on God’s kingdom.  And it will make us want to change our behavior, our thoughts, and our words, so that they are pleasing to God.  We’ll want to live lives that honor and glorify God.  We’ll want to live lives that are worthy of God, again to the extent it’s possible for us to do that.

            If we do all that, I don’t think we’ll even want to judge others anymore.  In fact, we really won’t even have time to judge others anymore.  We won’t be interested in that speck in someone else’s eye.  We’ll be too busy trying to get the plank out of our own eye.  We’ll be trying to whittle it down, make it smaller, and then smaller still, and then smaller still.  We’ll probably never completely get rid of it.  But we’ll be trying, and we can keep trying.  And with God’s help, we will make that plank smaller.  We will get closer to living lives that please God, lives that honor and glorify God, lives that are worthy of God.

            Jesus’ statement that we should not judge others is not a “get out of jail free” card that allows people to do anything they want.  It’s a reminder to us that we need to clean up our own lives.  So let’s focus on that.  That’s probably enough of a job for most of us.  In fact, it’s probably a job that will last a lifetime.