In verses 1 and 2 we read Jesus’ directive that we are not to go around judging people. Actually, as He goes on to say, there is great practicality in heeding this mandate. Because, as the Lord points out, we are in danger of receiving back exactly what we give.
I have an idea. How ‘bout if we all are brutally honest with ourselves for just a moment? How often are we guilty of passing judgment on another? Well, Jesus has quite a bit to say on this topic in Matthew 7:1-5:
Now just the state of being human makes this difficult. We are innately curious beings which initiates observation of the actions and behaviors of others. And before we know it we are not only deducing the motivation but the appropriateness as well. Some time ago, in an effort to overcome my own propensity toward this natural tendency, I coined a little slogan: “Observe without judgment.”
Now in the spirit of candidness, I must admit that I have a way to go before perfecting the desired effect. But it has definitely aided in my quest to be less reproachful. It is pretty difficult to prohibit ourselves from being aware of the actions of those around us but judgment is never warranted. And, according to the words of Christ has no place in a Christian mindset.
Matthew 7:1-5 Meaning
Then Jesus goes on to depict how judging others can lead to hypocrisy by verbally painting a vivid visual for us in verses 3-5: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
If it were not so serious a subject this depiction could be pretty humorous. But then I am thinking perhaps this might just possibly have been Jesus’ intention—to portray just how silly we truly look when we put ourselves in this position.
What a perfect illustration of our struggle to focus our attention outwardly instead of inwardly. It is so much easier for us to try to navigate around that giant plank of sin, weaknesses, and shortcomings in ourselves and place our concentration on administering microscopic surgery on our neighbor.
This attitude gives room to make comparisons between our failings and those of our brothers and sisters. And guess what—somehow in our estimation we always manage to come out looking better than our fellow believers. This ploy allows us to assign the responsibility to others to clean up their act. It gets us off the hook of having to do the hard work necessary to get the huge girder out of our life’s eye. And the more we do it the better we get at it—the easier it becomes to take the onus off ourselves and place it on another.
There is certainly a time and place for us to lovingly and encouragingly admonish Christians who may have stumbled or allowed Satan to creep in unawares. But let us all take heed to first conscientiously and in a straightforward manner observe and deal with our own defects.
Until we sit down together for our next visit, continue living before God’s face.
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