Matthew 7:1-5
1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
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? 4How 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? 5You 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.
Judgment. It is something that the Christians of today have become quite scared of. It has become something that Christians arent suppose to do but yet the perspective of them is Judgmental. So what are Christians suppose to do. Are we suppose to judge everybody like the man with the bullhorn and the sign telling everybody that they must repent or they are going to hell? Or, are we suppose to let people simply live their lives, because we arent suppose to judge them. Anyways, judging them is God’s problem, not ours.
But by that time, it is too late. It is the time when true judgment has been placed on them, when they have been truly judged and the eternity of their lives revolves around it. So i ask you, do you want your fellow brothers and sisters to end up in hell because you did not want a bit of strife in judging them? Why choose the easy road with no confrontation, no struggle, no pain? Is that the life that Jesus lived? If you think so, i can guarantee to you that you are not reading the Bible.
We are called to judge people. This phrase may seem like heresy, but if you look closer, i can assure you it is not. In verse 5, Jesus is saying, First take out the log in your own eye, and THEN take out the speck in your friends eye. What is he saying? Is he saying do not judge your friends for their wrong doings? No. he is saying help them, but help yourself first. The problem with judgment is that it has gotten a very bad reputation. Judgment is viewed as condescending and insensitive. But judgment doesnt have to be that way. To put in an extreme case so that it may be easier to understand, if somebody is committing adultery, i guarantee that it is infinitely better that you confront him/her instead of God. We are called to help our brothers and sisters, not to ignore their problems. Even Paul when he writes to a church, he tells them to expel the man from the church who is having sexual relations with his mother.
Is this judgment? Or is this love? I would say it is both. The man that Paul is talking about needs to be told that he is wrong. Granted that we should not expel every person from the church for sinning, but we must take a stance. We must warn our fellow brothers and sisters so that they will repent. We must do this not only for ourselves, but so that the perspective of the people who say that Christians are hypocrites can no longer say that. We must be willing to go all the way in telling our brothers and sisters that they are wrong, because if we dont, their eternal souls are at stake.
Now for non-Christians, how can we judge them? How are is it possible to judge somebody who has a different set of beliefs for you. How can you say that they are doing wrong when they think they are doing right? We must stop judging the outside and judge the inside, the family of Christ so that it is actually different from the outside. As of now, the Body of Christ has become so corrupt and comfortable that parts of it are indistinguishable from Non-Christians. So i urge you to watch your brothers and sisters in Christ sin, but to confront them and tell them they are doing wrong. If they refuse to repent, then the harsh truth is, they aren’t Christian because they are saying that the sin that they are committing is greater than God, or in fact, their God.
