JUDGING OTHERS (Matthew 7:1-6)
By Ted Schroder
For www.virtueonline.org
January 22, 2012
Jesus said, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Are Christians supposed to suspend their critical faculties, and to turn a blind eye to the faults of others? Is Jesus encouraging tolerance and acceptance of others whatever they are or do? That would be to deny our need to make value-judgments in life. Jesus himself is very critical of some people, and goes on to say that we should beware of false prophets who come to us in sheep's clothing. No, he is here challenging us with the need for spiritual discrimination - spiritual discernment - to discern truth from error, or good from evil. We need to know how to sift the wheat from the chaff, the genuine from the false, and yet do it in a balanced way.
All of us are undergoing a process of judgment in this life. Jesus is reminding us that we are all being prepared for the future judgment. What Jesus teaches us is to be first, self-critical (something which is hard to do because of our sinful tendency to self-deception), and then to avoid, what he describes as self-righteous censoriousness.
"Censoriousness is a compound sin consisting of several unpleasant ingredients. It does not mean to assess people critically, but to judge them harshly. The censorious critic is a fault-finder who is negative and destructive towards other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings. He puts the worst possible construction on their motives, pours cold water on their schemes and is ungenerous towards their mistakes. Worse than that, to be censorious is to set oneself up as a censor, and so claim the competence and authority to sit in judgment upon one's fellow men." (John Stott)
When we do that we try to play God, and we do not know enough about the other person to do so. We also open ourselves to being judged for our own failings. None of us is perfect. We all have our Achilles heel, our weaknesses.
Jesus illustrates this truth by comparing the speck of sawdust in our brother's eye with the plank in our own eye. How can we focus on the weakness of someone else when our greater weaknesses obscure our vision? It is like a blind man performing cataract surgery on another.
"We have a fatal tendency to exaggerate the faults of others and minimize the gravity of our own. We seem to find it impossible, when comparing ourselves with others, to be strictly objective and impartial. On the contrary, we have a rosy view of ourselves and a jaundiced view of others. Indeed, what we are often doing is seeing our own faults in others and judging them vicariously. That way, we experience the pleasure of self-righteousness without the pain of penitence." (John Stott)
Jesus calls this "hypocrisy". He enjoins us to concentrate on dealing with our own failings before focusing on the failings of others. No one should consider themselves morally superior to someone else. It is the height of arrogance and complacency. Political leaders are particularly prone to this flaw. All leaders need a dose of humility which comes from honest self-examination. All those who consider themselves a cut above others need to humble themselves before the Cross and confess that they are sinners. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
Flannery O'Connor, in her short story, Revelation, illustrates this truth in the person of Mrs. Ruby Turpin, a 'very large,' respectable, and church-going Southern woman, who has brought her husband Claud to the doctor's office to be treated for a leg ailment. The doctor's small waiting room is almost full when they arrive. As gospel music plays softly in the background, Ruby takes center stage among the people there. Indeed, both her physical size and her personal presence virtually overtake the room. Full of self-certainty about her own goodness, she begins making mental observations about the other people in the room - even classifying them by the shoes they wear. Ruby has a habit of classifying others; when she has trouble falling asleep at night, she calms herself by imagining all classes of people. Ruby is not simply content to classify people in the context of her own smug self-contentment. She begins to hurl well-mannered comments, really carefully disguised sharply-barbed insults. Ruby's arrogance is based on a self-righteous judgment in which faults consistently lie with others, not herself.
Ruby is eventually confronted with her self-righteousness by Mary Grace, a disturbed college student. When she returns home she has a vision of all the people she has despised going to heaven while she and her kind make up the rear of the procession. She discovers that 'The first shall be last and the last first.' She is forced to acknowledge her own sin and need of grace.
Jesus, however is not urging turning a blind eye to everyone. He balances his plea for humility with spiritual discernment. We are to learn to recognize evil for what it is and take appropriate action.
Jesus uses startling language to get our attention. "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."
There are people who treat the things of God with disrespect and blasphemy. They treat the sacred with derision, and trample the pearl of the Gospel into the dirt. Sometimes those people are in positions of power in the church, and they abuse their position bringing the Gospel into disrepute. While we are not to judge others with harshness we are not to ignore their faults either. Not everyone is capable of correction. "Don't waste your time on a scoffer; all you'll get for your pains is abuse. But if you correct those who care about life, that's different - they'll love you for it." (Proverbs 9:8)
It can be a waste of time to continue to try to convince people who have rejected the Gospel. While we should be patient in persevering with most people, there are some who have indicated that they are not interested, and rather than running into a brick wall we should move on to others (q.v. Matt.10:11-16)
The parable of the sower reminds us that the message of the kingdom is sown on many different kinds of soil. Much of the seed takes root only for a short time for the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart, or trouble and persecution cause it to fail, or the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke it and make it unfruitful. Only a small portion is received by those who hear the word and understand it, and produce an abundant crop. (Matthew 13:1-23) We cannot tell the condition of the human heart, but we can identify from the results in a person's life whether they either reject the Gospel or receive it. This requires wisdom - spiritual discernment - to know with whom to give our attention. Jesus said that we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Don't be naïve but be discerning.
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