You Can't Judge Me!

Matthew 7:1-6

If you’ve ever watched a daytime talk show, or if you’ve ever been on one, or if you’ve walked in certain circles, you’ll hear the phrase “don’t judge me” or even “only God can judge me.”

We have been studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and in today’s passage, Jesus is taking on judging. You all know the first part of this passage – everyone likes to quote it. In King James English, no less: Judge not, lest ye be judged.

We generally seem to understand that God is the God of Justice. Psalm 50:6 tells us that the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice. We also know that God will ultimately judge everyone. In Romans 12:19, Paul warns against taking revenge. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. The right idea that our culture has grabbed a hold of is that God is The Judge. But we’ve also kind of slid in a mandate, usually from people in the midst of sin, that only God has the right to judge anybody.

However, if you think about it, we judge people all the time, and we judge people based on all kinds of criteria. We judge superficially: based on clothes, appearance, tattoos, and family name. We judge on reputation – what are they known for? What have they done in the past? We judge people on the way they talk. We judge people based on how long they’ve lived in the area (or if their family is from the area). I’ve told you that on the weekend when we moved here, someone local judged that I was a pastor because I didn’t have any tattoos or piercings and I had all my teeth. At other times, people have judged that I’m “too young to be a pastor” or I don’t “dress like a pastor.”

One thing that I have found funny for years: certain segments of society act and dress in such a way as to be noticed and in-your-face, yet then they complain that people are judging them because of their looks. Here’s the strange juxtaposition: Our culture says, “You can’t judge me.” Meanwhile, our society continues to judge.

When people in our culture say, “You can’t judge me,” or “only God can judge me,” they base their claim on what Jesus said. In fact, one of the favorite verses to cite is the passage in John 8, where Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. Jesus responded by writing on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8:7) And one-by-one, they all leave until it was just the woman and Jesus. And he asks her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. (John 8:10-11a) Now go and do whatever makes you happy.* (this last part is filed under “things Jesus never said”)

This is the picture our culture loves; the nice Jesus, always loving and kind and accepting. He probably has children in his lap and a little lamb over his shoulder. He would never judge anyone. Right? Except that this story ends with Jesus telling the woman, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11b)

If you didn’t notice, Jesus was so judgmental as to determine that the lifestyle that this woman was living was sinful. And if discipleship means becoming more like Jesus, then there will be times when we judge, and that’s a good and right and righteous and biblical thing.

The big question, then, is: When and what can we judge? And when and what can’t we judge? Let’s go back and look at what 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. (Matthew 7:1-2)

If you look elsewhere in scripture, even in Jesus’ words, Jesus does not say that we can’t judge or discern between right and wrong. In fact, Jesus presupposes that disciples will make judgments. Later in this same chapter, Jesus tells his disciples to judge false prophesy, to judge between good and bad fruit. In Matthew 10, when  Jesus sends his disciples out on their first mission trip, he says this to them: If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. (Matthew 10:14) Sounds an awful lot like judging to me.

In Matthew 16, Jesus tells his disciples to be wary of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And in Matthew 18, Jesus tells his followers how to deal with sin in the church, starting with going and pointing out their sin, just between the two of you (Matthew 18:15). We have to make a judgment if we are going to go point out sin.

In the context of Christian fellowship, according to 2 Timothy 4:2, we are supposed to “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.” We are supposed to hold one another accountable and keep one another on track. If we do not, we are not being the Church. Proverbs 12:15 says: The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

The point here is that the Bible tells us to judge, even Jesus tells his disciples to judge. Nowhere does Jesus say, “by that I mean, remain silent when others do evil,” but we’ve latched on to this “judge not” part and ignored the context. The context is that the way we judge is going to be the way we are judged. In other words, if we are harsh judges of other people, we will be judged harshly.

The big issue here is hypocrisy. Many of us have known authority figures who went by a “do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. I remember my 8th grade algebra teacher, who routinely made fun of students, but when a student would make fun of him, he’d immediately get mad and gruffly say, “OK, it’s time to get back to work.”

When it came to hypocrisy, the Pharisees had the market cornered. They were quick to point out anyone’s flaws or sins, but they were very careful to keep theirs covered by a religious veneer. And so Jesus says: “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? How 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? You 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.

The issue here is not that we do not have any right to judge one another. It’s much deeper. There are times when someone else really is doing something wrong, but it’s none of our business. There are times when someone else really is doing something wrong, but we don’t know their story. And there are times when someone else really is doing something wrong and we don’t have the right to speak because we’re deep in sin ourselves.

Early one Sunday morning, I arrived at the church building to find one of our faithful members, always the first lay person to arrive and prepare for worship, in a tizzy. She was as mad as a wet hen. Our church was hosting a Chrysalis retreat, and she caught one of the “caterpillars,” as we called them, out by the church smoking, of all things. She proudly told me how she had rebuked him and put him in his place. What she didn’t know about, however, was his recovery from heroin addiction. Or about how miraculous it was that he was alive, let alone at this Christian youth retreat where his life was being transformed. She was so worried about his cigarette and “what are people going to think if they see a teenager smoking outside our church?” Her pride was a serious log in her eye.

What about us? Do we do the same thing? Do we pass judgment on other people, sometimes simply to deflect attention from our own sin? Do we look at someone and immediately make a judgment? Earlier I joked about the guy who had me pegged as a pastor because of my lack of piercings and tattoos, but how many of us have made a judgment about someone with piercings or tattoos or missing teeth?

The problem is, we can get self-righteous when it comes to correcting the faults of others. We see a flaw in someone and we just have to correct it. Meanwhile, we conveniently overlook the outrageously huge failure in our own lives.

Many of us know someone who is full of judgment – every church has them. The person whose face is perpetually pulled down into a frown, obsessed with criticizing and correcting others within the church. As a relatively young pastor, I have already served in four churches and am pretty well connected with other pastors, and I will affirm to you that the same people are in every church. Sure, the names and faces are different, but you will find many of the same characters no matter the location or denomination.

Some of these characters are: The Kitchen Nazi: she rules “her” kitchen with an iron fist. Don’t come in unless you’re ready to abide by her rules. For a first infraction, you might get publicly humiliated. For a second infraction, expect to lose a finger.

Another character is The Caretaker/Gatekeeper: he or she wants you to know that this may be a church building, “but it’s really my building.” They might have been on the original building committee or their ancestor might have hewn the original logs by hand, but their purpose is to regulate who comes in and what happens in the building. They “just happen to show up” when the Cub Scouts are going wild. They stand by with a disapproving look when “those outsiders” are invited into the building. They make sure the youth group kids don’t spill any Kool-Ade on the Jones Memorial Carpet.

But one of the worst characters is The Holier-Than-Thou. Do you know why nobody confesses their sins to one another in church? It’s because of the judgment that the Holier-Than-Thou person passes. The Holier-Than-Thou person is often also a vicious gossip and is also an extremely creative investigator when it comes to “unspoken prayer requests.” Meanwhile, this Holier-Than-Thou person, always quick to point out everyone else’s faults (and share them liberally), is thick in sin.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 2:1: Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others, for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

Paul is stressing the same thing Jesus said. Justice requires that before the law, everyone is equal, so even judges must be judged by the same law that they administer. Nobody is “above the law” and there is no place in the Church for a double standard.

But Jesus puts things in perspective: if you see someone with a sin issue, take care of yours first and then go help them deal with theirs. It is easy to criticize other people; all you have to do is glance around and you’ll find plenty to criticize. My favorite criticism ever came after a Christmas service. Because it was Christmas, I was wearing a suit. At that point, I had one suit, but I had recently lost quite a bit of weight, so it was really ill-fitting. Now, in that church, we had two services, so for the first service, I would wear my robe (in the second service I would dress casually). So this woman came up to me after the service and told me, “That suit looks really nice.” It didn’t, but that was OK. I was ready to accept the complement. But she went on: “It sure looks better than that bathrobe you usually wear.”

This from a woman in a muumuu.

Honestly, criticism is easy, but perceiving our own flaws requires deeper self-recognition. And there is only one yardstick we can use as Christians by which to measure ourselves: God’s perfection. Jesus himself tells us to be as perfect as our Heavenly Father is (Matthew 5:48). But how does God measure us?

God measures us by that same standard: perfection. So who measures up? That’s a trick question, because it’s easy to see that none of us could measure up to the standard of perfection. But God doesn’t judge the Christian on our own perfection. God judges us on Jesus’ perfection, if we will accept it. Because at the moment when we accept him and the sacrifice he paid for us, God actually transforms us – our sins are exchanged for Jesus’ righteousness. We are justified: made “just as if I’d never sinned” and sanctified: made perfect and set apart for God’s purpose.

So God now judges us by the measure of his generosity and mercy. And as Christians, we are obligated to use the same measure. Jesus’ sudden use of the phrase “you hypocrite” is meant to catch us by surprise and to bluntly tell us that being a disciple of Jesus Christ does not make us any different from other people.

So Jesus continues with an obscure, strange proverb: “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.

Scholars don’t seem to know what to do with this passage, but it seems: that which is “sacred” and “pearls” refer to the gospel of the kingdom, while pigs were unclean to Jews and the term “dogs” was often used to refer to “Gentiles.”

Jesus is calling his disciples to be generous in their judgment of one another – and the judgment passage clearly refers to how Christians are to treat one another, to take care of your sin and then help them with theirs. All of this has to do with our urgent and universal mission to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom.

However, everything depends on the receptivity of those who will hear the message. In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples out on a mission trip, giving them authority over evil spirits and the power to heal every disease. But he tells them that if they aren’t welcomed, they are to shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. – basically they were to judge their receptivity. If they aren’t receptive to the gospel, then go elsewhere.

Although we can’t know in advance what the response will be, when the disciples encounter resistance or hostility, they aren’t to persist, but they are to continue on their way in order to reach others with the message. Don’t get me wrong – Jesus isn’t making judgments about the worthiness or unworthiness of any individuals or group – after all, he died for us while we were still sinners, and for us to make judgments about people or groups while ignoring that fact is falling into the trap of hypocrisy Jesus was just preaching against! Here he is simply being intentional about the urgency of proclaiming the gospel. If someone won’t listen, why ignore all kinds of other people who will listen. If you want to know how it works in real life, all you have to do is look at the Apostle Paul. He found the Jews unreceptive, and he took his ministry to the Gentiles and made a huge impact.

So instead of wasting your time trying to convert internet atheists through the comment section of YouTube, be intentional about face-to-face relationships where you can make a difference. A final thought about this – if you are not making a difference in someone’s life, if you do not know any non-Christians whose lives you can make a difference in, then it’s time to get to know someone.

A word of caution, however. It takes great discernment to know when to “shake the dust off your feet” and when to dig in deeper. And know that it’s messy. Jesus even says that when we do this, we risk being trampled and torn apart. And he demonstrated this by going to a cruel death on our behalf. So if you are involved in sharing the gospel, and it’s tough and messy and hard, unless God directs you to shake the dust off your feet, stick with it, because that person is a person of sacred worth, someone Jesus died for.