Right judgment. Luke 6:37-42 (Sermon at FFMC 19/6/22, Father's Day)

 ³⁷ “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸ give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

³⁹ He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. ⁴¹ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. (Luke 6:37-42)

 

Introduction

More than 30 years ago the great NT scholar D A Carson writes: We live in “…an age when Matthew 7:1 (‘Do not judge or you too will be judged’) has displaced John 3:16 as the only verse in the Bible the man in the street is likely to know” (Commentary on John, Carson)

 The phrase ”judge not” is often used in connection with, “Who are you to judge me?” or “Jesus told us never to judge people, only to love them.” This view comes from a mindset in which acceptable behaviour, morality and justice is a matter of personal choice. So for people who speak like this, there is no objective truth or morality. We shouldn’t be held responsible for our behaviour. It’s our personal business, not other people’s business. So if I want to do something stupid, you have no right to criticise me.

 Furthermore, it is thought that as a really good Christian, we shouldn’t even be making any moral judgments about what people do and say. “The less you say about something or someone, the holier you are”

 This is a gross misunderstanding of Jesus’ words. The command not to judge is not a call to stop exercising moral discernment – to tell what is right and what is wrong. Like so many of Jesus’ commands, it touches something beyond the external obedience to not speak up to criticise. It is something deeper and harder – it tells us to search our own proud and superior hearts. Today, we must see what the Word of God says about this command not to judge and how we are to obey it rightly.

 There are 3 points I will address today:

1. The foundation of right judgment
2. The meaning of right judgment
3. The purpose of right judgment

  

The foundation of right judgment (v.6:27-36)

To find out what Jesus means when Jesus commands us not to judge, we must look a few verses back from our passage today. The context of the command matters. There are 3 related commands that set the stage:

• Love your enemies (6:27, 35).
• The Golden Rule “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” (v.31)
• Do good to enemies, expecting nothing in return (v.35)

So our attitude to those we are judging, even though they are our enemies, is critical.

 And then there is a reference to the character of God: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (v.36). This is absolutely critical. Also, God gives in “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” (v.38) God is merciful. He does not deal with us as we deserve. He deals with us graciously. He deals with us generously. Sometimes we ‘give chance’ to people, but this does not mean that we therefore are nice to them. Not God! He both gives us chances we do not deserve, and He gives us ungrudgingly, freely.

 The attitude Jesus expects of us is only possible because we have experienced the mercy of the Father. When we were His enemies, Christ died for us (Rom 5:10). It is from grace that we are able to show grace. This truth must sink deep into us. If we do not see how sinful and undeserving we are, we will not be amazed by grace. If we are not continually amazed by grace, we will not show grace. Remember the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Mt 18:21-35). He had received cancellation of an impossible debt, but he could not cancel the trivial debts of others.

 On this foundation of God’s grace then, Jesus gives 2 pairs of statements to tell us how to relate to people.

1 pair is negative (v.37):

Don’t judge – you will not be judged

Don’t condemn – you will not be condemned

 

1 pair is positive (v.38):

Do forgive – you will be forgiven

Do give – you will be given in abundance.

 The ideas in thee negative pair are linked, just like the ideas in the positive pair. The negative ideas speak about a certain attitude of seeing ourselves as above someone else. You can only judge people when you have the opportunity to exercise an opinion, or discernment or power over them. You can only condemn people and look down on people if you feel morally superior to them. On the other hand, the positive ideas speak about an attitude of lowering of the self – in forgiving when we have been wronged even though justice is on our side, and in giving when we see the needs of others and not holding on to our own resources. We judge from humility, not from superiority.

 Jesus goes on to explain why wrong attitudes are to be avoided and right attitudes are necessary - “for” (because) with the measure we use, it will be measured to us. The spiritual law that applies is that we will reap what we sow (Gal 6:7). We are all going to be judged by God. God is truly and rightly greater than us. This means that God will treat us the way we treat others. In withholding blessing from others, He will withhold blessing from us. In having a harsh and superior attitude to others, we will also not receive mercy from Him. And this applies to our life on this earth and to how He will deal with us on the day of judgement. We will lose a measure of our heavenly reward. Habitual unforgiveness and stinginess, a habitual critical and judgemental spirit may show that we have never been truly saved in the first place. The real Christian is to be generous and kind to others.

  

The meaning of right judgment

In the parallel passage to Luke 6 in Matthew 7 Jesus expects us to identify whether someone is a dog or pig (v. 6) or a false prophet (v. 15), or whether one's life shows fruit (v. 16)

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. (Matt. 18:15–17)

Paul writes, “Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges outsiders” (I Cor 5:12-13)

 To judge, is to come to an opinion or conclusion, spoken or unspoken, about the character, speech and actions of another person.

These verses show that there is a ‘right’ type of judging, which we must do, and a wrong kind of judging that we must not do.

 

Right judgment involves:

·         Discernment of sin, of what is wrong and what is right, what is good and bad, good and best. This is based on the objective standards God lays down in His word, and all these things flow from His unchanging character. There must be moral discernment! It is whether there is a heart of love behind it that tells us whether we have a wrong judgmental attitude. A doctor can accurately diagnose HIV infection and feel disgust at an immoral lifestyle that led to it and despise the patient, or he can treat the patient with love and compassion for the disease. The issue is not making the diagnosis, or even whether treatment is given. The issue is the heart attitude.

·         Use of natural faculties. Even non-Christians retain a knowledge of God’s moral law. God gives every human being a conscience and common-sense.

(“…why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” Lk 12:57)

·         The presence of the Holy Spirit. God’s empowering, purifying, teaching presence is with us.

(“The spiritual person judges all things” (1 Cor 2:15)

·         A clear-headed view of ourselves. We must be honest in facing the fact that we are sinful and imperfect, and that we sometimes cannot see where our faults are unless someone tells us where we have gone wrong.

(“But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged”. 1 Cor 11:31)

 

Wrong judgment involves:

•        Judging by appearances. Superficial things impress us. Looks, power, wealth, connections, fame make us think differently about people.

(“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” Jn 7:24)

•        Judging without reference to God. The motivations and values we have are untransformed by the Spirit. We act as if God were not to be taken into account.

(“You judge according to the flesh” (Jn 8:15)

(For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Ro 8:5)

•        Evil intent against the one judged. We hold no love against the one spoken of, but we speak to lower reputation and to cause harm, or when we think of him or her, we only wish them harm.

(Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. (James 4:11)

 

Right judgment	Wrong judgment
Based on God’s character and Word	Based on our own ideas
Dependent on the Holy Spirit	Arising from our human impulses
Done out of love for people	Done out of love for ourselves
Showing humility	Showing pride
Comes from a  generous spirit	Comes from a mean spirit
Based on gospel values	Based on worldly values
Sees the whole picture and whole person	Sees only superficially

 

 Jesus then gives 3 pictures of judgment:

• The blind man cannot lead the blind – you cannot lead if you don’t know the way. You cannot judge rightly if you yourself do not have access to adequate information and cannot see the whole picture. Don’t judge prematurely. Also, if you don’t have an idea of what is right or wrong you can’t exercise any moral discernment. And definitely – if you don’t know how to live your life towards God, you shouldn’t be telling people how to live their lives.
• The disciple cannot be above the teacher – you do not surpass the one teaching you. Turning that around, don’t be in a situation where you tell someone more experienced or knowledgeable than you how to do things. ("Yǒu yǎn bù shí tài shān") We need humility to consider the possibility that the person you are criticizing in your heart or with your mouth has already struggled with the issue more than you, thought more about the issue than you and can handle the matter better than you would if your positions were reversed.
• The one with the log cannot help the one with the speck – you cannot help people when you have the same type of problem, only worse. Jesus calls people with this kind of behaviour ‘hypocrites’. This word means that you pretend to be what you are not. So the one judging actually is not just ignorant of his or her lack of qualification to judge, but is aware that he or she has a problem, yet judges anway. This person wants people to think they are good and righteous, so judging becomes a way to demonstrate their holiness. But they are actually worse than those they are judging. Your sins may not be visible to people, but God sees them all. We like to judge because we feel good about our own sins and shortcomings when we judge.

 So these pictures tell us, don’t judge if “you’re no better”; if “you’re not as good” and if “you’re a lot worse and you know it”

 The point of these 3 pictures is to say that before you look at people, look at yourself first. If we do not do this, we will demand of others what we ourselves cannot perform. We have expectations of people, but none of ourselves. We preach, but do not practice. We are hypocrites because we are equally or more guilty ourselves. We do not show mercy when we received mercy.

 Pastor and author Steven Altrogge writes:

Arrogant judgment says, “What a despicable, vile, weak person.” 

Humble judgement says, “Apart from the redemption of Jesus, I’d be joining them,

 Arrogant judgment says, “I would never do something like that.”

Humble judgment says, “Though I may not struggle like they do, I sin against Jesus in 10,000 other ways.”

 Arrogant judgment says, “I’m better than them.”

Humble judgment says, “We both need Christ.”

 

The purpose of right judgment

Two possible responses:

“If right judging is so hard, I’d better not do it”

“If right judging is so hard, why do it?”

But when we judge rightly we can lead the spiritually blind, we can teach the spiritually untrained, we can help those with flaws so they grow in godliness.

A gift of noticing flaws in others is not so that you can hurt them but help them. The one who feels grieved and humbled over his own sin judge to help others.

 This is true in the church, and it is true in families. Today is Father’s Day – when we celebrate fatherhood. Fathers are supposed to lead and teach and correct their children, and in doing this, we need to exercise right judgment. Right judgment should be more natural for fathers, simply because there should be real love for children, and real love is the basis of right judgment.

 Closing

We are so quick to judge – wrongly. So ready to feel superior to people even though we have so many blind spots and sins of our own. Remember that the holiest and only perfect person who ever lived interacted with prostitutes and collaborators with occupying forces, with religious figures and state leaders with equal grace. Jesus never pushed his holiness into people’s faces, never humiliated them. We need to learn to judge like Him.

 There is an old song that uses what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10: Freely we received from God, freely give.

 We  always need to see the depths of our own sin, and we need to grasp once again the wonder of goodness and grace of God towards us. So when we come to people, we come to them like Jesus came to us: full of grace and truth. May we hear His voice afresh to us today and may we not simply hear it, but obey it gladly.

 Video recording here