Have you been judge by someone? What do you think of that person’s skill in judging you. Have you judged people and afterwards realize you made a false evaluation?
Let’s listen how Jesus analyses this complicated behaviour:
Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.
Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
Matthew 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.
Jesus here refers particularly to judging another’s motives, not to judging the right or wrong of his acts. God alone is competent to judge men’s motives, because He alone is able to read men’s innermost thoughts (see Heb. 4:12; DA 314).
Looking thus on men’s hearts, God loves the sinner the while He hates the sin. Able to discern only the “outward appearance” (1 Sam. 16:7) and not the heart, men inevitably make mistakes.
Jesus does not here refer to that fine sense of discrimination by which the Christian is to distinguish between right and wrong, but rather to the habit of censorious, sharp, and usually unjust criticism.
Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
The measure we give will be the measure we receive, for injustice provokes injustice. More than that, the injustice of one man toward his fellow men provokes divine judgment, as Jesus taught in the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt. 18:23–35).
We may condemn the offense, but, like God, we must ever be ready to forgive the offender. We can extend mercy to the offender without in any way condoning the evil he may have done.
Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Our proverb, “Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” has a similar import.
There is also an Arabic proverb that runs, “How do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, and don’t see the cross-beam in your own eye?”
Speck. Gr. karphos, a mere “chip,” or “splinter,” of dried wood, chaff, etc. In the eye this would be a most irritating particle, however small its size. The “speck” represents, of course, the lesser fault. The censorious man always readily detects any fault, however small, in another man.
Matthew 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 4. How wilt thou say? Compare Luke 6:42.
Luke 6:42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
This offer is not prompted so much by a desire to be helpful as to call attention to the fact that the speck is there and to the presumed wisdom and skill of the person making the offer.
A plank. Completely forgetful of the times that he himself has erred, and of his own weaknesses, the hypocrite becomes impatient with his erring brother.
How often so-called Christians express profound indignation at the course others have taken, or are presumed to have taken, only to have later events reveal that they themselves are guilty of the very sins of which they accuse others.
This was true of the Pharisees who brought to Jesus the woman taken in adultery (John 8:3–11; DA 461), and also of Simon when he judged Mary (Luke 7:36–39; DA 566). The Christian who discovers his brother in a fault will “restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,” considering that he himself may have been tempted and may have fallen on that very point, or may do so in the future (Gal. 6:1).
Matthew 7:5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
The critical, censorious person is always a hypocrite, and his criticisms are aimed, in part, at drawing a cloak over his own hypocrisy. See on ch. 6:2.
It is only when a man is ready and willing to suffer himself, if need be, in order to help his erring brother, that he can “see clearly” enough to be of any help to him (see MB 128).
To help others see and remove defects in their characters and lives is the most delicate of operations in the field of human relations, and requires the clearest and most discriminating eyesight on the part of the person who proposes to conduct the operation.
Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
The words of Jesus describe one who is swift to discern a defect in others. When he thinks he has detected a flaw in the character or the life he is exceedingly zealous in trying to point it out. But Jesus declares that the very trait of character developed in doing this un-Christlike work, is, in comparison with the fault criticized, as a beam in proportion to a speck.
It is one’s own lack of the spirit of forbearance and love that leads him to make a world of an atom. Those who have never experienced the contrition of an entire surrender to Christ do not in their life make manifest the softening influence of the Saviour’s love.
They misrepresent the gentle, courteous spirit of the gospel and wound precious souls, for whom Christ died. According to the figure that our Saviour uses, he who indulges a censorious spirit is guilty of greater sin than is the one he accuses, for he not only commits the same sin, but adds to it conceit and censoriousness.
Christ is the only true standard of character, and he who sets himself up as a standard for others is putting himself in the place of Christ.
And since the Father “has committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22), whoever presumes to judge the motives of others is again usurping the prerogative of the Son of God.
These would-be judges and critics are placing themselves on the side of antichrist, “who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
The sin that leads to the most unhappy results is the cold, critical, unforgiving spirit that characterizes Pharisaism. When the religious experience is devoid of love, Jesus is not there; the sunshine of His presence is not there.
No busy activity or Christless zeal can supply the lack. There may be a wonderful keenness of perception to discover the defects of others; but to everyone who indulges this spirit, Jesus says, “You hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall see clearly to cast out the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
He who is guilty of wrong is the first to suspect wrong. By condemning another he is trying to conceal or excuse the evil of his own heart. It was through sin that men gained the knowledge of evil; no sooner had the first pair sinned than they began to accuse each other; and this is what human nature will inevitably do when uncontrolled by the grace of Christ.
When men indulge this accusing spirit, they are not satisfied with pointing out what they suppose to be a defect in their brother. If milder means fail of making him do what they think ought to be done, they will resort to compulsion.
Just as far as lies in their power they will force men to comply with their ideas of what is right. This is what the Jews did in the days of Christ and what the church has done ever since whenever she has lost the grace of Christ.
Finding herself destitute of the power of love, she has reached out for the strong arm of the state to enforce her dogmas and execute her decrees. Here is the secret of all religious laws that have ever been enacted, and the secret of all persecution from the days of Abel to our own time.
Christ does not drive but draws men unto Him. The only compulsion which He employs is the constraint of love. When the church begins to seek for the support of secular power, it is evident that she is devoid of the power of Christ—the constraint of divine love.
But the difficulty lies with the individual members of the church, and it is here that the cure must be wrought. Jesus bids the accuser first cast the beam out of his own eye, renounce his censorious spirit, confess, and forsake his own sin, before trying to correct others.
A Tree and Its Fruit
Luke 6:43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
This accusing spirit which you indulge is evil fruit, and shows that the tree is evil. It is useless for you to build yourselves up in self-righteousness. What you need is a change of heart. You must have this experience before you are fitted to correct others; for “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34.
When a crisis comes in the life of any soul, and you attempt to give counsel or admonition, your words will have only the weight of influence for good that your own example and spirit have gained for you.
You must be good before you can do good. You cannot exert an influence that will transform others until your own heart has been humbled and refined and made tender by the grace of Christ.
When this change has been wrought in you, it will be as natural for you to live to bless others as it is for the rosebush to yield its fragrant bloom or the vine its purple clusters.
If Christ is in you “the hope of glory,” you will have no disposition to watch others, to expose their errors. Instead of seeking to accuse and condemn, it will be your object to help, to bless, and to save.
In dealing with those who are in error, you will heed the injunction, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. “Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Galatians 6:1.
You will call to mind the many times you have erred and how hard it was to find the right way when you had once left it. You will not push your brother into greater darkness, but with a heart full of pity will tell him of his danger.
He who looks often upon the cross of Calvary, remembering that his sins placed the Saviour there, will never try to estimate the degree of his guilt in comparison with that of others. He will not climb upon the judgment seat to bring accusation against another. There can be no spirit of criticism or self-exaltation on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary’s cross.
Not until you feel that you could sacrifice your own self-dignity, and even lay down your life to save an erring brother, have you cast the beam out of your own eye so that you are prepared to help your brother.
Then you can approach him and touch his heart. No one has ever been reclaimed from a wrong position by censure and reproach; but many have thus been driven from Christ and led to seal their hearts against conviction. A tender spirit, a gentle, winning deportment, may save the erring and hide a multitude of sins. The revelation of Christ in your own character will have a transforming power upon all with whom you come in contact. Let Christ be daily made manifest in you, and He will reveal through you the creative energy of His word—a gentle, persuasive, yet mighty influence to re-create other souls in the beauty of the Lord our God.