40  Stop  Criticizing  (7-1-6)

Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (7:1-6)

As with all the other elements of the Sermon on the Mount, the perspective of this passage is given in contrast to that of the scribes and Pharisees, whose hypocritical self-righteousness was in direct opposition to the true righteousness of God (see 5:20).

Here the comparison is in the area of human relations. Six verses (1-6) focus on the negative aspect of a self-righteous, judgmental spirit, and the following six verses (7-12) focus on the contrasting positive aspect of a spirit that is humble, trusting, and loving. These twelve verses form the divine summation of all the principles of right human relations.

When an individual or a group of people develop their own standards of religion and morality, they inevitably judge everyone by those self-made beliefs and standards. The scribes and Pharisees had done just that. Over the previous several centuries they had gradually modified God’s revealed Word to suit their own thinking, inclinations, and abilities. By Jesus’ time their tradition had taken such a hold on Judaism that it had actually replaced the authority of Scripture in the minds of many Jews (Matt. 15:6; cf. 15:2).

Along with the many other sins spawned by their self-righteousness, the scribes and Pharisees had become oppressively judgmental. They proudly looked down on everyone who was not a part of their elite system. They were unmerciful, unforgiving, unkind, censorious, and totally lacking in compassion and grace.

Their evaluation of others, like every other aspect of their hypocritical system, was based on appearances, on the external and superficial (John 7:24; 8:15). They lived to justify themselves in the eyes of other men; but Jesus told them that their judgment was utterly contrary to God’s and was detestable in His sight (Luke 16:15).

The classic portrayal of self-righteous judgment is given in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-gatherer who went to the Temple to pray. “The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people; swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” Jesus’ assessment of the two prayers is clear: “ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:11-14).

An inseparable corollary of justifying oneself is condemning others. When anyone elevates himself, everyone else is lowered accordingly. The Pharisees were doing all they could to lift themselves up in their own eyes, including acting as spiritual judges by condemning others.

It should be noted that this passage has erroneously been used to suggest that believers should never evaluate or criticize anyone for anything. Our day hates absolutes, especially theological and moral absolutes, and such simplistic interpretation provides a convenient escape from confrontation. Members of modern society, including many professing Christians, tend to resist dogmatism and strong convictions about right and wrong. Many people prefer to speak of all-inclusive love, compromise, ecumenism, and unity. To the modern religious person those are the only “doctrines” worth defending, and they are the doctrines to which every conflicting doctrine must be sacrificed.

Some years ago a church was looking for a pastor who would emphasize holiness rather than doctrine. I once received a manuscript to review whose primary thesis was that doctrine divides the church. Consequently, the author argued, all doctrine—at least all that might be disagreed with and therefore be divisive—should be eliminated for the sake of the higher goal of unity and fellowship. Right doctrine not only is compatible with true holiness, unity, and fellowship but is absolutely necessary for them to exist. Only right doctrine, biblical doctrine, can teach us what true holiness, unity, and fellowship are—and are not.

In many circles, including some evangelical circles, those who hold to strong convictions and who speak up and confront society and the church are branded as violators of this command not to judge, and are seen as troublemakers or, at best, as controversial. Yet at no time in the history of the church, or of ancient Israel, was spiritual and moral reformation achieved apart from confrontation and conflict. God’s prophets have always been bold and controversial. And they have always been resisted, often by God’s own people. The church reformers of the sixteenth century were men of strong doctrine, conviction, and principle—apart from which the Protestant Reformation would never have come about.

Reformation is needed when spiritual and moral life are low; and for the very reason they are low they will resist every effort to reform. The power of sin, whether in an unbeliever or believer, is opposed to righteousness and will always resist God’s truth and God’s standards. To the carnal person, absolute doctrine and high moral standards are inherently controversial.

Christ does not here or anywhere else forbid courts of law, as claimed by the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and others. Both the Old and New Testaments uphold not only the right but the divine necessity of human courts of law (e.g., Deut. 19:15-21; Rom. 13:1-7). Nor does this or any other part of Scripture teach that we are never to evaluate, criticize, or condemn the actions or teachings of another person.

The entire thrust of the Sermon on the Mount is to show the complete distinction between true religion and false religion, between spiritual truth and spiritual hypocrisy. Jesus places God’s perfect and holy standards beside the unholy and self-righteous standards of the scribes and Pharisees and declares that those who follow those unholy and self-righteous standards have no part in God’s kingdom (5:20). No more controversial or judgmental sermon has ever been preached.

If this greatest sermon by our Lord teaches anything, it teaches that His followers are to be discerning and perceptive in what they believe and in what they do, that they must make every effort to judge between truth and falsehood, between the internal and the external, between reality and sham, between true righteousness and false righteousness—in short, between God’s way and all other ways.

A few verses later Jesus warns, “Beware of the false prophets” (Matt. 7:15). In other words, we are to judge who speaks for God and who does not. Jesus tells us to confront a sinning brother privately with his sin and, if he will not repent, to take one or two others with us to speak to him, and if that does not cause him to change, to bring him before the entire church. If he still does not repent, he is to be put out of the church and regarded “as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer” (Matt. 18:15-17).

Paul tells believers, “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting” (Rom. 16:17-18). He also instructs saints not even “to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). Obviously such commands demand that we employ a certain kind of judgment before we can obey.

Every message we hear is to be judged for the soundness of its doctrine. Paul told the Galatians, “But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). John says, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds” (2 John 10-11).

Not to rebuke sin is a form of hatred, not love. “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor” (Lev. 19:17). Refusing to warn a person about his sin is just as unloving as refusing to warn him about a serious disease he may have. A person who does not warn a friend about his sin cannot claim love as his motive (see Matt. 18:15). The author of Hebrews calls for a level of spiritual maturity wherein Christians “because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (5:14).

But Jesus is here talking about the self-righteous, egotistical judgment and unmerciful condemnation of others practiced by the scribes and Pharisees. Their primary concern was not to help others from sin to holiness, but to condemn them to eternal judgment because of actions and attitudes that did not square with their own worldly, self-made traditions.

Krin (to judge) means basically to separate, choose, select, or determine, and has a dozen or more shades of meaning that must be decided from the context. In our present passage Jesus is referring to the judgment of motives, which no mere human being can know of another, and to judgment of external forms. Paul says, “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way” (Rom. 14:13).

The Bible consistently forbids individual or vigilante justice that assumes for itself the prerogatives of a duly established court of law. It also consistently forbids hasty judgments that do not have full knowledge of the heart or of the facts. “He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him” (Prov. 18:13). Sometimes what appears to be wrong is nothing of the sort.

It is significant that, though God is omniscient, He gives us many examples of the care we ourselves should take before making judgments, especially those that involve serious consequences. Before He judged those who were building the tower of Babel, “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built” (Gen. 11:5). Before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah He said, “I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know” (Gen. 18:21).

What Jesus here forbids is self-righteous, officious, hasty, unmerciful, prejudiced, and unwarranted condemnation based on human standards and human understanding. He gives three reasons why such judgment is sinful: it reveals an erroneous view of God, an erroneous view of others, and an erroneous view of ourselves.

AN ERRONEOUS VIEW OF GOD

Do not judge lest you be judged. (7:1)

Unrighteous and unmerciful judgment is forbidden first of all because it manifests a wrong view of God. With the phrase lest you be judged, Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that they are not the final court. To judge another person’s motives or to curse to condemnation is to play God. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). During the millennial kingdom Christ will share some of that judgment with us (Matt. 19:28; 1 Cor. 6:2; etc.), but until that time we blaspheme God whenever we take upon ourselves the role of judge. “Who are you to judge the servant of another?” Paul asks. “To his own master he stands or falls” (Rom. 14:4). Paul was little concerned about how other people judged him, and was not even concerned about how he judged himself. “I am conscious of nothing against myself,” he says, “yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord” (1 Cor. 4:3-4).

Except as they may be continually teaching false doctrine or following standards that are clearly unscriptural, we are never to judge a person’s ministry, teaching, or life—and certainly not his motives—by a self-styled standard. “Do not speak against one another,” James warns us. “He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11-12). Such evil judgment is blasphemous, because it sets a man up as God—and there is only one true Judge.

Whenever we assign people to condemnation without mercy because they do not do something the way we think it ought to be done or because we believe their motives are wrong, we pass judgment that only God is qualified to make. An unknown poet of past days wrote,

Judge not the workings of his brain,

And of his heart thou cannot see.

What looks to thy dim eyes a stain,

In God’s pure light may only be

A scar brought from some well-won field

Where thou wouldst only faint and yield.

The Savior does not call for men to cease to be examining and discerning, but to renounce the presumptuous temptation to try to be God.

AN ERRONEOUS VIEW OF OTHERS

For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. (7:2)

Most people feel free to judge others like this because they erroneously think they are somehow superior to others. The Pharisees thought they were exempt from judgment because they believed they perfectly measured up to the divine standards. The problem was that those were mere human standards that they, and others like them, had established far short of God’s holy and perfect law.

Jesus says that God will judge us with the same type of judgment with which we judge others. When we assume the role of final, omniscient judge, we imply that we are qualified to judge—that we know and understand all the facts, all the circumstances, and all the motives involved. Therefore, when we assert our right to judge, we will be judged by the standard of knowledge and wisdom we claim is ours. If we set ourselves up as judge over others, we cannot plead ignorance of the law in reference to ourselves when God judges us.

James has the same principle in mind when he warns, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1). The person who is qualified to teach is judged on a stricter basis than others because as a teacher he has greater understanding and influence. “From everyone who has been given much shall much be required” (Luke 12:48).

We are especially guilty if we do not practice what we ourselves teach and preach. “Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things” (Rom. 2:1-2).

God has no double standards. In criticizing unjustly or condemning unmercifully, we play God and give the impression that we ourselves are above criticism and judgment. But God sets none of us as final judge above others, and we dare not set ourselves as judge above others. Other people are not under us, and to think so is to have the wrong view of them. To be gossipy, talebearing, critical, and judgmental is to live under the false illusion that those whom we so judge are somehow inferior to us.

Such judgment is a boomerang, Jesus says, and will come back upon the one who judges. Self-righteous judgment will become its own gallows, just as the gallows Haman had erected to execute the innocent Mordecai was used instead to hang Haman (Esther 7:10). Just as the cruel Adoni-bezek had ordered the thumbs and big toes cut off seventy other kings, so his own were eventually cut off (Judg. 1:6-7).

In ancient Persia a certain corrupt judge who accepted a bribe to render a false verdict was ordered executed by king Cambyses. The judge’s skin was then used to cover the judgment seat. Subsequent judges were forced to render their judgments while sitting on that chair, as a reminder of the consequences of perverting justice.

To be judgmental is dangerous to the victim because of the bias against him. It is even more dangerous to the judge, because by the standard of measure with which he judges others it will be measured to him.

AN ERRONEOUS VIEW OF OURSELVES

And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, (7:3-5a)

When we judge critically we also manifest an erroneous view of ourselves. All three false views are connected. When we have a wrong view of God, we cannot but have a wrong view of others and of ourselves. Putting ourselves in God’s place as judge perverts our perspective of others and of ourselves.

A karphos (speck) is not a tiny piece of dust or soot but a small stalk or twig, or possibly a splinter. Though small in comparison to a log, it is not an insignificant object to have in the eye. Jesus’ comparison, therefore, is not between a very small sin or fault and one that is large, but between one that is large and one that is gigantic. The primary point, of course, is that the sin of the critic is much greater than the sin of the person he is criticizing.

Some interpreters suggest the speck represents a rather minor ceremonial infraction, whereas log represents an extremely vulgar and repulsive sin. But people with obviously terrible sins usually spend their time trying to hide or justify their own great sin, not in criticizing the small sins of others.

The wretched and gross sin that is always blind to its own sinfulness is self-righteousness, the sin that Jesus repeatedly condemns in the scribes and Pharisees, not only in the Sermon on the Mount but throughout His ministry. Almost by definition, self-righteousness is a sin of blindness, or of grossly distorted vision, because it looks directly at its own sin and still imagines it sees only righteousness. The log in this illustration represents the same foundational sin of self-righteousness that Jesus has been condemning throughout the sermon.

The very nature of self-righteousness is to justify self and condemn others. In so doing people play God, because they judge themselves on the basis of their own standards and wisdom. Self-righteousness is the worst of sins because it is unbelief. It trusts in self rather than God. It trusts in self to determine what is right and wrong and to determine who does what is right or wrong. Self-righteousness claims to be both lawgiver and judge, prerogatives that belong only to the Lord. Consequently it denies and opposes the gospel, because the gospel proclaims man’s sinfulness and lostness even as it proclaims God’s mercy and grace. Because the self-righteous person sees no sin in his life, he sees no need for God’s grace in his behalf. The term notice conveys the idea of serious, continuous meditation. Jesus is saying, in effect, “Will you not stop and think about your own sin? Until you have done that, how can you confront another with his shortcomings?”

Thus, the self-righteous person can never be anything but a hypocrite, because he continually puts on a deceitful act of righteous superiority. That is why he feels qualified to say to his brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”—let me tell you what is wrong in your life and let me straighten you out.

The hypocrite “is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was” (James 1:23-24). He sees but he does not see. He is like those to whom Isaiah was sent, a people who would listen but not perceive and look but not understand, because their hearts were insensitive and “their ears dull, and their eyes dim” (Isa. 6:9-10).

THE RIGHT BALANCE

first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. (7:5b-6)

The person who has the mind and attitude of the kingdom citizen—the person who is poor in spirit, humble, and who hungers and thirsts for God’s righteousness (see Matt. 5:3, 5-6)—will be the person who first of all sees and mourns over his own sin (see 5:4).

Jesus here gives the corrective to the wrong kind of judgment by showing the right balance of humility and conviction, poverty of spirit and power in the Spirit. The Lord’s command is, First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. First of all we confess our own sin—often the sin of self-righteousness and of a condemning spirit toward others—and ask for God’s cleansing. When our own sin is cleansed, when the log is taken out of our own eye, then we will see our brother’s sin clearly and be able to help him. Then we will see everything clearly—God, others, and ourselves. We will see God as the only Judge, others as needy sinners who are just like ourselves. We will see our brother as a brother, on our own level and with our own frailties and needs.

This right balance of humility and helpfulness is reflected in Psalm 51. David first prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then,” he is able to say, “I will teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners will be converted to Thee” (vv. 10, 12-13). Jesus told Peter that after he had recovered from his moral defection, he could then “strengthen [his] brothers” (Luke 22:32). Paul advises us, “Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). All confrontation of sin in others must be done out of meekness, not pride. We cannot play the role of judge—passing sentence as if we were God. We cannot play the role of superior—as if we were exempt from the same standards we demand of others. We must not play the hypocrite—blaming others while we excuse ourselves.

There is also danger, however, even for the truly humble and repentant believer. The first danger, already mentioned above, is of concluding that we have no right to oppose wrong doctrine or wrong practices in the church, lest we fall into judgmental self-righteousness. We will then not be willing to confront a sinning brother as the Lord clearly calls to do. The second danger is closely related to the first. If we are afraid to confront falsehood and sin in the church, we will be inclined to become undiscriminating and undiscerning. The church, and our own lives, will become more and more in danger of corruption. Realizing the impact of sin in the assembly (1 Pet. 4:15), Peter made a powerful call for a confrontive, critical church when he said, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God” (v. 17). Believers must be discerning and make proper judgment when it is required.

Jesus closes this illustration with a thunderbolt that completely shatters the sentimental interpretation that, in the name of humility and love, we are never to oppose wrong or correct wrongdoers. It is clear that Jesus does not exclude every kind of judgment. In fact, He just as plainly commands a certain kind of right judgment here as He forbids a wrong kind in the preceding verses. Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine. To obey that command it is obviously necessary to be able to determine who are dogs and swine.

In biblical times dogs were seldom kept as household pets in the way they are today. Except for those used as working animals to herd sheep, they were largely half-wild mongrels that acted as scavengers. They were dirty, greedy, snarling, and often vicious and diseased. They were dangerous and despised.

It would have been unthinkable for a Jew to have thrown to those dogs a piece of holy meat that had been consecrated as a sacrifice in the Temple. Some parts of those offerings were burned up, some parts were eaten by the priests, and some would often be taken home and eaten by the family who made the sacrifice. The part left on the altar was the part which was consecrated exclusively to the Lord, and therefore was holy in a very special way. If no man was to eat that part of the sacrifice, how much less should it be thrown to a bunch of wild, filthy dogs. Such an act would be the height of desecration.

Swine were considered by Jews to be the epitome of uncleanness. That is the reason Antiochus Epiphanes’ sacrifice of a pig on the Jewish altar and forcing the priests to eat it was such an absolute abomination—and touched off the Maccabean revolt against Greece in 168 B.C.

Because a Jew would never have tried to domesticate a pig, most of the swine they encountered were, like the dogs, wild animals who foraged for themselves, often in garbage dumps on the edge of town. Like the scavenging dogs, those swine were greedy, vicious, and filthy even by ordinary pig standards. If you came between them and their food they would likely turn and tear you to pieces with their tusks and sharp hooves.

Jesus’ point is that certain truths and blessings of our faith are not to be shared with people who are totally antagonistic to the things of God. Such people are spiritual dogs and swine, who have no appreciation for that which is holy and righteous. They will take that which is holy, the pearls (the rarest and most valuable of jewels; see Matt. 13:45-46) of God’s Word, as foolishness and as an insult.

A wild animal whose primary concern is scavenging for food will hardly appreciate being thrown a pearl. He will resent its not being something to eat and possibly attack the one who throws it.

Jesus did not give all of His teaching to everyone who happened to be listening. On one occasion He prayed, “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes” (Matt. 11:25). On another occasion He said to His disciples, in answer to their question about why He spoke to the multitudes in parables: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. . . . Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matt. 13:11,13). And after Jesus rose from the dead He showed Himself to no one who was not a believer.

Peter warns, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2 Pet. 2:1-3). A few verses later he speaks of such people as being “like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge” (v. 12). Using as examples the same two animals Jesus mentions in our present text, Peter closes his warning with the words: “It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire’“ (v. 22).

Dogs and swine represent those who, because of their great perversity and ungodliness, refuse to have anything to do with the holy and precious things of God except to trample them under their feet, and turn and tear God’s people to pieces.

There will be times when the gospel we present is absolutely rejected and ridiculed and we make the judgment to turn away and speak no more, deciding that we should “shake off the dust of [our] feet” (Matt. 10:14) and begin ministering somewhere else. There will be times when those to whom we witness will resist the gospel and blaspheme God, and we may speak words of judgment. Like Paul, we must then say, in effect, “Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6). When people not only reject the gospel, but insist on mocking and reviling it, we are not to waste God’s holy Word and the precious pearls of His truth in a futile and frustrating attempt to win them. We are to leave them to the Lord, trusting that somehow His Spirit can penetrate their hearts—as He apparently did with some of those who at first rejected the preaching of Paul and the other apostles—or leaving them to the just judgment of God.

A warranted judgment is made when we “reject a factious man [one who belongs to a sect, or a heretic] after the first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). That text shows that in such a situation the believer does not condemn, but rather is able to recognize an already self-condemned person.

Matthew 7:6 is one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus. We must take the command seriously and do our best to obey it, because it is the Lord’s will. But because it is so serious and because we may also be inclined to be self-righteous and judgmental, we need to depend on the Lord with special care and sincerity. Even when we determine that a person is too rebellious to hear the gospel or is a heretical and false teacher, we go on our way not in self-satisfied judgment but in great disappointment and sorrow—remembering how our Lord, as He approached Jerusalem for the last time, “saw the city and wept over” those who refused to recognize and receive their King (Luke 19:41-42). To avoid wrongful judging and to accomplish right discernment is to be marked as a citizen of the heavenly kingdom.