Dr. Rodney Plunket

Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37-42

Luke (Lk) 6 contains some of the most difficult teachings Jesus ever gave. Please turn to that chapter and follow along as I read verses (vv) 27-31. Jesus says,

But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Here Jesus proclaims an ethic guided by love––a love that extends to enemies. Jesus then gives examples of what loving enemies looks like in real life. He makes clear that it is a love that responds to curses with blessings and to abuse with prayer.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote or preserved many Socratic dialogues. In the dialogue entitled Gorgias, a man named Callicles is one of Socrates’ dialogue partners. Callicles refers to a man who is "a fool," a "helpless" person, a person "deprived of his rights of citizenship." Callicles then goes on to say of such a person that he is "a man who . . . may be boxed on the ears with impunity." To be boxed on the ears or to be struck on the cheek was a great insult in the ancient world; and to be unable to respond was, for Callicles, the most pathetic of weaknesses. Such a person, Callicles says, "has no power to save either himself or others" (Plato, Gorg. 486c). In Lk 6:29 Jesus says, "If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also." In other words, if you receive the greatest of insults, do not return that insult; and do not defend yourself against another one. Allow the person to vent his or her anger, and do not magnify that anger by responding in kind. Jesus goes on to make clear that we are to respond to all forms of aggression in that way. He also tells us to "give to everyone who begs from you" (v 30). He ends this section with the Golden Rule which says, "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Lk 6:31).

Verses 32-35 are described by Hans Dieter Betz as "[a] commentary on the Golden Rule" (The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount including the Sermon on the Plain [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995], 591), and I think that is an apt description. And this commentary on the Golden Rule makes very clear that the kind of love Jesus is talking about is very different from the attitude that says, "you good to me and I will do good to you" response. In vv 32-33 Jesus says,

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

No, do not just love and do good to those who love and do good to you. And Jesus, in verse (v) 35, calls upon His disciples to "love [their] enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return." In v 36 Jesus concludes His commentary on the Golden Rule by telling His disciples, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Aren’t we glad that God gives us mercy instead of just responding to us reciprocally. Can you imagine what this life and the judgment to come would be like if God only gave us love and good things when we were loving and good. Even when we are at our best, we need much more love and goodness from God than we have ever given to anyone else. We need a love that places the Holy Spirit within us. We need a love that will raise us from the dead. We need a love, we need a mercy that is greater than any love or any mercy that we could give to anyone. God’s love and mercy are incredible. When we make God’s mercy and God’s love the standard for all of our behavior, then we can become radical lights for goodness; and we can shine to the glory of God. That is the life to which Jesus calls us.

Now we come to vv 37-38, in which Jesus verbalizes four maxims, four maxims for which the preceding sections have prepared us. As Betz says, "One will recognize all four maxims as applications of the Golden Rule . . . correctly understood" (Ibid., 614). These maxims were read as part of our Scripture reading this morning, but I want to read them again. Jesus says,

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

What does the Golden Rule look like when it is lived out? It causes a person not to judge and not to condemn. In fact, it causes a person to do the exact opposite of those things. It causes a person to be forgiving and giving.

Sisters and brothers, we live in such a judging and condemning world. We live in a world where forgiveness and generosity are not common. We live in a world in which many seem to think that they can read everyone else’s motives, and everyone’s motives are bad. Jesus wants His disciples to have a different kind of spirit. Jesus wants us to be characterized, not by judging and condemning, but by forgiveness and generosity.

And Jesus comes back to this anti-judging and anti-condemning theme in Lk 6:41-42. There He says,

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, "Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye," when you yourself do not see the log 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 neighbor’s eye.

So many times the person who is quick to point out some trivial flaw is the same person who possess a character flaw the size of a log. Everyone can see it but the judgmental one. He or she is so mesmerized by the specky little flaws of others that his or her own faults go unrecognized and unchanged.

The Gospel of Matthew also records Jesus’ comments about the speck and the log. And I want us to look now at the two verses that proceed those comments as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew (Matt) 7:1-2 we read, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get."

These sharp indictments of judging in both Matthew and Luke generate a question that I think we should answer now. That question is, ‘How can Jesus give such a command when His teachings often call for us to do some sort of judging?’ For example, Matthew’s account of Jesus’ indictment of judging is found in the Sermon on the Mount which is contained in Matt 5-7; and the Sermon on the Mount contains many judgments. In Matt 5 we read of judgments on murder, adultery, divorce, swearing, and retaliation. In chapter (ch) six Jesus emphatically denounces hypocrisy. And here in chapter seven, so soon after the material on judging, Jesus says, in v 6, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs." It certainly seems obvious that such a command places upon us the need to determine who are the dogs and the pigs to whom Jesus refers. You have to do some judging to know how to keep that command. Also in ch 7, Jesus reveals the need for believers to judge between true and false prophets; a judgment which he says is determined by evaluating, by judging a prophet’s fruit. So the Sermon on the Mount is full of judging.

And if you go even further into the NT, you come to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 where he makes clear that Christians must judge and expel from their fellowship anyone who is sexually immoral, greedy, or an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. He even says, in v 12, that believers are "to judge those inside," referring to those who are inside the church family. Paul makes clear then that we must judge those within the church whose lives are out of step with the teachings of Jesus.

So how can Jesus teach against judging in Matt 7:1-2 when His teachings elsewhere call for us to judge, as do the teachings of the apostle Paul? I think Jesus’ words on judging refer to what we would call a judgmental and condemning attitude. John R. W. Stott refers to it as an attitude of "censoriousness," which Stott well describes when he says, "The censorious critic is a fault-finder who is negative and destructive towards other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings" (Christian Counter-Culture [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978], 176). A disciple of Jesus is not to be that kind of person.

So what should we learn from Jesus’ words on judging and condemning? I think that there are at least four lessons for us. Let me tell you what I think they are.

The first lesson is that the follower of Jesus is to be slow and cautious about judging. Judging is often required. The teachings of Jesus and the message of the New Testament as a whole make that clear. We often have to judge/have to evaluate. But we should proceed with great care and great caution when we judge, because our judgment by God will be more severe if we judge others inappropriately.

It is important to be reminded that it is not only these verses in Lk 6 and Matt 7 that counsel caution relative to judging another. Other New Testament passages do the same, e.g., Romans 2:1; 14:10-12; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 5:12; James 4:11-12; 5:9, and the list could be lengthened. It is equally important to be reminded that the action, the attitude that the New Testament always puts foremost relative to our treatment of others is love. My point is that the New Testament makes clear that the Christian is to be slow to judge and quick to love. There may be times when we have to judge, but we have to love all the time!

But when it is necessary to judge, how do we proceed? That question leads us to the second lesson which comes from Jesus’ teachings on judging. Jesus reveals that for our judgment to be appropriate, we must judge others with a measure, a standard with which we judge ourselves. So the second lesson from these verses is––always judge yourself by the same standard with which you judge another, and always judge yourself by that standard before you judge another. Floyd V. Filson in his commentary on Matthew is surely right when he says that people "have a chronic tendency to be lenient in judging their own actions and harsh in judging others" (The Gospel According to Matthew, p 104). One reason for that is not hard to uncover. A person judges himself or herself on the basis of intentions, motives, heart. I can do that because I know my intentions, my motives, my heart. The problem is that we judge others solely on the basis of what they do, because that is all we can really know; we cannot know another person’s intention. It is important, therefore, before we judge another, to strip from our judgments of ourselves all of those heart and motive elements which amount to privileged information. We must look at our own actions purely as actions. We must remove the gloss which our hidden motives supply. Otherwise, we judge ourselves with a biased standard, and we are unable to judge others fairly when it is important that others be judged.

Lesson number three is that after we have judged ourselves by the standard we use in judging others, we must clean ourselves up on the basis of that judgment. In other words, we must deal with our own failings first. That is the only way we can avoid trying to take a speck of sawdust out of another’s eye at the same time that we have a log in our own.

Now for lesson number four. Be reminded of Jesus’ words in Lk 6, words spoken prior to his words on judging and condemning. Remember that in Lk 6 the focus is on loving your enemies, doing "to others as you would have them do to you," and being "merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Whatever judging that we feel forced to do should be guided by mercy and love and the Golden Rule. Our judging should be profoundly impacted by an eagerness to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us.

I have met so many people who have found members of churches of Christ to be judgmental, critical, and condemning. We often are not known as merciful and loving and eager to forgive. Many have spoken to others about their religious beliefs in hurtful ways that have not conveyed the Golden Rule but instead have conveyed arrogance, self-righteousness, and a divisive spirit. I believe those attitudes are indicted by Jesus’ words on judging, condemning, and love. Let’s be a people who shine to the glory of God by the love we lavishly pour out on others.

I want to close with a story that our good sister Carletta Keeling sent me via email.

The boy stood with back arched, head cocked back and hands clenched defiantly. "Go ahead and give it to me." The principal looked down at the young rebel. "How many times have been here?" The child sneered rebelliously, "Apparently not enough." The principal gave the boy a strange look. "And you have been punished each time have you not?" Yeah, I been punished, if that’s what you want to call it." He threw out his small chest. "Go ahead, I can take whatever you dish out. I always have." And no thought of your punishment enters your head the next time you decide to break the rules does it?" Nope, I do whatever I want to do. Ain’t nothin you people gonna do to stop me either."

The principal looked over at the teacher who stood nearby. "What did he do this time?" "Fighting. He took little Tommy and shoved his face into the sandbox." The principal turned to look at the boy. "Why? What did little Tommy do to you?" "Nothin, I didn’t like the way he was lookin at me, just like I don’t like the way you’re lookin at me! And if I thought I could do it, I’d shove your face into something." The teach stiffened and started to rise, but a quick look from the principal stopped him.

The principal contemplated the child for a moment and then quietly said, "Today, my young student, is the day you learn about grace." "Grace? Isn’t that what you old people do before you sit down to eat? I don’t need none of your stinkin grace." "Oh but you do." The principal studied the young man’s face and whispered, "Oh yes, you truly do . . ."

The boy continued to glare as the principal continued, "Grace, in its short definition is unmerited favor. You cannot earn it; it is a gift and is always freely given. It means that you will not be getting what you so richly deserve."

The boy looked puzzled. "You’re not gonna whup me? You just gonna let me walk?" The principal looked down at the unyielding child. "Yes, I am going to let you walk."

The boy studied the face of the principal. "No punishment at all? Even though I socked Tommy and shoved his face into the sandbox?"

Oh, there has to be punishment. What you did was wrong, and there are always consequences to our actions. There will be punishment. Grace is not an excuse for doing wrong.

"I knew it," sneered the boy as he held out his hands. "Let’s get on with it."

The principal nodded toward the teacher. "Bring me the belt." The teacher presented the belt to the principal. He carefully folded in two and then handed it back to the teacher. The principal looked at the child and said, "I want you to count the blows."

The principal slid out from behind the desk and walked over to stand in front of the young man. He gently reached out and folded the child’s outstretched, expectant hands together and then turned to face the teacher with his own hands outstretched. One quiet word came forth from his mouth. "Begin."

The belt whipped down on the outstretched hands of the principal. Crack! The young man jumped ten feet in the air. Shock registered across his face. "One," he whispered. Crack! "Two." His voice raised an octave. Crack! "Three . . ." He couldn’t believe this. Crack! "Four." Big tears welled up in the eyes of the rebel. "OK. Stop! That’s enough. Stop!"

Crack! Came the belt down on the callused hands of the principal. Crack! The child flinched with each blow, tears beginning to stream down his face. Crack! Crack!

"No, please," the former rebel begged. "Stop, I did it. I’m the one who deserves it. Stop! Please. Stop . . ." Still the blows came. Crack! Crack! One after another.

Finally it was over. The principal stood with sweat glistening across his forehead and beads trickling down his face. Slowly he knelt down. He studied the young man for a second, and then his swollen hands reached out to cradle to the face of the weeping child.

"Grace . . ."

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Please come and receive the mercy of God.