Judge Not

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Judge Not

Mat 7:1-23

 Jesus did not say, “Judge not,” period. He told how to judge without being judged.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵You 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.” 

Christians Are Accused Of Being Judgmental

         When Christians are accused of being judgmental there is some truth in it.  Sinners feel judged when honest people just live a righteous life & mind their own business.  The whole Bible is judgmental.  That is the one and only reason proud men can’t stand to read it.  The Bible describes believers as seated on thrones with judgment committed to them (Rev 20:4).  Ephesians 2 says believers are seated with Christ in heavenly places.  Daniel foresaw this when he said, “the court shall be seated” (Dan 7:26) “and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High.”

         The way this judgment takes place is by the preaching of God’s word.  To preach God’s word or to obey it requires a judgment.  But to reject it does also.  All through this chapter Jesus makes judgments and calls on the listeners to make judgments.  You be the judge. 

So when He says, “Judge not,” He does not mean what hypocrites think He means.  When Jesus said, “Repent,” that was judgmental.  When God’s Law says, “Thou shalt not,” that is judgmental.  But the only legitimate way we can judge is if we first judge ourselves.  We must side with God’s judgment against ourselves.  The judging that Jesus hates is the one that has a “holier than thou” attitude or a self-justifying attitude, an attitude that “I’m good and you’re bad.”  Mercy, empathy, and love with a spirit of meekness should be our motive.  Redemption is the goal, not condemnation. 

On the other hand, anyone who encounters the convincing power of the Holy Spirit is going to feel condemned (judged) just like we do.  To escape that feeling, rebels justify themselves and judge the messenger as being judgmental.  They justify themselves and judge God’s law.  They project onto the messenger their own condemnation.  Jesus is not saying simply “Judge not.”  He is saying if we judge ourselves first, then we can judge.  The only way to not be judged is to side with God against our selves and be justified by grace through faith.

         Unbelievers try to justify themselves by judging the messenger.  Calling Christians judgmental is judging.  When they say, “Judge not,” they themselves are also judging.  Everyone makes judgments.  It’s impossible to not make them.  To discern between good & evil is to make a judgment.  But when man thinks he can decide for himself what is good and evil instead of submitting to God’s judgment, he has eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He has created a law unto himself.  He has become an autonomous judge that makes up his own rules of political correctness.        

Autonomous Thought Is Judgmental

         “Autonomous” means “self-made law.” Autonomous thought forces men to make a judgment by picking out some aspect of the creation as the origin of all meaning; and that aspect of creation is usually the state.  The state replaces God. In picking some aspect of creation as the origin of all meaning, the autonomous thinker is made captive to a kind of idol (a god) of his own making. Political correctness is an example of autonomous judgmentalism. This idol, this god bends his understanding to conform to its dictates as in statism.

         Then Jesus continues in this same chapter into the matter of making a judgment concerning dogs and pigs (false teachers).  

Judging Dogs And Pigs

"Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Mat 7:6).

  To obey this command, one has to make a judgment as to who is or is not a dog and a pig.  Paul called the false teachers dogs (Phil 3:2).  Dogs not will enter the celestial City (Rev 22:15).  Jesus then makes a connection between not casting pearls to pigs and the prayer of faith.  Keep in mind He is not changing the subject.  This is in the context of judging in church discipline. 

Judgment In Prayer

 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mat 7:7).

         What has prayer got to do with dogs and pigs?  The other time Jesus talks about asking and receiving in faith is in the context of making a judgment in church discipline.  In Mat 18:18 He says, “But if he refuses even to hear the church [false teachers refuse to hear the church], let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.  Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind [forbid] on earth will be bound [forbidden] in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit] on earth will be loosed [permitted] in heaven.  Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Mt 18:18-19).  “Two of you” means two or more of His disciples (not two of just anybody).  Binding and loosing has to do with making a judgment in prayer, a prayerful decision by the church to reject false teachers…dogs.

         What do we learn from this?  How do we apply this to current events?  Any so-called Christian church that denies the infallible inspiration of Scripture, for example, as it is interpreted in the judgment of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds is under the wrath of God.  We have a great historical example of this judgment in the Arian controversy.

The Arian Controversy

         The period from A.D. 300 to 400 was one of the most important pivotal times in church history.  The church had just gone through ten persecutions by ten emperors over 250 years starting in 64 AD with Nero.  The last one was the worst, and lasted for ten years.  Multitudes of church buildings, Bibles, and martyrs were burned.  Some of the mightiest men of God in history lived at this time.  One of those was Anthony of the Desert whose life spanned almost 100 years.  Athanasius, the father of orthodoxy, knew him and wrote his story.  These men lived through these times of suffering and cataclysmic change in world history.  The persecution ended when the Emperor Constantine had a vision of the cross and these words written in the sky: “In this sign conquer.”  He then conquered the persecutor and brought liberty to the churches.

         But then another persecution arose.  Christian heretics led this one.  The Arians were followers of a priest named Arius started teaching that Jesus was not God.  He said He was just the Son of God and was a created being.  Athanasius was the bishop of Alexandria who withstood this heresy and was exiled five times.  The followers of Arius (the Arians) with government help gained great numbers and persecuted the Trinitarian believers.  When the emperor Constantine became aware of this he facilitated a church council at the city of Nicea in order to settle this controversy.  318 church leaders from all over the world gathered to decide on this matter.  The result was the judgment made by the Nicene Creed.  All the churches of the world agreed on the doctrine of the Trinity; that God is Three Persons in One Essence.  Because all the churches were united in this decision, what they bound on earth in the Nicene Creed was binding in heaven.  The Arian dogs were judged.

         There were several godly giants that fought in this crucial battle for the orthodox faith besides Athanasius. How dare we exalt ourselves as more enlightened than these Spirit filled men of God who laid down their lives for the Kingdom?  How dare we act as provincial and self-righteous lone rangers by re-inventing orthodoxy on the anvil of anti-historical provincialism!     

         Some have taught that Constantine was bad for the church.  Constantine himself had no say in the Nicene Creed.  Matter of fact, his priest was an Arian.  But like Cyrus the Great whom God called His anointed, even though he did not know God, Constantine brought peace to the church that later resulted in the conversion of the Roman Empire.  As Daniel foresaw, “The court was seated and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the most High God.” Or as John saw it, “I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed” (Revelation 20:4-5).

         Arius, on his way to become the bishop of Constantinople suddenly got sick, went to the latrine, fell in, and died. He judged wrongly and got judged.