Luke 6:37-42: "Judge not"

INRODUCTION

Today I want to talk about the most dangerous temptation for those of us who are serious about our faith.

Jesus said, “Follow me.” To follow Jesus means true commitment. And that is what we want. We want to be more than casual Christians. We want to be, not just one-half Christian, or three-fourths Christian, but one hundred percent committed—to hold nothing back, and to follow Jesus to the end.

But there’s a danger—a real danger—whenever take the gospel seriously and set out on the road of true discipleship.

We become serious about our Bible study. Each day we seek to penetrate deeper into its meaning.

We become serious about prayer, and we spend time in prayer every day.

We want our words to be always gracious, to encourage others.

We become serious about serving others. We want to love our neighbor as ourself and serve people in the name of Christ.

And just when we think we are making a little progress, the devil smuggles this idea into our minds—we can’t help it. He tells us, “Hey, you’re becoming a really good Christian!” “You’re not like these ordinary church members.”

And we fall for it.

This is a danger the Bible warns us about. St. Paul wrote in one of his letters: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

In Luke 6, we have a long discourse from Jesus called “The Sermon on the Plain.” This message is somewhat like “The Sermon on the Mount,” except that Luke tells us that it was spoken on a “level place.”

Like all preachers, Jesus repeated himself, and in this shorter sermon, Jesus repeated some of the great truths he talked about in his Sermon on the Mount, and added some others.

So here is my text for today—from Luke 6:37-42:

“Do not judge and you won’t 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.”

He also told them a parable, “Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher.

“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.”

I. Jesus says, “Judge not.”

A. That little phrase—“judge not”—has been much misunderstood.

Some people think that we must never express any opinion about what is good or bad or right or wrong.

But Jesus isn’t telling us that we are to simply ignore all that is wrong in the world.

As believers, we need to take a stand against the evil in the world. Faithfulness to God requires that we stand for what is good and oppose what is evil

But we must be gentle and humble, knowing that we also are far from blameless.

We grieve over the sins we see in the world. We don’t delight in them and dwell on them in our conversation—or in our thoughts.

B. When Jesus says, “Judge not,” what he is warning us against that censorious, faultfinding spirit that we are so tempted to engage in.

He is warning us against majoring on the sins of other people.

He is warning us against thinking we are superior because we have responded to God’s call and are serious about living for God.

Have you ever noticed how much of everyday conversation consists of finding fault with other people?

I hear it all the time.

People talk constantly about the faults of the younger generation—the faults of the politicians—the media—the Muslims—the rich people—the poor people—the people who aren’t like us.

I’m not saying there’s not plenty wrong in the world. I could go on and on. But the faults of others shouldn’t be the content of our conversation.

Rather, we need to look for what is good.

St. Paul wrote, also in his letter to the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

What we fill our minds with is what will come out of our mouths.

Sometimes we need to steer the conversation away from the negativity we hear around us. We just need to be quiet and not take part in the faultfinding. We need to try to turn it to something positive.

I read once of a grandmother who was so positive in her speech that her grandchild said to her, “Granny, you’re so nice, I think you’d even have a kind word for the devil!”

The old lady said, “Well, we could admire his perseverance.”

If our minds are filled with the goodness of God and love for others, then the keynote of our conversation will be thanksgiving—not the evil in the world.

II. In the next sentence after Jesus says, “Do not judge…” he says, “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.”

A. It sounds like the Lord is changing the subject from not judging to generosity. And that is exactly true. Because the opposite of judging is generosity.

Jesus wants us to be generous in forgiving those who offend us—to cut them some slack—to make excuses for them—to consider the reasons people are as they are.

In his book, The Chosen, Chaim Potok records this conversation between a rabbi and his son. In the conversation, the son laughs and says to his father, “That man is such an ignoramus, Father!”

The father was angry and he rebuked his son. He said, “Look into his soul. Stand inside his soul and see the world through his eyes. You will know the pain he feels because of his ignorance, and you will not laugh.”

B. Think of the person you have contempt for—and think of what it would be like to be him or her. And have pity—not contempt.

Consider that you have no idea of what his life experiences are. You don’t know the hurts he has sustained. You can’t imagine the ignorance that darkens his soul. You have forgotten what it is like to live without the grace of God in your life.

III. Now let’s talk about the last part of the words I read—the part about taking the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

A. Jesus doesn’t tell us that we are never to confront another person with his or her faults.

He only tells us that we should first take the log out of our own eye.

In other words, look to yourself first. Make sure that you are qualified for this delicate task of confronting your neighbor with his faults.

B. But I think Jesus said that with a twinkle in his eye, because he knows that when we confront the log in our own eye, we lose our enthusiasm for extracting the speck in our friend’s eye. For me, that is really Jesus’s point.

If we really consider our own sins, we may be able to see more of the good in other people—even those who fall short of our standards.

C. But it’s not enough not to talk about the faults of others, we need to try not even to think about them.

And when an unkind thought comes into our mind, we need to confess it as a sin and replace it with a prayer for that person.

Here are some sayings worth repeating:

“Forget others’ faults by remembering your own.”

“It is the property of fools to be always judging.”

“Everyone has enough to do weeding his own garden.”

“The faults of others are like the headlights on an approaching car—they only seem to be more glaring than my own.”

I have a friend who likes to quote this saying of Confucius: “When we see persons of worth we should think of equaling them. When we see persons of contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.” (Analects, Bk. 4.16).

Rather than dwelling on the sins of others, the best plan is to be a good example. If we are gentle, kind, and forbearing, we will be a lot more pleasant to be around.

D. One problem with confronting other people with their faults is that whenever we do that, we focus their attention on our own flaws.

I remember one time when a fellow teacher, who I liked and admired, corrected my grammar. I didn’t hold it against her, but from that day on, I noticed especially every error in grammar that that my friend committed.

In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy is following Charlie Brown. She says, “You have a tendency to talk loudly when you get excited, don’t you, Charlie Brown? Why do you suppose you do this?”

Charlie Brown turns to her: “I don’t know,” he says, “No one has ever been rude enough to tell me about it before.”

In the last picture, Lucy is standing alone with a frowning expression on her face. She says, “We critical people are always being criticized!”

That’s a truth to consider. The more critical we are, the more we will be criticized.

And, actually, that is another way to look at Jesus’s command, “Don’t judge, and you will not be judged.” The more judgmental we are, the more harshly our fellow humans will judge us. To be a judgmental person sets us up for greater scrutiny from others—as well as from the Lord!

CONCLUSION

An old Greek fable tells us that each of us carries two packs, one in front and one behind. The one in front is everybody else’s sins; the one behind is our own.

It is true that while other peoples’ sins and peculiarities are always plainly visible to us, we seldom are able to see our own faults.

St. Augustine, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, lived very simply. His meals were simple, mostly vegetables. He dined with brothers at a common table. And on his table, he had these lines engraved:

“Whoever likes to talk ill of those who are absent

is forbidden a place at this table.”

Wouldn’t that be a good rule for all of us?

Let us pray every day that we may be gracious, generous people—generous with our money, generous with our time, generous with our judgments.