Jesus On Judging, Part 2
Matthew 7:1-6
Last time we began to look at this infamous and often quoted passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. What is clear is that Jesus clearly commanded: ““Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matt. 7:1). What is apparently unclear to many of those who quote this verse is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He forbade judging. So we examined in context Jesus’,
1. Command Against Judging Others (Matt. 7:1).
And we saw that even though “Judge not” is a clear command, we have to take into account other things that Jesus teaches on judging. For the same Jesus who said here “Judge not”, also said in John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” He also said not to “give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine” (Matt. 7:6) and to recognize false prophets by their fruit (Matt. 7:15-20). To obey those commands, we have to make some kind of judgment call.
And so, we understand that Jesus was not forbidding any and all sense of judgment. He is not forbidding us from exercising wise discernment or from speaking up against evil. Jesus Himself did these things. We saw that what Jesus forbids is showing contempt for others, judging by our own standards, condemning others, despising and speaking evil against a brother, and partiality in judgment—in a word, judgmentalism. Jesus forbids us from setting up our own criteria by which we judge one another and then condemning one another on the basis of our own criteria. This is not righteous judgment.
Then we saw,
2. The Warning Behind the Command (Matt. 7:1-2).
Jesus says we will be judged with the same kind of judgment we use. If you judge someone without mercy and by a severe standard, then rest assured, you will be judged by God the same way. Paul writes in Romans 2:1: “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” In other words, Jesus says you may expect to receive judgment on the same basis as you give it. If you claim to know enough to judge others, you know enough to be judged in the same way.
Now as we come to Matthew 7:3, Jesus gives an illustration of unrighteous judgment. Jesus gives us a graphic picture of,
3. Hypocritical Judgment (Matt. 7:3-5)
In Matthew 7:5 Jesus identified the sin that is the cause of judgmentalism with one word, “Hypocrite!” This is the reason why we set up standards of judgment of our own creation, and then measure, criticize, and condemn others on the basis of those standards. It’s because we want to make ourselves look more righteous than we really are. We want to appear to be better than others. We’re behaving like hypocrites! Lord Jesus shows that He knows us so thoroughly when He puts the finger on the real problem so clearly!
A. The Danger of it
Look at how this hypocrisy in us manifests itself. Jesus says, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank that is in your own eye?” (Matt. 7:3). It’s a ridiculous picture, isn’t it? Here is a man with a massive beam sticking out of his eye, and yet he has the audacity to recognize a splinter in the eye of another! The implication is that he couldn’t possibly have seen the speck because his judgment was too impeded by the plank.
And the sad thing is that they don’t even “consider” the plank in their own eye! Someone who is presuming to judge someone else may feel that they are qualified to help them. But the fact is that whatever fault they are seeking to help their brother with is minor compared to their own ignorance of their greater sin of judgmentalism! The preacher Thomas Scott once wrote, “. . . In spiritual optics, a beam in the eye generally renders a man quick-sighted in discerning other men’s faults, and blind only to his own.”[I]
Jesus says we can’t possibly provide the help that we think we can to the man with the speck in his eye because we can’t see well enough due to the plank in our own eye. Jesus says (Matt. 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?“. Such a person can’t even reach up close to pick out the speck from their brother’s eye; the plank sticking out of their own eye stands in the way.
How could you possibly think that you are qualified to perform eye surgery when you can’t see? How many of you would agree to let a blind doctor root around in your eye for a splinter? It is bound to cause more harm than help.
In the parallel passage in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says this:
37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” 39 And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. 41 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 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.” (Luke 6:37-42).
If someone is going to remove the speck from your eye, then you want it to be someone who is seeing clearly, not someone who is blinded by their own sin and judgmentalism.
King David serves as an example of hypocritical judgment. Remember that he had taken Uriah’s wife, committed adultery with her, and she was pregnant from it. He then called Uriah back home from the war to try to cover up his sin. When that didn’t work, he sent Uriah to his certain death on the battlefield. Then took Bathsheba as his wife. The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. Nathan told David a story:
… “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” 7 (2 Sam. 12:1-6).
David was quick to judge and harshly condemned the rich man. “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Sam. 12:7). David was ready to kill a man who unjustly took another man’s lamb when David had committed a worse sin. He killed a man and took his wife. David could not judge rightly or show mercy because of the plank in his own eye.
Often the people who see everything wrong in others see absolutely nothing wrong in themselves. The person who never sees anything wrong in his own life is, what? Self-righteous. As long as you’re self-righteous, as long as you’re spiritually proud, as long as you set yourself up as a judge, you can’t help anybody out with any sin.[1] Self-righteousness will blind you to your own sin. If you are concerned about true righteousness, then you will be more concerned about your own sins than anyone else’s. It is hypocritical to care about others’ sins more than your own.
B. The Cure for it
Now, we shouldn’t misunderstand this, or take it to mean that we should never help a brother or sister who is struggling with a problem of sin in their lives. Jesus never intended for that speck to remain in the brother’s eye. The speck was harmful. Jesus wanted it gone. We can’t let him go on in sin, that’s to hate him, Leviticus 19:17 says. But first, we must clear the plank from our own eye.
How do you do that? Present yourself to God for His examination and ask Him to reveal the truth about yourself. We need to ask Him to help us see where we may have a larger problem of sin in our lives that prevents us from being any real help to anyone. We might pray that prayer David prays in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Then when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, confess it before God and receive His cleansing. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In the context of the Lord’s Supper Paul reminds us, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31).
After Nathan confronted David about his sin, he confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Sam. 12:13). David’s prayer of confession is in Psalm 51, “3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight–That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:3-4). David asks for mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing from his sin. God, in His mercy, does not condemn David to be killed like David had judged the rich man who took the lamb. “Mercy triumphs over judgment,” (James 2:13).
Now this doesn’t mean you need to be perfect before you can help others, otherwise no one could ever help anyone. But it does mean you need to confront and confess your own sin to God before you are in a position to help others with their sin. When Jesus says “Judge not,” he does not forbid helping each other when we sin; rather he forbids a condemning, critical, judgmental spirit that gets in the way of helping each other.
After David confessed his sin, he prayed,
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. (Psalm 51:10-13).
David knew that he could not teach other transgressors God’s ways until he had a clean heart himself.
The Scriptures teach us the importance of gentleness when helping someone with their sin. We read in Galatians 6:1: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” How do you remove a speck from someone’s eye? Carefully, Gently, Lovingly. 1 Peter 4:8 says: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’” God calls you to help others rather than judge them.
So far then, we’ve seen a command to be obeyed: “Judge not.” And we’ve seen the warning that stands behind this command: that we be not judged ourselves. And then, we’ve seen the sin that really stands behind this warning: hypocrisy. And that brings us, finally, to
4. Discerning Judgment (Matt. 7:6)
This verse teaches us that, just as it is true that not everyone is qualified to be a reprover of someone else’s sin, not everyone who sins is wise or safe to reprove.
What about those who refuse to be helped? What about those who do not want to hear about God and their sin? Jesus addresses this situation in Matthew 7:6, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
We notice here that even those with true, righteous judgment must exercise discernment about it. Jesus uses two metaphors to describe what it is that has been entrusted to us. The first is “what is holy“. In the original language, the phrase uses a definite article; making it mean “the holy (thing)”.
What is this “holy” thing? My suspicion is that a Jewish person who first heard these words would have thought immediately of the holy offering given in sacrifice to God upon the altar. In the Old Testament, these offerings were to be handled very carefully and reverently. The altar on which these things were offered was called “most holy” (Exodus 29:37; 40:10). The utensils used to offer them on the altar were called “most holy” (Exodus 30:28-29). And certainly, the offerings themselves were called “most holy” (Lev. 2:3. 10; 6:17, 25; 7:1; 14:13; 27:8). For this reason, if the offering was to be eaten, it was to be eaten only by the priests (Lev. 6:29) and in a holy place (Lev. 7:6; 10:12. 17. 24:9). If any of it was left over by the third day of its being offered, it was to be completely burned on the altar with fire (Lev. 7:16-18). Nothing was to be allowed to last past the third day lest it be treated in a common way; because it was “most holy”.[2]
To the Jewish person who heard Jesus, the meat offered to God upon the altar in the temple would have been thought of as “the holy” thing. And to take “what is holy” in this sense, and throw it to the dogs as if it were a common thing, would be an act of unspeakable inappropriateness. These are not nice little pet dogs Jesus is referring to; they are vicious, wild dogs. Only those things that were utterly unfit people would be thrown to the dogs (Exodus 22:31), but certainly not the holy thing that was offering on the altar!
Jesus uses this as an illustration. But what exactly is this “holy thing” meant to illustrate to us? In the context of Matthew 7:1-5, it would symbolize the sincere effort to rebuke a sin in a brother—doing the very holy work of helping a brother with the ‘speck’ in his eye once the plank is removed from our own, of course.
It is interesting that in the book of Acts, Peter once rebuked the Jewish people in the temple by telling them that they had delivered up Jesus to be crucified; saying, “. . . You have denied the Holy One and the Just . . .” (Acts 3:14). In the original language of the New Testament, Peter used the very same words here to describe our Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase “the holy” is the same as in Matthew 7:6. It could be that when Jesus speaks here of “the holy thing”, He’s making a general reference to anything that has to do with Him who is our Savior and our great sacrifice for sin—whether it be the truth of His gospel, or the teachings concerning Him from the Scriptures, or even the desire to lovingly remove a speck from a brother’s eye in Christ’s name. We are to treat these as very sacred and honored things that God has entrusted to us.
The second illustration is casting pearls before swine. Pearls in the Bible are symbolic of something of very great and precious value. In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about a pearl, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matt. 13:45-46). Before speaking this parable to them, Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables to the people of the world (Matt. 13:10). Those parables, it seemed, only confused those who didn’t believe in Him. And He said to them,
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matt. 13:11-17).
Jesus Himself was cautious and guarded about casting holy, precious things indiscriminately. He revealed the mysteries to those to whom it had been given to know these things by the Father, not to others. Jesus describes those who do not receive it here as dogs and hogs. The vicious wild dog was a picture of an utterly despicable person (Deuteronomy 23:17-18; 2 Kings 8:3); someone who is utterly reprobate. Revelation speaks of our heavenly home, and says, “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever love and practices a lie” (Rev. 22:15). The apostle Paul used this word to describe those who proved to be dangerous opponents of the gospel. He told the Philippian believers, “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!” (Phil. 3:2).
Pigs were forbidden to the Jewish people as very unclean, and could not be eaten as food (Lev. 11:7; Deut. 14:8). To eat “swine’s flesh” was, in scripture, considered an act of great idolatry (Isa. 65:4; 66:22). A characteristic of pigs is that they are as undiscriminating as a creature can be. Pigs will eat anything. And maybe that’s why Jesus used them as an illustration here. If you give a pearl to a pig, it will probably try to chew it to pieces or trample it in the mud. The pig pictures someone who doesn’t have the spiritual ability to recognize the value of something that is given to them and can’t discriminate between what is good and what is bad.
There are those in the world who, even after hearing the gospel, don’t want anything to do with it. And it won’t do any good to continue trying to evaluate their life. They won’t value your help. They won’t listen to your warnings. Proverbs 9:7 says, “He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.”
Jesus tells us “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine.” As judgmental as it may seem to some, Jesus is warning us not to be indiscriminate about how we share the precious things of Christ.
Jesus was once informed that the Pharisees were offended at His teaching. Imagine that – offended at the teaching of the Son of God! And yet, Jesus said, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch” (Matt. 15:14). Jesus’ solution was not to try to correct them for being offended but to leave them alone in their offense.
Before we end, let’s also remember that this warning never permits us to be rude or unloving toward those who reject the message of the gospel. Nor does it excuse us from proclaiming the gospel to others under the phony excuse, “Why should I? They’re all a bunch of dogs and hogs anyway!” Some who were the most vicious in their hatred for the gospel at one time were later given the grace by God to believe. The apostle Paul himself is the greatest example of this.
We should keep all this in balance by remembering that, while we’re not to throw the precious things of Christ around in an undiscerning way, the witness of a godly life lived in front of those who reject our words can nevertheless still be a powerful witness. We may not always be welcome to ‘speak’ about Christ to some, but we can always ‘show’ Christ to them by our lives. And it’s in the power of the sovereign God to bring conviction to hardened unbelievers through our godly life.[3] Love them, pray for them, and live out your Christian witness before them, but don’t engage those who treat the gospel with contempt.[4]
The point is that righteous, discerning judgment is a tool of God to rescue a wayward brother not to puff up ourselves or use to fight the dogs.[5]
How do we summarize what Jesus taught here?
When we judge to condemn, we are indicating a lack of mercy. When we judge while in sin, we are indicating self-righteousness. When we lack discernment we waste the precious things of God.
So how are you doing in this area? How is your spirit towards other people and their faults? Do you show mercy or condemnation? Are you loving people or judging people? Are you discerning in how you speak to others?
Maybe there is sin in your life that you need to confess to God and be cleansed today. Maybe you need to confess that you have had a critical attitude toward others, a lack of mercy and gentleness. Repent, confess, and be cleansed by the blood of Christ. He gave His life on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
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[i] Thomas Scott, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Holy_Bible/DbRUAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=thomas+scott+%22In+spiritual+optics,+a+beam+in+the+eye+generally+renders+a+man%22&pg=PA33&printsec=frontcover Quoted by Greg Allen, Judge Not. https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2005/031305.htm#f1
[1] John MacArthur, Stop Criticizing. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2250/stop-criticizing
[2] Greg Allen, Dogs and Hogs. https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2005/040305.htm. I drew from several points in Allen’s sermon for this part of my sermon on Matthew 7:6.
[3] Greg Allen, ibid.
[4] Ray Fowler, Judging Others / Judging Yourself. https://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/judging-others-judging-yourself/
[5] Rory Mosley, Logs, Dogs, & Hogs (Matthew 7:1-6). https://fbcspur.org/logs-dogs-hogs-matthew-71-6/
