CT081 - Judge Not, But Don't Stop Seeing

Jesus opens Matthew 7 with the two words the whole world has memorized and that we keep tripping over: "Do not judge." It shows up on coffee mugs and at the end of arguments nobody wants to finish — usually as a way to wave off any concern about how a person is living. So we owe it to Jesus to find out what he meant, because it isn't quite what the mug says. He isn't switching off the conscience or pretending right and wrong don't exist. A few verses later this same Jesus tells us to watch out for false prophets and know them by their fruit, which takes real discernment. What he forbids is the gavel — the harsh, condemning, look-down-your-nose spirit that sets itself up as another person's judge, quick to condemn and slow to understand. And he warns that the measure we hand out is the measure handed back: deal in suspicion, and suspicion is what we'll get.

Then comes the humor that stings — a man with a roof beam jutting out of his own eye, leaning in to do surgery on the speck in his brother's. We have x-ray vision for everyone else's faults and a blind spot for our own. But notice what Jesus tells us to do: not leave the brother alone forever, but get the beam out first, and then we'll see clearly to help. Self-examination doesn't dead-end in navel-gazing; it ends with clear eyes and a steady hand. And just when the paragraph seems to be only about going easy, verse 6 turns: don't give what is holy to dogs or toss pearls to pigs. The same Jesus who says "don't condemn" says "don't be naive." Mercy was never the same thing as having no eyes. Get the log out, and keep your eyes open — both at once.