The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

From Judging to Healing, Part Two – Wanting Jesus For Everyone:  Mt.7:1 – 6

^7:1 Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You 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. ⁶ Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

That brings us to the first two verses of this section:  ‘^7:1 Do not judge so that you will not be judged.  ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.’  I confess I don’t know all of what Jesus means by this.  At the very least, he is describing a human reality.  If I say loudly, ‘You should always keep your word’ (Mt.5:33 – 37), and sneer judgmentally at other people who do, then when I break my word, as I surely will, other people will certainly sneer judgmentally at me.  But I think Jesus is also describing a divine reality.  God will really judge us by the standards that we profess, no matter what they are.  He won’t even use His own standard, but the ones we have used against other people.  Consider Paul’s sequence of case studies of humanity in Romans 1:21 – 3:8:  first the idolatrous control freak in 1:21 – 32, then the moral judgmental person in 2:1 – 16, then the Jew who claims to live by the Mosaic Law in 2:17 – 3:8.  His point there is the same.  God will judge us by the standards of measure by which we have judged others.  On our own, we will not measure up to those standards.  We will fail miserably.  For as we grew up, we mostly developed our real standards of judgment defensively to try to control other people by guilt, fear, or anxiety.  Only secondarily did we apply them to ourselves.  By that time, we probably already broke those standards.  Or we overlook our own shortcomings and make exceptions for ourselves time and again.  Jesus is our way out of that vicious cycle.

So we absolutely must refuse to judge our non-Christian friends and family members.  They have not agreed to head in this direction with Jesus.  So we cannot hold them to it.  We might not participate with them in everything they do.  But we have to think creatively about staying in relationship with them when they are sober, or personal, or fun in a way that we can enjoy.  We cannot simply distance ourselves from them as if we are rejecting them outright.  For example, I encourage college students to alternate between being present in the party scene – staying sober, laughing, and caring for people there – and hosting fun events without alcohol to care for people who don’t like the party scene.  If you are going to try to influence their behavior, you have to appeal to some principle that they recognize.  We might explain Jesus’ role in our lives if they ask about our own choices, and invite them to explore Jesus, but we have to make clear that we are on a journey of growth with him; we are not ‘perfect’; but we are trying to make more room for Jesus in us.

The posture I want to have towards myself and others can only be this:  I need more of Jesus.  If there is a consistent way to evaluate myself and other people, it would be by that, fundamentally.  I can wholeheartedly say that everyone needs more of Jesus – and so do I.