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Summary
We are called to examine what Jesus truly means in Matthew 7:1-6 when he says ‘Do not judge.’ Far from forbidding all moral evaluation, Jesus forbids judgment that is proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical — the kind that characterized the scribes and Pharisees. We are reminded that such sinful judging will boomerang back on us from God himself, and that it is spiritually ridiculous to attempt to correct others while ignoring our own far greater sin.
Key Lessons:
- Jesus forbids proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical judgment — not all judgment. Christians are in fact commanded to make righteous judgments in certain situations.
- Sinful judging will boomerang: God will judge us by the same unmerciful standard we apply to others, and James warns that judging others sinfully is an act of usurping God’s own role as lawgiver and judge.
- We all have a ‘log in our eye’ — we are spiritually blind to our own sin while eagerly noticing the specks in others. Repentance and faith in Christ remove that log and restore our spiritual sight.
- Once humbled by the gospel, we are called to help others — including confronting sin — but with humility, mercy, and integrity, not self-righteous condemnation.
Application: We are called to stop sinful judging by first recognizing the beam in our own eye, embracing repentance and faith in Christ, and then ministering to others from a place of genuine humility and mercy rather than pride.
Discussion Questions:
- In what areas of your life are you most tempted to judge others in a proud, unmerciful, or hypocritical way?
- How does understanding that God will judge you by the same standard you use for others change how you think about the people around you?
- What does it look like practically to ‘remove the log from your own eye’ before helping a brother or sister with their sin?
Scripture Focus: Matthew 7:1-6 is the central text, teaching that sinful judgment is forbidden and righteous judgment requires humility. James 4:11-12 reinforces that judgmentalism usurps God’s role. Romans 14 and Luke 6:37 echo the boomerang principle. Matthew 5:3 grounds the solution in the gospel: the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom.
Outline
- Introduction
- Context: The Sermon on the Mount
- What Does ‘Judge’ Mean?
- Five Ways Sinful Judgment Manifests
- Reason 1: Your Sinful Judging Will Boomerang
- Reason 2: Your Sinful Judging Is Ridiculous
- The Log and the Speck
- Step 1: Remove the Log — Repentance and Faith
- Step 2: Help Others with Their Specks
- Beware Reproving Hardened Mockers
- Conclusion and Application
Introduction
Well, with Pastor Bobby finishing up Revelation most of this summer, I’ve decided for my summer sermons to again pause our study through the Gospel of John and just focus on a few special passages. The first one, today’s text, is one that’s been on my mind ever since one of our newly baptized members mentioned it in his testimony as a powerful yet often misunderstood section of scripture.
That testimony made me want to study that passage. Having done so, I agree that this is an important section of scripture for all of us to understand. That’s why we’re looking at it together today.
But let’s now pray and ask God’s blessing on his exposited word.
Heavenly Father, we need to understand your word. We are lost without your truth. Please help me to be able to explain it now. Help us to be able to hear it. I know many of us are tired today. Many of us have things that could distract us.
God, I pray that we would be diligent to put aside these distractions, that you would even remove these distractions so we can focus on this life-giving word. Lord, help me to be able to speak it and apply it by your spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
We’re going straight to our text this morning. If you would please grab a Bible and turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 1-6. Matthew 7:1-6.
If you’re using the Bibles that we provided, you can find it on page 963.
I’ll read the text and then begin to make comment on it. Follow along as I read. Matthew 7:1-6.
Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
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.” 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.
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.
What comes to your mind when you hear this famous section of scripture?
Perhaps it is the way that many persons will twist this text to defend themselves in their sin. Hey, don’t judge. Jesus says, “You’re not supposed to judge. Only God can judge me.”
Or perhaps instead, this text reminds you of a bad experience you had with a group of people whom you came to see as judgmental. I still remember the ways that they looked at me and their backhanded comments, their passive aggression. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Perhaps you hear this passage and you feel simply confused. Don’t other passages say that we are supposed to judge? And what’s this about pearls and swine?
What strikes me about the first two possible situations I mentioned is their potential self-incrimination. That is to say, those who condemn others for judgmentalism are often guilty of the same.
If you tell others that it is wrong to judge or to condemn others for their sin, are you not doing the same and telling others so? And if you write off a whole group of people as self-righteous or judgmental, especially for words and actions that they did that could be interpreted more charitably, are you not the one who is being judgmental?
Truly all of us feel a great sense of injustice when people are judgmental with us. Yet somehow we excuse ourselves when we are judgmental with others. Oh, I know what’s going on in their heart. I know what they were really trying to say.
And we often don’t keep our self-righteous judgments to ourselves. We feel compelled to share them. We feel compelled to tell others in gossip.
It’s because we want to see, we want to feel justified in our judgments by hearing others say the same. Oh yeah, you’re right. I agree. That was really bad what that person did.
Now, the Bible does allow for people, Christians included, to make certain judgments about each other. In fact, the Bible not only allows it, it commands it in certain situations.
But what is the difference? What is the difference between sinful judgment, which is forbidden, and righteous judgment, which is commended and commanded?
Let’s find out today the difference. Let’s find out what Jesus really meant when he said, “Do not judge.” As we take a closer look at this passage, let us investigate with special eagerness and sobriety, considering the issues and great stakes.
Because what does Jesus promise to those who are characterized by sinful judging? He says, “They will be judged forever by God.” That is not an outcome that you should want for yourself.
Context: The Sermon on the Mount
Now, before we look more closely at this text, we need to appreciate its original context, its surrounding setting, and words. We’re in the Gospel of Matthew, a spirit-given record of Jesus’s earthly ministry written by Jesus’s own apostle, Matthew, also called Levi.
In Matthew 5-7, Matthew gives his record of Jesus’s sermon on the mount. In this sermon, Jesus essentially unfolds for his originally Jewish audience and for us the difference between true righteousness and false righteousness.
That is the kind of living that characterizes those who will enter the kingdom of God and the kind of living of those who only think they will enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus accomplishes this contrast by analyzing the teaching and behavior of a certain group of Jews at that time known as the scribes and Pharisees.
Who were the scribes and Pharisees?
They were a very related set of two groups, really, but often talked about together. The scribes were experts on God’s law as expressed in the Old Testament. They would copy out the law and answer questions about the law. The Pharisees were popular religious leaders who were committed to keeping God’s law by a whole set of extra traditions added to the law.
We’re going to be so good at keeping this law, we’ve added a bunch of other rules.
Now, most Jews at that time would have considered the scribes and Pharisees to be the holiest of people, the ones absolutely sure to get into God’s heaven-sent kingdom.
Yet Jesus says in Matthew 5:20, near the beginning of his sermon: “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
In other words, Jesus says, “Not only are the scribes and Pharisees not getting into the kingdom, but neither will you, unless you are even more righteous.” More righteous than the scribes and Pharisees.
Throughout his sermon, Jesus exposes how the scribes and Pharisees, despite outward appearances, fall short of God’s true standard of righteousness when it comes to issues like anger, lust, divorce, and personal vengeance.
Jesus also exposes how the scribes and Pharisees, these supposedly very religious people, ultimately live for the treasures of the world, especially men’s approval, rather than for God and for the treasures that belong to his heaven.
As we come near the end of Jesus’s sermon on the mount in our text Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus highlights another area of false righteousness characteristic of the scribes and Pharisees: the area of judging.
“While the fake righteous scribes and Pharisees were known for judging, the truly righteous are known for not judging.”
While the fake righteous scribes and Pharisees were known for judging, Jesus says that the truly righteous, the true citizens of his kingdom, are known for not judging.
What Does ‘Judge’ Mean?
But what exactly does Jesus mean by judge?
If you look at the beginning of Matthew 7:1, you see the main command from Jesus in this passage: “Do not judge” or “judge not” in the King James version.
Now in the original Greek, the word translated judge is one that has several possible meanings. To judge can merely mean to think, to consider, to evaluate.
To judge can mean to reach a conclusion after thinking, to decide, to determine.
To judge can mean to pass judgment or to express an opinion, especially a negative one. And to judge can mean to preside over an official judicial process.
Which of those meanings of judge best fits this context?
Well, it’s the third one. In his command, Jesus is not forbidding thinking, making decisions, or having law courts. No, that would be absurd.
Instead, he forbids passing judgments on or expressing opinions about other people.
Now, when you hear that, you notice an immediate problem because the rest of these verses—that which comes after verse one—implies that people will sometimes need to pass judgment on others and form negative opinions. Verse five, after removing the plank, you are expected to still help your brother with the speck.
And verse six, you are expected to judge who is a spiritual swine who should not receive your pearls.
“You are expected to judge who is a spiritual swine who should not receive your pearls.”
The Bible Commands Righteous Judgment
We could add to these verses other scriptures in the Gospel of Matthew and in the New Testament that require Christians to pass judgment, to express negative opinions regarding certain individuals.
If you just look a bit further down in Matthew 7, same page in the pew Bible, look at Matthew 7:15-16. Here’s one example. Jesus continues, “Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.”
How can you beware of false prophets like Jesus commands you to do if you cannot judge who the false prophets are? Jesus even gives you the judgment criteria: look at the fruits, look at the good behavior or the bad behavior.
Another example comes from the end of Matthew’s gospel. Don’t have to turn there, but listen to Matthew 28:19. Jesus commands, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
How can you make disciples if you cannot judge who already is and who isn’t a disciple? How can you baptize someone if you cannot judge who truly has become a disciple?
One more example includes some verses that use the same word translated judge. In Matthew 7 and 1 Corinthians 5:3, 12-13, the Apostle Paul says this: “For I on my part, though absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this as though I were present.”
Verse 12: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.”
In these verses, the Apostle Paul reproves the Corinthian church for not judging, not dealing appropriately with a man in their midst engaged in unrepentant immorality. In his reproof, Paul says explicitly that it is the Christian church’s responsibility to judge those within their midst.
“Paul says explicitly that it is the Christian church’s responsibility to judge those within their midst.”
What Jesus Actually Forbids
How do we reconcile these apparently contradicting verses? Jesus says his disciples are not to pass judgment on others, not to express opinions, especially negative ones. But then Jesus and his apostles say that Christians must sometimes pass judgment and even express that judgment verbally.
What’s the solution?
Well, actually, we get the solution if we just keep reading on in Matthew 7:1. If we go on to verse two, look at those two verses together: Matthew 7:1 and 7:2.
“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged. And by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
You see, it is not merely the fact of judging with which Jesus has a problem. It is the way the judging usually happens.
People naturally judge as if they themselves will not be judged. And people naturally judge with a measure or a standard of judgment that they themselves would not want and would not be able to meet.
In other words, Jesus forbids in Matthew 7:1 the kind of judging that is characteristic of our fallen world: judging that is proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical.
This point is key, so I will say it again. In Matthew 7:1, when Jesus says, “Do not judge,” Jesus forbids all judgment that is proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical.
Truly righteous judgment, the kind that Christians are to practice, is the opposite of these. Christian judgment is to be humble, merciful, and unhypocritical.
“Christian judgment is to be humble, merciful, and unhypocritical.”
Because unrighteous judgment dominates our world, even among religious persons, Jesus here says simply and provocatively: do not judge.
He’s not focused on the exceptions. He’s focused on the rule. It’s like Jesus is saying, stop all your judging. That’s enough, you self-righteous hypocrites.
Compared to the amount of unrighteous judging you do, you shouldn’t judge at all. That’s Jesus’s sense.
Five Ways Sinful Judgment Manifests
Now, how does proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical judgment manifest itself?
There are many ways, but briefly I will give you five main ways that sinful judgment manifests itself.
One, maintaining a spirit that is eager to judge and to criticize. You are constantly looking to find fault.
Two, adding standards to God’s law that he did not require and then condemning others who don’t meet those extra standards.
Three, blowing another person’s faults and sins wildly out of proportion while minimizing or ignoring your own faults and sins.
Four, using mere outward appearances to assess what is going on in someone’s heart to judge their heart motivations.
And then five, interpreting the action and words of another person in the least charitable way. There are a lot of things that people do that are kind of ambiguous, but when you have sinful judging, you take the worst view of what they did.
“When you have sinful judging, you take the worst view of what others did.”
The Scribes and Pharisees as Examples
Now, guess who in the Bible practiced unrighteous judgment in all the ways I just described?
The scribes and Pharisees. Plenty of others, too. But the scribes and Pharisees were especially known for this kind of judgment, especially with Jesus.
The scribes and Pharisees often followed Jesus around, not to learn from him and not to give him a fair hearing, but rather to find fault with him and to try to entrap him in something that he would say. The scribes and Pharisees built up a whole system of extra requirements for keeping God’s law. Then they criticized Jesus and his disciples for not fulfilling those extra rules.
Why don’t you wash your hands before meals? Why don’t you fast and pray like everybody else? Why are you doing that on the Sabbath?
The scribes and Pharisees were experts at maximizing Jesus’s sins while minimizing or finding rationalizations for their own.
Routinely the scribes and Pharisees used mere appearances to dismiss and condemn Jesus. Oh, he’s from Nazareth. Oh, he’s not well trained. Oh, he’s born from fornication.
For the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus could do nothing right. They would not honestly consider any of his claims, but instead interpreted all that he said and all that he did in the worst possible way.
And all this while the scribes and Pharisees maintained that they loved God, that they were righteous, and that they could show others the way into God’s kingdom.
Jesus teaches that the truly righteous are not self-righteous judges like the scribes and Pharisees. The truly righteous are averse to judging. They refuse to judge if at all possible.
And when they must judge, the truly righteous judge in a way that is humble, merciful, and unhypocritical, just the way that they wish that others would judge them.
“When they must judge, the truly righteous judge in a way that is humble, merciful, and unhypocritical — just the way they wish others would judge them.”
And in this way, the truly righteous fulfill the golden rule of Matthew 7:12.
Again, just a little bit further down from our passage, Matthew 7:12, Jesus says, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you. For this is the law and the prophets.”
Now coming back to Matthew 7:1, Jesus doesn’t just provide a prohibition or a negative command. He also provides two simple reasons for his disciples to obey this command: not to judge. So that’s what we’re going to continue to investigate as we move through the passage. Two simple reasons to beware sinful judging.
Reason 1: Your Sinful Judging Will Boomerang
The first reason is in verses 1 to 2, and it is number one: your sinful judging will boomerang.
The first reason that you should beware of sinful judging is because that judgment will boomerang on you.
Look again at verse 1. Jesus says, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”
You see the phrase “so that” in verse 1. That’s a phrase that indicates reason or purpose for what was previously commanded by Jesus.
Why should a person not judge others in a proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical way? Well, it’s so that person can himself avoid being judged.
Now, you may notice that Jesus does not say explicitly who will do this second judging. Some interpreters theorize that Jesus is just talking about the judgments of other people. Beware sinfully judging others because otherwise those others will sinfully judge you.
While it is true that sinful judging tends to harm relationships and provoke judgment from others, Jesus cannot be speaking about mere human judgment here.
After all, in the previous chapter, Matthew 6, Jesus spent much time talking about how the unrighteous scribes and Pharisees found their reward in human approval, while the truly righteous find their reward in God’s approval. The scribes and Pharisees cared what everybody else was thinking and saying; the truly righteous less so.
Furthermore, Jesus already said something that should inform our understanding of these verses back in Matthew 6:14-15. Jesus says, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive your transgressions.” There’s a cause and effect, a connection between those words in Matthew 6 that works in a similar way in Matthew 7:1.
The truly righteous do not judge others in a sinful way because they fear the righteous judgment of God.
The “be judged” of verse 1 in Matthew 7 is a divine passive. The implied actor is God. God himself will be the one who does the reciprocal judging.
In short, Jesus teaches, “Do not judge others in a proud, unmerciful, hypocritical way or God will judge you.” In fact, Jesus elaborates in verse 2 to show that God’s judgment of the judgmental will be perfectly appropriate.
“Do not judge others in a proud, unmerciful, hypocritical way — or God will judge you.”
Verse 2: “For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”
Now, verse 2 begins with the word “for,” indicating that Jesus is providing a further reason for why believers should fear being judged for judging. A reason is given to us by Hebrew parallelism.
That’s an emphatic way of saying the same idea twice with slight variation. It’s very common in Hebrew poetry.
More literally, verse 2 reads, “For in what judgment you all judge, you all will be judged. And in what measure you all measure, it will be measured to you all.” See the repetition of terms?
What’s Jesus saying in verse 2?
Well, basically, how you judge others is how God will judge you.
Now, God is not saying that if you judge others sinfully that God will judge you sinfully or that if you have an unfair standard, God will apply an unfair standard to you. No, the idea is more basic. If you are unmerciful in your judgment of others, God will be unmerciful in his judgment of you.
And if you are strict, fault-finding and unforgiving with others, then God will be strict, fault-finding, and unforgiving with you.
Yet, who could stand under such a judgment from God?
Like a thrown boomerang, whatever kind of judging you do in your heart or you do with your words against others, it will come back to you from God.
“Like a thrown boomerang, whatever kind of judging you do against others will come back to you from God.”
So what kind of judgment do you want? Do you want the strict judgment or do you want the merciful judgment?
Jesus says, “Judge others accordingly.” By the way, Jesus’ words spoken on a similar occasion in Luke 6:37 emphasize the same idea. Luke 6:37: “Do not judge and you will not be judged. And do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Pardon and you will be pardoned.” That same boomerang idea.
Now perhaps someone may ask, why does God promise such a severe recompense for merely inappropriate judging? I mean, that kind of seems a little much, right?
The answer, while not explicit in Matthew 7, surely includes the idea that as an infinitely holy, good, and loving God, God is highly sensitive to any kind of mistreatment that takes place between people made in his image.
After all, if according to Matthew 5:22, God is willing to throw someone into fiery hell merely for an angry word or thought against another person, you can bet that God is ready to do the same for unjust judgment, whether that judgment is expressed verbally or merely stirred in the heart like a poison.
God Is the Only True Judge
But there’s more. We can say more based on other scriptures. You heard James 4:1-12 read earlier in the service. Did you catch what James says in James 4:1-12 when it comes to judging? Let me remind you by rereading those verses.
James 4:11-12.
Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy.
But who are you who judge your neighbor?
What is James saying? That sinful judging is not merely offensive to God because it harms someone made in God’s image. It dishonors someone made in God’s image.
But also, sinful judging attacks the very holiness and sovereignty of God.
Think about it. If you must go outside God’s law to judge someone, either by adding extra rules or by unfairly applying the standards of God, if you must use some sort of other traditional or self-made standard, then what are you saying about God’s law?
You’re saying it’s not good enough. It’s faulty. It needs supplementation or even replacement. Can’t use this. Can’t just live based on this. Here’s a new standard of judgment.
And if you’re saying that about God’s law, then what are you saying about God himself?
Indeed, we must let the full force of this next point hit us. When you say that God’s law needs to be replaced by your sinful judging because your law is better, you’re also saying that God himself needs to be replaced because you are a better judge.
As other preachers have said, self-righteous judging is an attempt at divine usurpation. You’re telling God, “Step aside, God. Step aside from your role as judge because I cannot trust you to fulfill it. I’ll be the judge.”
But as James says, there is only one lawgiver and judge, and he ain’t you. God is the only one who’s able to save and destroy. He can save and destroy you.
But who are you who judge your neighbor?
“There is only one lawgiver and judge. God is the only one able to save and destroy.”
You’re getting too big for your britches, Mr. Wannabe Judge. You do not see the whole picture. You cannot perfectly discern the heart. And you aren’t the owner of everything.
So you need to sit back down in your humble place before God judges you.
By the way, the Apostle Paul makes the same point several times in Romans 14. When Christians were tempted to judge each other about personal convictions related to clean and unclean foods and special holy days, listen to what Paul says in Romans 14:4.
Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:10. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
And Romans 14:13. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this, not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way.
Brethren, God is the perfect judge, and he will judge everyone perfectly at the proper time. He does not want you to infringe on his role as judge or call his judgment into question.
Therefore, do not judge. And when you must judge out of obedience to God, only do so in a way that is humble, merciful, and non-hypocritical.
This is Jesus’ first reason. Your sinful judging otherwise will boomerang.
“When you must judge out of obedience to God, only do so in a way that is humble, merciful, and non-hypocritical.”
Reason 2: Your Sinful Judging Is Ridiculous
Coming back to Matthew 7, the second reason to beware of sinful judging appears in verses 3 to 5. Number two, your sinful judging is ridiculous.
When you judge in a proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical way, you show yourself not to be righteous, but instead ridiculous.
Let’s reread verses 3 to 4, Matthew 7.
Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do you not notice the log that is in your own eye?
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”? This is a very famous word of Jesus and it is humorous. Humorous for effect.
The Log and the Speck
Here Jesus gives a vivid example of what he’s been talking about in the previous verses.
The picture is of two people, probably two Jews, two followers of Jesus, maybe in a carpentry shop. One of them notices that the other has a speck or a piece of sawdust or a little splinter in his eye.
Any of those translations are accurate. The original Greek word just refers to something really tiny. You got something tiny in your eye?
And one of the guys notices it. Now, it’s impressive for someone to be able to notice a speck in another person’s eye. I mean, it’s just a tiny speck. The noticer probably believes that he has great vision to see something so small.
And noticing the speck is potentially beneficial. After all, it could be painful to have a speck in your eye, piece of sawdust or a splinter. It could lead to infection. It could lead to other complications. Good thing we have this noticer, right, with his great spiritual vision.
Except there’s only one problem. The noticer has somehow failed to notice that he has a log in his own eye. And by log, don’t think fireplace log or a tree branch. Think more like tree trunk.
Better yet, think of one of the wooden beam supports that’s in the roof of a building. That’s what this man has in his eye, and he doesn’t even notice it.
How can someone not notice a beam in his eye? He must have the worst vision ever.
Furthermore, in verse four, the noticer is so oblivious to his own state that he somewhat forcefully offers help to his brother with the mere speck.
“Brother, permit me to get the speck out of your eye. Don’t be proud. Don’t get defensive. Just let me minister to you as God has gifted me. Here, I’ve got the tweezers. Let me get that speck out.”
How ridiculous is this offer of help?
Mr. Beam is the last person who should be helping anybody with a delicate speck procedure.
Now, this is a funny picture, but nothing like this would happen in real life, right? No one could truly fail to notice a wooden beam in his own eye and still offer help to another person.
That wouldn’t happen in real life. So what is Jesus’ point?
Well, like a preacher once said to a stunned youth conference crowd, Jesus essentially says to his original audience and us here, “I don’t know why you’re laughing because I’m talking about you.”
As ridiculous, inappropriate, and unhelpful it would be for a man with a tree trunk in his eye to try and help someone else remove a speck, so it is for you to judge or reprove someone else when you’ve not faced your own sin.
“As ridiculous as it would be for a man with a tree trunk in his eye to help remove a speck, so it is for you to judge others when you’ve not faced your own sin.”
You see, in this funny picture from Jesus, Jesus is really talking about you and me. But we’re not the man with the speck. We are the man with the beam.
Because isn’t that what Jesus says? He says, “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye? Why do or how can you say to him, let me remove the speck?”
The truth is that because of the fall, our ancient parents’ ancient choice to choose sin, we humans are all born with a beam in the eye. We are spiritually blind.
As we grow up, we nevertheless come to believe that we can see pretty well spiritually and can even judge others and tell them what they’re doing wrong.
We believe this especially if we’re religious. We feel good about this judging and we may even think that we’re pleasing God in so doing.
All the while we have not faced the glaring reality of our own sinfulness that we do the same things that we rebuke in others. That everything we think, do, and say is tainted by our own pride, the pride of our hearts, and that our spiritual vision is dreadfully obscured.
Oh, we may notice that we sin sometimes, but we think we do a lot of good things, too. We seem better than most, so we can be guides to the blind. We can even help remove people’s tiny little specks with a beam in the eye socket. We don’t realize how ridiculous and offensive we look to God.
So what do we need? We need the wakeup call from Jesus in verse five.
“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.”
Jesus here calls each of us what we are naturally: a hypocrite.
The Greek word originally referred to an actor in a theater playing a particular role. But the word has come into the English language to refer to someone who pretends to be something that he is not.
What do we all naturally pretend to be? Righteous and thereby justified in judging others.
We pretend this before people. We pretend this before God.
But God sees through it and he will judge us according to what we really are.
So what should we do?
Step 1: Remove the Log — Repentance and Faith
Well, notice in verse 5, Jesus gives us two-step counsel. He says, “First, take the log out of your own eye.” What’s that mean?
This is a metaphorical way to refer to repentance, to the turning away from sin in your heart that results in turning away from sin in your actions.
Jesus says you must give up everything that dishonors God. You must turn from your sinful thoughts, your sinful words, your sinful actions. Give it all up.
Give up even your judging others for sins that you practice yourself.
Give up your habit of prideful judgment, confessing from the heart that you are the sinner who deserves the judgment of God. You don’t need to worry about other people.
The way you remove the log from your own eye is not by redoubled self-righteous effort. No, the way you remove it is essentially by simply admitting that it’s there in the first place.
Yeah, I am spiritually blind. I have been thoroughly self-righteous.
But by this admission, you might ask, well, how will I ever get into the kingdom of God now? My righteousness is clearly shot.
How could I ever exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?
Or how could I even come close to the standard that Jesus says is required of God in another place? In Matthew 5:48, Jesus says this: “Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.”
How will I ever get into the kingdom now? Well, actually, Jesus has already answered that question.
How does Jesus’ sermon on the mount begin?
Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What a word. In this statement from Jesus, he clarifies, “It’s not the rich in spirit. It’s not the ones confident in their own righteousness who get into God’s kingdom, but it’s the poor in spirit. It’s the ones broken by their unrighteousness.”
Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
You say, “Well, why does that get them in?” Does that brokenness count as new righteousness for them?
No. But the broken persons realize that they need a righteousness that they cannot generate on their own.
They need someone else to provide the righteousness. Which is exactly what God is looking for because he says, “Now turn and look upon my son.
There is only one person who has perfectly kept God’s law, who has even refrained from any proud sinful self-righteous judging but has only exercised righteous judging of other people. And that person is the person who preached this original sermon on the mount. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Though he existed eternally as God with God, he entered into time. He became a man and he lived the perfectly righteous life that you and I should have lived.
He then gave himself up to be killed by sinful men on a cross. Because while on that cross, Jesus accomplished an amazing exchange.
For those who believe in Jesus, Jesus took their sins upon himself as if they were his own.
Jesus gave those same persons his righteous record as if it were theirs. Count me the judgmental one. Count them the perfectly righteous ones.
Jesus then suffered on the cross the full penalty of all his people’s sins, which is the infinite wrath of God, which normally plays out in unending torment in hell.
No one can finish suffering the infinite penalty of hell—no mere man—but an infinite God. He could and he did. This is what Jesus did on the cross for those who believe in him. He took the penalty.
He suffered it in himself and he finished it.
Thus Jesus died and went into the grave.
But then he rose again three days later to show that his substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of his people was accepted by the father and that his eternal life and his reigning in the kingdom will be shared with those who believe in him. They will receive what he has received. They will rise like him. They will reign with him.
So you see, removing the log from your own eye, as Jesus says in Matthew 7:5, basically serves as shorthand for embracing the one true gospel of repentance and faith in Jesus.
On the one hand, you admit your own spiritual blindness and you give up your whole previous self-righteous way of thinking, judging, and living.
On the other hand, you trust in Jesus and his life, his death, his resurrection alone to bring you to God, to see you safely ushered into God’s coming kingdom.
“Removing the log from your own eye serves as shorthand for embracing the one true gospel of repentance and faith in Jesus.”
Step 2: Help Others with Their Specks
But this was just the first step in Jesus’ counsel in verse 5. And if it were all that Jesus advised, we might have to interpret “do not judge” indeed as a prohibition against any moral confrontation. Just worry about your own log. Forget everybody else.
But then there’s the rest of verse 5, which we read again: “And then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
What is the second step of Jesus’ counsel?
It is to help others even by confronting their sin.
After all, the problem with Mr. Beam before is not that he tried to remove the speck from his brother’s eye, but that he attempted to do so without removing the log from his own eye first.
Brothers and sisters, even after our salvation, none of us are entirely sanctified. We all continue to fight against sin, and we’re not always successful. We struggle to put to death the old man, the old fallen nature, the flesh, as the Bible calls it.
Furthermore, there are multitudes still in the world who remain caught in spiritual blindness, who are continuing to practice unrighteous judgment and are therefore headed for the unquenchable judgment of God in hell.
Who’s going to help these persons? Who’s going to help these persons see their sins, repent of it, and turn to Jesus Christ?
Jesus says you are.
Now that you can see clearly, I call you to go help. Before, with the log, you could not see clearly. And whenever you tried to help, you were doing more harm than good spiritually.
Your pride, your lack of mercy, your hypocrisy were sabotaging your efforts to do true spiritual good to others.
But now that the Lord has humbled you, now that he has shown you mercy, now that he has removed your hypocrisy from you, now you can judge and minister to others in an appropriate way.
“Now that the Lord has humbled you and shown you mercy, you can judge and minister to others in an appropriate way.”
Again, this is how the gospel of Jesus Christ works. No one is saved by his own good deeds. Rather, he has saved us to good deeds even to the building up of the brethren and to the salvation of the lost. Jesus frees you up and calls you to that type of obedience.
We believers must take care that we do not slip back into our old habit of judgmentalism.
Well, we shall again be found ridiculous and ineffective in confronting the sins of others.
However, we can safeguard ourselves against that by continually remembering the gospel and by continually participating in the simple means of grace that God has provided for us: the Bible, prayer, the church in its fellowship, its ministries, and its ordinances.
So, brethren, as I have said, Jesus forbids us. He forbids you. He forbids me from all judgment that is proud, unmerciful, and hypocritical. And he’s given us two simple but compelling reasons to obey this prohibition. Number one, our sinful judging will boomerang on us. And number two, our sinful judging will prove ridiculous and ineffective.
Beware Reproving Hardened Mockers
But what about verse six?
Some interpreters say that verse six belongs in a separate section. I would argue that verse six provides a poignant clarification when it comes to confronting sin in others, even with the gospel.
Indeed, without verses 1 to 5 here, there is no context to interpret the meaning of the metaphors that Jesus presents in verse six. So we will cover verse six as well.
Verse 6 says, Matthew 7:6: “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.”
What is Jesus intending to clarify here?
Namely this: beware reproving hardened mockers.
Beware reproving hardened mockers.
In verse six, Jesus gives us two more metaphoric prohibitions in a chiastic structure, an ABBA pattern, which is common to Hebrew poetry. If you say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” well, keep listening.
On the one hand, Jesus forbids his disciples from giving the holy things—that is, the holy portions of animal sacrifices that the Jews used to sometimes enjoy—to dogs, to unclean and wild dogs.
Now, remember, we’re talking about totally different types of dogs back then than we are right now. Dogs were an unclean animal. They were not usually pets. They were the creatures that roamed in packs around the city that were wild and would eat trash and sometimes dead bodies.
He says, “Don’t give the holy things to dogs, to the hyenas, to those wild dogs.” On the other hand, Jesus forbids his disciples from casting pearls before swine, perhaps indicating domesticated pigs, maybe wild boars, but either way, again, unclean animals.
Why does Jesus prohibit these actions?
Here’s where the chiasm appears. Because the unclean hogs, they will trample the priceless pearls contemptuously when they realize these shiny things are not food.
Meanwhile, the unclean dogs will gobble down the holy meat without any special appreciation and then turn and attack the one who presented the food. I mean, they’re dogs. They’re wild dogs. What do you expect?
What is Jesus saying by these metaphors?
Again, verses 1 to 5 has to inform our understanding of this verse.
Jesus is saying that his disciples should not keep offering soul-saving reproof to those who only respond with mocking, persecution, and blasphemy.
Now, understand Jesus is not saying that you shouldn’t give the gospel to unbelievers or that you shouldn’t reprove those who look like they’re not going to receive it that well.
There are plenty of testimonies both in the Bible, Christian history, and even today of notorious sinners and even persecutors of the church experiencing unexpected conversion when encountering the gospel.
We must not prejudge people, nor should we doubt the power of God when it comes to evangelism.
However, if you’re giving gospel reproof to someone who meets only with blasphemous mocking or with physical harm, it is time for you to move on.
For such persons reveal themselves to be as unclean dogs and hogs in God’s eyes with no capacity to appreciate what is holy and precious.
Jesus says, “Do not let my gospel merely be dishonored before such persons.” These are the persons who fulfill another warning given in another place.
Proverbs 9:8. Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you.
Proverbs 9:8: “Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man and he will love you.”
By the way, we see an example of what Jesus is talking about in the book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel in a particular place and people were responding.
But then certain Jews began to dispute with the apostles. This is in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13:45-46.
And notice how these spirit-led men, Paul and Barnabas, respond to this new reaction. Acts 13:45-46.
But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming.
Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”
So that’s Jesus’s sense in verse six.
Conclusion and Application
But tying it all together, friends and brethren, I ask you now, how will you respond to this good word from the Lord today?
Let it not be as a dog or a swine who cannot appreciate a holy thing and actually just resent the one who presents it.
Let it not be as a hypocrite ready to use this new word to judge others and to exalt the self.
Rather, let it be because the Lord by his gospel and by his son is no longer judging you that your response be to be generous in your judgments with others from now on.
“Because the Lord by his gospel is no longer judging you, let your response be to be generous in your judgments with others.”
Allow me to pray.
Great God, you are the only judge. You are the only lawgiver and judge. But in our hubris, in our self-righteous pride, God, we try to take your role.
We decide that it’s our job to analyze every little thing that other people around us are doing and saying and then deciding whether it’s sin, whether it’s indicative of idolatry in the heart, whether that person deserves condemnation or not.
Oh Lord God, forgive us. Forgive us for being such judges when we have no right to be.
God, I pray that for myself and for all who have heard me today that we will embrace the type of attitude that we ought to now that we see the beam that has been in our eyes the whole time.
Lord, help us to be merciful. Help us to be humble. Help us not to be hypocritical, learning to deal with one another gently, learning to think of one another charitably, and refusing to judge if at all possible.
Jesus, it is worthy of us to remember your own example while you were on the earth. What did you say multiple times when it came to judgment?
You said, “I have not come to judge, but to save.” You indicated that there will be a time in which you do come to judge, and we were even learning about that last week.
But Lord, that was not what you came to do the first time, and that’s instructive to us.
Lord, may it not be our ambition to judge, but to see people saved, to see our brothers and sisters helped and sanctified.
Work on us as you need to work on us, God. You know our hearts better than we do. Clear our eyes from what obscures our spiritual vision and then help us to help one another in the right way to do the same in Jesus’ name. Amen.