Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but 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,’ when there is 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 brother’s eye. Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:1-6).
When some folks read this all they see is “Judge not…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….” That’s it. Whenever someone calls out sin for what it is the defense often given is not to judge. But who gets to define what sin is? People? Or God? Many who want to justify their sinful conduct want to argue that God loves everybody and wants everyone to do whatever they want and nobody can tell you any different. But is that what Jesus was saying in Matthew 7? Don’t call sin “sin”? As a matter of fact, that is NOT what Jesus was saying. If you keep reading in that text you will see the real message of Jesus. The message is this. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Period. We’re all in need of God’s grace and mercy. We all have to repent of our sins. We all are to live the way God has told us to. In His holiness. In Matthew 7, Jesus was dealing with the issue of pride and hypocrisy. We cannot look down on anyone in a degrading way. If someone is in sin we have to point their sins out to them in a loving and humble way. Jesus said that we have to get our own lives right with God before we can sincerely help someone with theirs. Jesus goes on to say at the end of that text, though, that not everyone is going to want to hear about their sins and their need to obey the Gospel of salvation. There will be some folks that will mistreat us for sharing the Gospel with them. But we have to keep going until we find someone who will listen.
We all need to be humbly ready to listen if someone is pointing a sin out in our own lives. God is the only Judge. Our job is to share His judgments on sin. But we have to do it with love. Patience. Gentleness. Compassion. Just as Jesus did. Let’s all fight against sin. Fight against Satan. Let’s help one another. Not treat each other with contempt. We will all stand before God on Judgment Day. Let’s all be ready.
A Cord of Blue 