Do Not Judge
TRANSLATION
(1) “Do not judge lest you be judged, (2) for with the same judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the same measure you employ you will be measured. (3) And why do you critically observe the speck that is in your brother’s eye but ignore the plank that is in your own eye? (4) Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ when there is a plank in your own eye? (5) You hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (6) Do not give to dogs what is sacred, and do not toss your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
(7) “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened for you, (8) for everyone who asks will receive, and the one who seeks will find, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (9) Or who among you, if your son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone, (10) or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? (11) If you then, even though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those that ask him! (12) So whatever you wish that others would do for you, do also for them, for this sums up the law and the prophets.”
OBSERVATIONS
Each of the two segments in this passage displayed its own set of important repetitions. In the first (1-6), “judge(d)/judgment” is found four times in one verse (vs.1), “measure” twice (vs. 2), “speck” and “plank” each three times (in vss. 3, 4, & 5), and “eye” four times (vss. 3, 4, & 5).
In the second paragraph, “ask…given,” “seek…find,” and “knock…opened” are each found twice (vss. 7 & 8). “Asks…give” was repeated twice more (vss. 9 & 10). “Give good gifts/things” occurred twice and “ask” was repeated one more time (all in vs. 11). The repetitions of family terms should be noted: “brother(’s)” three times (vss. 3, 4, & 5), “son” (vs. 9) and “children” & “Father” (vs. 11). The passage concluded with Jesus’ admonition that many have called “the golden rule.”
OUTLINE
I. What we are not to do: do not judge lest we be judged. (1-6)
II. What we are to do: depend on our heavenly Father in prayer. (7-11)
III. How we are to treat others: do for them what we would have them do for us. (12)
IDEA STATEMENT
Instead of harboring a judgmental spirit, we should depend on God in prayer and treat others with the same grace that our heavenly Father has shown to us.
APPLICATION
A judgmental spirit is often symptomatic of discontent with God’s provision for our needs. If we are actively relying on our heavenly Father to meet our needs as evidenced by a flourishing prayer life, we will not only experience the fullness of his grace but will find our attitudes toward others transformed as well. Living by the so-called “golden rule” should serve merely as a launching pad for the child of God. Not only should we treat others as we desire them to treat us, we should also show them the same grace God has shown us. If we have genuinely experienced God’s undeserved blessings in our lives, we will be far more inclined to manifest that same love to others.
In encouraging the Corinthian church to give generously to meet the needs of their impoverished brethren in Judea, Paul appealed to the self-sacrifice of our Savior: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). His unstated argument might have been expressed in the following words: “If you have experienced such undeserved grace in your own lives, you owe others the same kind of grace in your actions toward them.”