Relevant For Life-September 11 – Matthew 7 Don’t Judge Me! —“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:1-5 NKJV. I find it kind of funny that people say, “Don’t judge me”, because when they say this, it usually stems from a defensive statement where they usually mean—you are not to decide, by how you view the words I just said or the thing I just did, that I am a bad person. But, if they didn’t feel guilty about something, they never would have said that in the first place. After all, when has someone done something that pleases God and said to us, “Don’t judge me.” Uh, never. So what they are really saying is, yes, I know I did that but you are not allowed to tell me I was wrong. Nevertheless, Christians and non-Christians still misuse this scripture to defend a feeling of guilt. More than likely, if those who misused this statement so often actually knew what God was saying here, I doubt they would ever say this phrase again. What we commonly misuse this scripture for does, in fact, minimize what God is actually demanding that we never do. We all get that He is serious about it, but we don’t get what He is telling us not to do. But then that is more prevalent than we may think—minimizing God’s words. When we look up the word judge in the dictionary, one of the definitions is: someone’s opinion. This is the definition most people use to misuse this scripture of God’s to judge not–as in do not say your bad opinion of me. The other definition comes closer to God’s meaning, but it is still not true to His meaning: to pass legal judgment on; pass sentence on. The word judge is from the Old English word deman (doom)--meaning "to try and to pronounce sentence upon one in a court". This is closer to the true meaning of God. But as we rarely refer to Old English definitions, the meaning of some of our words has been minimized. So to get the real meaning in the Bible, we must go back to the original Greek, for the New Testament scriptures, where this word judge is krino, which is defined as—of those who act the part of judges or arbiters in matters of common life, or pass judgment on the deeds and words of others; to condemn, or condemnation or passing final judgment on someone. In other words, what the Lord is actually telling us not to do to each other is make final judgment on them, as in DO NOT condemn any one to their final eternal destination or end. God is the final Judge and we must never say, do or think we are in a position to decide anyone’s final eternal end—He is Judge and the only One with this authority—Matthew 28:18. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV. God further explains this to us in our reading today, speaking to followers of Jesus Christ—Luke 9:23—Christians—that we are to know them. Who? False prophets, but we must understand Christians have a lot to say and one of the things they do is share their information from God—what prophets do. God wants us to know or discern where any information about Him is coming from. He wants us to know them or be able to discern or determine whether someone is a wolf or one of God’s sheep—John 10. How? As He says, by their fruits you will know them. He wants us to know or discern someone by the fruit which He has grown in them--or lack thereof. He lists the fruits of the Spirit, growth that comes from His work in us—Ephesians 2:10–the Holy Spirit living and working inside of us found specifically in Galatians 5:22-26. Jesus teaches us here to discern whether someone is primarily reflecting the works of the flesh or the fruits of the Holy Spirit. But then He is also not telling us to discern someone from one conversation—one moment of their life. No one is perfect or done yet. Those who belong to Jesus, and those who do not are clearly defined when you use these two different lists of criteria He gives us in Galatians 5 to discern by, and NOT to condemn. With His statement that we will KNOW THEM BY … He is clearly telling us that we can and should look at others to discern the fruit they are reflecting. Not that we need to go looking for wolves—when something is just not right, the Spirit will let us know and He wants us to discern them and not be taken by surprise. He knows His sheep can be negatively affected by those not of Him and He wants more for us than that. But as Christians, within the church, God wants us to not only be aware of others, but concerned for them as well. We must remember that none of us are finished products yet. But there have been and always will be posers within the church—wolves—and He knows this. He does not to want us to be affected negatively by wolves in sheep clothing. According to God, judging or condemning someone versus discerning or knowing them by are two totally different subjects. When we know that, Don’t Judge Me, takes on a whole new meaning. Only Jesus has authority to judge or decide eternal fate--He can do anything—Matthew 19:26--He can change hearts. We can discern whether someone is of Him or not, and that is not judging to condemnation. He wants us to be wise as a serpent —Matthew 10:16.—but still harmless as a dove. We are to show His love, because we never know when or if that someone will cease being a wolf and be changed by God into one of His sheep. But He knows.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 14:11:11 +0000
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