Matthew 7:1. Judge (condemn) not, that ye be not judged (condemned).
And so Saturday opened in my neighbourhood bright and beautiful…and cool! Thank the Lord! But down in southern California their heat wave apparently continues with temps reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit! Wow! And that wildfire in Northern California is still burning with a vengeance, causing people to run from their homes.
Meanwhile, in Japan, the rain is causing havoc, having killed several people over the last couple days. Mama Mia! On one side of the globe is one type of disaster, and on the other is a different kind.
But not to worry friends, the only way to handle all of that is by keeping our eyes and hearts steadfastly focused on Almighty God; our Creator, Protector and the Controller of ALL things. He has His reasons for allowing all that stuff, and there’s nothing much we can do about it but pray and offer whatever help we can.
And since it’s Saturday, guess we should turn to the quotes of our friend Anselm for this week, as he aspires to inspire us for a better tomorrow. Unfortunately, I only received one quote from him this week, but it is an interesting one.
‘Life experiences can, at times, be quite humbling, but you learn from them. But I like the changes in my life and what kind of person they’ve made me into. I’m very open, not as judgmental as I was in my twenties, and a lot more compassionate.’
And I know that’s true of many of us. In our early years we were full of spunk and hot to trot, figuring we knew everything and would show the world what was what. Hn! Hn! But instead the world showed us what was what! Isn’t that always the case when we get too high on our horses, or too big for our britches?
The world and our God has a way of humbling us, of bringing us back down to earth, and sometimes with a heavy thud, which quickly brings us to our senses. Unfortunately, that scenario usually takes time to materialize, so it’s often not until we’ve lived real life that we see the faults in our approach to it.
But as our quote says, eventually we become less judgemental and more compassionate. And oh how we badly need to reverse those two aspects of human nature in our mish-mash, evil and ungodly society today. Are we ever judgemental and opinionated about people and things we don’t know anything about. We see people and hear things and right away we jump to judgement, more often than not a negative judgement too.
But it seems we have forgotten the immortal words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on that particular topic. ‘Judge (condemn) not, that ye be not judged (condemned).’ I couldn’t put it any better or simpler friends.
And Jesus continues: ‘For with what judgement (condemnation) ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete (use) it shall be measured to you again.’ (Matt.7:2) That’s just poetic justice friends, the law of God’s society, whatever you sow, you’ll reap; whatever you give out, you’ll get back. It’s like a boomerang; you throw it at someone but it comes right back to you.
Ah mih people, nobody can expand on a story like Jesus. Hear how He embellishes this: ‘And why beholdest thou the mote (speck) that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam (plank) that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote (speck) out of thine eye; and behold a beam (plank) is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote (speck) out of thy brother’s eye.’ (Matt.7:3-5)
Oh, is it ever refreshing to listen to Jesus! You’re always surprised and astonished by His metaphorical comparisons. And the scholars offer these explanations on those verses. ‘7:1-4. Judge not refers to an unfavourable and condemnatory judgement.
This does not mean that a Christian should never exercise judgement of any kind under any circumstances. The point being made here is that we are not to judge the inner motives of another. We are not to render a verdict based upon prejudiced information. Nor are we to use ourselves as the standard of judgement for with what…ye mete (measure) you shall be judged.
That ye be not judged refers to the ultimate judgement of God rather than our own judgement. The terms mote (Gr. karphos) and beam (Gr. dokos) are used metaphorically for a small fault and a great fault. A mote is a small speck of sawdust whereas a beam is a rafter used in building. Thus the idea of the text is that one cannot remove the speck from his brother’s eye until he has removed the rafter from his own eye!’
That hits the nail right on the head! And the scholars have another good one for verse ‘7:5. Thou hypocrite is the only statement that can be made for this play actor who pretends to be a physician when he himself is sick.’
And the sad part is that so many of us play actor doctors in this greedy, selfish and judgemental world are very sick ourselves, but we’re quick to dole out prescriptions to others. In other words, we’re hypocrites to the core!
Oh my fellow believers, please let us take a good look at ourselves before we go doling out solutions to others nuh, because very often we are doing worse than those we judge and condemn. Much LOVE!
…don’t offer opinions…unless you know the whole true story…
SCRIP-BITS 