Matthew 7:1–12
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”
These might be the sinner’s very favorite verses, well, the first line anyway. For just as the devil can quote Scripture, he can speak through the mouths of sinners and wicked men to twist the Word of the Lord. I have seen time and time again the first line of this Scripture being used as a prop to justify sin, to condemn me for condemning sin. For sinners will say to me, ‘Judge not! You cannot judge me for anything that I do, because your God told you not to!’ They use it as almost a get out of jail free card, they think it gives them free rein to sin with impunity. However, is this what that Scripture means? Did Christ really command us to never judge others for their sins, to never condemn wrongdoing when we see it? Resoundingly no! This Scripture could hardly be taken out of more context! For again, sinners only use the first line, “Judge not, that you be not judge.” Most of the time it is a simple, “Judge not,” and no more. However, these verses actually give us full responsibility to condemn sin, as it isn’t a teaching against judgment at all. It is a teaching against hypocrisy.
When Christ says, “That you be not judged,” He is stating that we should not condemn others for a sin we are currently committing. This would make us two-faced lying hypocrites, something that certainly is not within the bounds of God’s grace. When we see someone sinning, as Christ says later on,
“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.”
We are to remove all sin from our own lives, in order to help others remove sin from theirs. This is the base of this teaching, it is Christ commanding us, once again, to be holy before a Holy God. For God despises hypocrisy, and His children must be holy, before we can work as His agents to bring others to the cross. Be careful, beloved, that you are not living in some gross sin that separates you from the grace of the Almighty Creator of the Universe. Examine yourself, and if you find a log, as there certainly will be, cast it into the fires of hell, so that you might be able to see clearly to lead others out of their sin, and from the fiery furnace as well. We are given full reign, by Christ Himself, to condemn sin, much as sinners and the progressive church dislike that, we still can warn others of their grave danger. For these two entities that I just mentioned would like to forget that sin is wrong, rather relying on the love of the Lord to save them. However, one cannot be constantly living in opposition with the Will of God and expect to be contained within His Grace. They are mutually exclusive, either you live for the Lord or you live against the Lord, there is no in between. People are not condemned for not believing in the right God, that would be unjust, something the Lord certainly is not, not they are condemned for living in opposition with God, they are condemned for obeying the voice of the devil, rather than the voice of the Most High God. Someone must take the punishment for our wrongdoing, either Christ, who has already suffered and completed His work, or the man who commits the sin. Christ’s perfect atonement has wiped away all our sins, and we need not fear the judgment of the Lord, for we have been given the cloak of Christ’s righteousness, and the Lord of Hosts does not see a gross sinner before the Bema Seat, but rather the holiness as lived by Christ. Those who reject His ways have no such cloak. Sadly, they will have to pay the price for their rebellion, as all rebels do, and the punishment is eternal separation from the Lord God Almighty. How awful! And we are told that we are not to condemn others for their sin because of this one part of one verse? That is nothing short of evil. People claim that to let others live their lives without shoving religion down their throat is the most loving way to live, but if I see a speeding car charging towards an unknowing toddler, would it be loving for me to sit on the curb and watch that toddler be destroyed? That would be evil, nothing short of satanic. No, we must warn others of their grave danger, we must tell people about the speeding car headed straight for them! How are people to know their grave danger unless we tell them of it? Sure, they can discover it on their own, but that can often take some time, time that is living dangerously apart from the Grace of God. Every moment one lives in heretical, blasphemous, behavior, is a moment that they could be condemned for their sins, but we hold the keys to the forgiveness found in Christ. Our responsibility is to warn others that they are living apart from the Grace of God, that they can be saved from the impending doom that awaits them, and that the Lord of Hosts is waiting to save their souls! How awesome is our Lord! For even though we are destitute sinners, doing no right in His sight, He still gave His Son so that we might never taste hell, He allowed us to live in holiness before Him, as we must never, never fail that wonderful calling. Praise the Lord for His incredible mercies to the sons of men! He is Holy!
