TO CONDEMN OR TO JUDGE
Part 2 OF 3
Author: Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
In my previous writing in this series, where I was asked: “The section that says: Do not judge, because to the extent that you judge, you yourself will be judged? What does that exactly entail?” I said that without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is it very difficult to distinguish between condemnation and judgement.
In this writing I want to try and show you how thin the line is but at the same time how clearly defined the line is between condemnation and judgement if I am ‘tuned in’ to the Holy Spirit and not just myself.
Read this first:
MATTHEW 7:1-6
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Do you see?
On the one side we must not judge but on the other hand, there is also MAT 7:6.
Come let us now go through this section and I will show you how I see this topic and I am only going to use one example, to prevent this writing from becoming any longer.
MAT 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
If you say to someone:
“You have cheated on your life partner, you are an adulterer.”
Now you have judged that person and now you must also remember when you looked the last time at someone from the opposite gender with indecent thoughts.
Because, then you, according to our Lord, have done the same thing, what you are now accusing the person you are sharing this with. You did commit adultery.
MAT 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
MAT 5:28 But I tell you that anyone (man or woman) who looks at a woman (man) lustfully has already committed adultery with her (him) in his (her) heart.”
With that in mind, read this again:
MAT 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
Does this mean that I should keep my mouth shut about what the person has done?
Of course not, but I should in my judgement, not focus on the person but rather on the sin and then draw Jesus and His Gospel into the conversation – Because with the Holy Spirit within me, I do not want to show a person how depraved he/she is. No, I want to show him/her how wrong it is what he/she is doing and use the opportunity to share the Gospel of love and forgiveness of Jesus.
If I look at these people in this way to whom I am sharing, then the following that Jesus says during this conversation, also makes sense to me.
MAT 7:2-4
2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust (in the case of our example, the person’s adultery) in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank (in the example from this writing, those lustful thoughts in your own heart that you testified to having) in your own eye? (You should know better!)
4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck (let me tell you how depraved your life is) out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank (when there are much worse things within your own heart) in your own eye?
We are sometimes very quick to find a fault “splinter” in someone else’s life but the terrible “plank”, the terrible (because we know better) we completely overlook in our own lives, or on purpose totally ignore.
Jesus says to us about this behaviour:
MAT 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank (that what you are doing wrong, while you know better) out of your own eye (correct your wrong first with our Lord), and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye (Also to help your fellow man to correct his/her wrong with our Lord).
You then may say, regarding our example above, something like:
“What you are doing is wrong.”
In other words you will focus on the sin and then be able to better assist the sinner.
Do you see what Jesus, God who became human, calls someone who is acting in the same way as we have read in the above sections?
MAT 7:5 You hypocrite, …
Come let us look at our fellow man as Jesus looks at the people. Because we have His Spirit living within us.
Hate the sin but look compassionately at the sinner.
I close this writing off with the following from the Word that a person should truly remember, when you feel like condemning and sentence someone to hell.
When you look back on what I have written to you and that you have just read, also remember the following:
ROM 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Greetings,
Sakkie