Mark 4.24,
Matthew 7.1-5,
Luke 6.37-38, 41-42.
When people don’t wanna condemn anyone, “Judge not, that ye be not judged”
This bit of his
Matthew 7.1-2 KWL 1 “Don’t criticize.- Thus you² won’t be criticized,
2 for you’ll² be critiqued- by the very criticism you² criticize with.
- The measurement you² measure with,
- will measure you².”
Luke 6.37 KWL - “Don’t criticize,
- and you² won’t be criticized.
- Don’t judge,
- and you² won’t be judged.
- Forgive,
- and you’ll² be forgiven.”
Obviously I translated
And this kind of personal judgment is something we all do—and should. Everybody evaluates stuff. Daily. It’s part of our ordinarly decision-making processes. We judge which shoes to wear, which breakfast cereals to eat (or not), which coffees to drink (or not), which movies to watch, whether to read TXAB on a daily basis… Life is choices. Every choice involves weighing our options, and critiquing those options. Jesus doesn’t just expect us to do it; he designed us to do it. It’s why he created you with a brain in your skull. It’s not just for memorizing pop lyrics and baseball stats!
This is why he follows up “Don’t criticize” with “you’ll be critiqued by the very criticism you criticize with.” It’s a warning: When we apply our criticisms to others, we’re gonna be held up to the very same standard. As we should. We set that standard fairly, right?—we didn’t make ourselves an exception to the rule, right?
Well… maybe we did. ’Cause that’s human nature. It’s to always selfishly consider ourselves the exception. When we critique other people, we decide whether they meet our approval—and when we do the very same things they do, our standards suddenly change to favor ourselves. If your dad tells a lame “dad joke,” it means his sense of humor is defective; if we tell the very same joke, we’re having ironic fun. If the neighbor cheats on her husband, it’s adultery and awful; if we do it… oh you just don’t understand the circumstances; we’re in love. And so on. We grant ourselves a free pass. Others, not so much.
But Jesus makes it clear we don’t get a free pass. If we ordinarily recognize a behavior is offensive, wrong, or sinful, it’s still just as bad when we do it. We’re not beyond similar criticism. Are we doing right? Because we’ve no business setting ourselves above criticism, like a king who figures he alone has the power to do as he pleases. We aren’t exceptional. Especially when we fall short of our own judgment.
This does not mean the proper response is to critique ourselves more harshly. Jesus says as much in the Luke version of this teaching: “Forgive, and you’ll be forgiven.” When others slip up, forgive. And when we slip up—and people are gonna fairly hold us to the same standard we set for others—our behavior will reflect
The chip and the beam.
Tacked to this lesson in Matthew is Jesus’s Chip and Beam Story. It comes a few verses later in Luke.
Matthew 7.3-5 KWL 3 “Why do you¹ see the wood chip in your¹ brother’s eye,- yet not notice the support beam in your¹ eye?
4 How will you¹ tell your¹ brother, ‘Let me get the chip out of your¹ eye’?- Look, there’s a beam in your¹ eye!
5 First get the beam out of your eye, hypocrite,- and you’ll¹ see straight enough to get the chip in your¹ brother’s eye.”
Luke 6.41-42 KWL 41 “Why do you¹ see the wood chip in your¹ brother’s eye,- yet not notice the support beam in your¹ own eye?
42 How can you¹ tell your brother, ‘Let me get the chip out of your¹ eye’,- with you¹ not seeing there’s a beam in your¹ eye?
- First get the beam out of your¹ eye, hypocrite,
- and you’ll¹ see straight enough to get the chip in your¹ brother’s eye.”
Like the “Judge not” teaching, this story is regularly taken out of context to claim we’re never, ever to judge others. They have a chip in their eye? Well, we have an entire support beam in our eye; we’re worse. So don’t be a hypocrite, and don’t judge.
But read Jesus’s story again: “First get the beam out of your eye.” The way to stop being a hypocrite is to stop sinning. Stop being a worse sinner than your neighbor. Repent. Fix yourself.
Which is a project which might take so long, you won’t have time to judge your neighbors. Who am I to condemn other people’s failings when I have my own, worse failings to work on? I need to be gracious to them, that they might be gracious to me.
But don’t forget Jesus uses the word
Hypocrites aren’t in denial. They’re fully aware they have beams in their eyes. But they hide ’em. And one of the more common ways we hide our own sins, is to critique the sins of others. There are so many hypocrites among Christians, everybody knows when a Christian gets up to denounce sin, they’re like committing that very sin themselves. Time and time again, some pastor who got up to denounce adultery and pornography turns out to be knee-deep in that stuff himself. I knew several guys in seminary who used to denounce “the gay agenda” whenever they got the chance; some of ’em still do. Any of ’em gay? All of them. Some
Double standards are the most common form of hypocrisy among Christians. It’s the gossip who says, “I think you need to know this stuff so you’ll know what to pray for.” It’s the guy whose wife has
The next-most-common is when we used to commit such sins… and don’t now, but pretend we never did. Like the parents who never, ever want their kids to find out
The beams in our own eyes are secret beams. That’s the problem.
But like a real-life beam, our subterfuge fools no one. Everybody else can see the beam! We’re never as good at hiding these sins as we think. And if fellow Christians can’t deduce it on their own, the Holy Spirit has a habit of telling on us,
The way to defeat it: Confess all. Remember, people are usually more offended by the hypocrisy, than the sins we’re hiding. They assume (and they’re often right) we’re trying to lord our phony perfection over them. So let’s flatten the playing field right away: We’re not perfect, never were; nowhere close. But we’re trying, and we invite others to come try with us. Maybe we can help one another.
Double standards and integrity.
Hypocrisy’s bad, but double standards are often just as bad. ’Cause then we’re talking denial. Blind spots. Stuff we’re not always aware exists—which makes ’em much harder to root out than lies.
The most common double standard we Christians encounter (well, other than
Whereas when they do it, it’s ’cause they’re evil, stupid, corrupt. Duped at best.
Granting ourselves nothing but grace, and preemptively condemning others, builds that slippery slope towards all sorts of evil. We trample on them. We don’t love our neighbors. We use ’em, or shove ’em aside, to get our way, and do as we please.
So when Jesus says “Don’t criticize,” he doesn’t mean we’re to stop analyzing our situation. He doesn’t mean we’re to stop condemning evil. Read that Sermon on the Mount again: Jesus speaks about a lot of common misinterpretations of scripture. He critiques hypocrites,
The difference is Jesus doesn’t consider himself above his own sermon. He followed his Sermon on the Mount—perfectly. He practices what he preaches. He’s not on some special level just because he’s Messiah,
When we criticize, and can’t stand up to our very same critique, that’s inconsistency. That’s a lack of integrity. And when we don’t criticize, sometimes it’s out of pure selfish libertarianism: “You don’t judge me, I don’t judge you; let’s be accountable to no one. Let’s all be scumbags.” Just as evil.
Sometimes there are good reasons for keeping our mouths shut. Sometimes it’s because we’ve learned by experience the criticism isn’t fair. Take a pastor who’s a recovering alcoholic: He knows how addiction works. For this reason he’s not gonna denounce addicts: If it weren’t for God’s grace he’d be in their shoes too. He’s not gonna blanketly condemn them as defective, worthless people, like the social Darwinists do. He’ll recognize God helps people out of their addictions, and try to be God’s hands and feet in helping these people out too. He’s not gonna condemn; he’s gonna forgive. You know, like Jesus does.
Sometimes it’s because there’s a time be quiet, and a time to speak.
And yeah, sometimes it’s for illegitimate reasons. Like libertarianism. Or cowardice: “Tolerant” Christians won’t condemn any sins—even sins which’re tearing apart their own churches!—because they don’t have the courage to tell people, “In Jesus’s name, stop.” The youth pastor diddles the kids, but the embarrassed leadership sweeps it under the rug. The pastors exploit new Christians into becoming free labor, and this gets overlooked. There’s a really inappropriate couple in the congregation, but it’ll even get highlighted:
We need fair, constructive, uplifting criticism. I certainly know I do. If I go wrong, I want people to care enough about me (or care enough about God) to straighten me out. If I offend ’em unintentionally, I may never realize it, and densely go right on doing it—and have no idea how pissed and bitter I’m making them. Speak up!
Just bear in mind: We’re on the same level. If I need to stop doing it, so do you. If I’m a dirty sinner, so are you. Keeping this fact in mind when we correct each other, helps us avoid the “holier-than-thou” attitude which makes correction so hard to swallow.
Giving and getting.
In Mark and Luke, Jesus’s saying “The measurement you measure with, will measure you” has a slightly different context. It’s also about generosity and grace.
Mark 4.24 KWL - Jesus tells them, “Look at what you’re² hearing.
- The measurement you² measure with,
- will measure you²—and add more to you².”
Luke 6.37-38 KWL 37 “Don’t criticize,- and you² won’t be criticized.
- Don’t judge,
- and you² won’t be judged.
- Forgive,
- and you’ll² be forgiven.
38 Give,- and it’ll be given you²:
- They’ll pour a good measurement,
- packed in, shaken, overflowing, into your² apron.
- The measurement you² measure with,
- will measure you² again.”
Mark continues with Jesus’s lesson that for those who have, more will be given; for those who don’t have, more will be lost.
But the reason these other gospels start to get into Jesus’s sayings about generosity, is ’cause “Don’t criticize” does have to do with generosity. What’s the usual reason we humans start criticizing one another? It’s not for constructive reasons, not to encourage or correct or help one another. It’s to knock down, undermine, drive away, or keep away. It’s to break relationships, not restore them.
When we critique fairly, when we forgive instead of condemn, we tend to get that measured back to us. We get back the benefit of the doubt: Optimism, rationality, generosity, and grace.
Yeah, there will always be some folks who misinterpret us, whether accidentally or deliberately. Sometimes they wanna smack us back. But people often recognize good will, and willingly or grudgingly give it back. Most often when it’s given back, we get back more than we put in: If people are feeling a little hostile, and feel a little guilty for feeling hostile, they overcompensate. Hence that packed-in overflowing measurement Jesus mentions.
The same applies when we listen to other people’s critiques. When they’re legitimately trying to be helpful, but we don’t wanna hear it, and ascribe evil motives to them, that’s not a fair interpretation. Or when Jesus tries to teach something, but we don’t wanna obey, so we rejigger things so we don’t have to… well, that’s the basis Jesus will use to reward us for our obedience, or not.
If we transform Jesus into a libertine who doesn’t care how other people behave, or a libertarian who doesn’t care how we behave, we won’t be rewarded much. If anything. We might even be penalized. Even what we have will be taken from us. We’ll enter the kingdom, but bring absolutely nothing of value with us. Paupers on streets of gold.
But God wants to be generous with us. If we apply generous standards to how loving and forgiving we are to others, God adds more. If we apply vigorous standards to how earnestly we strive to obey Jesus, God’s more gracious when we fail to meet those standards. He wants to over-reward our efforts. Of course, that means there need to be efforts on our part.
So be like Jesus. Don’t criticize and judge when you see him being gracious. Offer help when people need it. Offer grace too: Forgive and get forgiven. Be generous, and receive generosity back, either directly from God, or indirectly from people who realize we’re making the effort—and we’re worth supporting.
