How many times have you heard someone ________: “The Bible says don’t judge”? There is a call by the world today to be ________________ of any evil that the world can come up with, to bow before any god that the world will put up. Jesus says in Matthew 7:1, “Do Not Judge”. So, where does this leave the Christian?
Judge
The word, in Greek used here for judge is the word krinete which properly means to separate, distinguish between, then select, or prefer. But in most of the New Testament, it’s to pass judgement on, or to criticize…the practic of setting _______________ above someone else as a critic or one who passes judgement– “Don’t make a _______________ of judging others”.
Jesus is not _________________ the use of discernment or our best critical thinking about situations and people. Don’t judge does _______ mean “don’t think”. In fact, in Luke 12:57, Jesus specifically encourages us to judge with discernment in disputes, saying 57 “And why do you not even judge by yourselves what is right? 58 For when you are going with your accuser to appear before the magistrate, on the way, make an effort to settle with him, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. In other words, it’s better for brothers and sisters to come to an ______________ between themselves, discerning what is right, instead of bringing it before a judge when you don’t know how their judgement will come out. Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor 6:1-6 that, in fact, we are ______________ to judge, and judge rightly saying in 1-2 1 Cor 6 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to form the smallest law courts? We are expected to be able to judge ______________ in disputes, and avoid besmirching the name of Christ
How are we to reconcile “Judge not” with all of these other verses? As always, we look to ____________ as our example. When we look at Jesus’ interactions with sinners, we find that He had _________________ on them, but did not shy away from telling them the truth about their need for forgiveness.
- Zacheus—Jesus didn’t point out his sin __________________. That would have been the kind of self-righteous judgement that the Pharisees would have made. It would have crushed Zacheus’ hope that he could be forgiven. Zacheus received Jesus ______________, because he knew he was an unworthy sinner, and appreciated Jesus’ mercy and compassion. Result:“Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.”
- Woman at the well. The self-righteous Pharisees would have ________________her a Samaritan half-breed, cut off from Israel, a 5-time rejected wife, and an adulterer. But Jesus, perceiving her need for love and acceptance had ____________________ on her, showing her mercy. Result: He demonstrated His supernatural knowledge of her situation, and when she expressed her hope in the Messiah, Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah to her, saying in verse 26 Jesus *said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.” And many more _________________ because of her testimony that Jesus knew her sin, but was willing to accept her anyway, because of her faith in Him as Messiah.
- Woman Caught in Adultury (John 8 v3-11) The pharisees clearly wanted to ______________ and kill her by stoning. But Jesus asked them to use the same measure or standard that they were using against her to look at their _________ lives. Jesus demonstrates mercy and _________________ for her. Result: By saving her life, Jesus is giving her the ___________________ to repent. In saying that he doesn’t condemn her, Jesus is giving her an ____________________ to repent. He did warn her, saying Go. From now on do not sin any longer.” Jesus does not say “I forgive you”. Why? Because she had not ________________. Instead, Jesus says, not “Follow Me”, but “Go”, and warns her not to keep ________________ her mistake.
And so, when Jesus tells us “Judge Not” he is pointing out that we should not put ourselves in the place of a judge over another’s sins, since we have ______________ as well. We are not the one to determine and provide the _____________________ for sin. That’s God’s job, not ours. Some day He will give us the _______________ to judge. But, by then we will be in heaven, free from sin, free from these old fleshly sinful bodies. Jesus is not requiring that we put blinders on, but rather that we make ________for repentance, and let God do the judging.
so that you will not be judged
And, just in case we need some __________________ to resist the great temptation of being self-righteous, He tells us our motivation for not judging others should be to avoid being judged ourselves. He must be talking about the ________________of God. And since Jesus is addressing believers in the Sermon on the Mount, then it makes sense that the judgement that we should be ______________ about here is the Bema Seat judgement where we stand before Christ as He sits in the Judgment seat. Romans 14:10-12 But as for you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you as well, why do you regard your brother or sister with contempt? For we will all appear before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee will bow, And every tongue will give praise to God.” 12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. So, we are to react with kindness and compassion for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and their shortcomings, we are to help them get closer to Jesus, not trying to judge them and point fingers at them, blocking them as they try to get closer to God, or try to serve Him. In giving us these instructions, Jesus lets us know what’s best for our life in eternity.
2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged;
So, why is judging and condemning such a bad thing? It causes us to falsely set ourselves above other people, and look down on them. It sets up a counterfeit self-righteousness that we substitute for true righteousness, and so makes us think that we’re alright with God when we’re not. It’s very ______________. See Luke 14:9-14 Jesus tells a parable that illustrates this point. Notice that the parable is directed toward those who were ________________ in their own self-righteousness and looked down on everyone else. And notice the actions of the Pharisee in judging the tax collector, condemning him. And look at the result: The Pharisee does not go home justified before God, despite the fact that he went to the temple to pray and receive justification. It In So, the very act of judging and condemning others, and relying on our own self-righteousness sets up a ______________ to the work that God wants to do in our hearts. So, why is condemning others such a bad thing? Why is condemning condemned? Because the self-exalting arrogance that is the motivation for wanting to condemn people in the first place is the _______________ of who we’re supposed to be in Christ! The Pharisee was bragging to himself about all the works that he was doing to get close to God, and yet it was his faith in those sacrifices that he was making instead of the God. And his condemnation of the tax collector for a lack of works resulted in the _____________________ of the works and sacrifices that he was making. In the way that he judged, he was being ______________by God, just like Jesus says in our verses today.
and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
And so, we must be careful of the standard of _______________ that we use. The imagery that Jesus is using comes from grain contracts in which it was frequently specified that grain delivery and payment therefore would be measured with the same _________________—that of the purchaser. If we spend our time condemning others, then we must expect that God will respond in the coinage of strict ____________ toward us. Mercy and generosity of spirit toward others is a _______________ to God that this is how we want Him to deal with us. The very act of judgment establishes a set of criteria which God will use to judge our own conduct when we stand before Him.and the suggestion is that it creates a set of criteria in relation to which it were better that one did not ask to be judged. The background thought is of one’s own need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. The thought of Jas. 2:13 is similar. To some degree we have a negative statement of Mt. 5:7.
In order to avoid being judgmental of others, there are three remedies which we find useful.
- First, we Allow God to ___________ us, and we search ourselves diligently for our own frailties.
- Consider what ___________ we ourselves have already received from Jesus
- Cultivate a spirit of __________ toward everyone.