Over the past few months, I’ve noticed the topic of judging seems to keep coming up. Maybe it’s just an observational bias – I’ve been thinking about the topic quite a bit lately – or maybe it really is something people want to talk about. Whatever the case, the topic inevitably brings up one of the most over misinterpreted and overused passages of Scripture ever penned.

You know the one: It’s about coming along side your brother and helping them through their troubles while being delicate and caring. Oh, you don’t recall that one? What about the passage with wood planks in people’s eyes, hypocrites, and ‘don’t judge.’ Oh, you know that one. Do you realize they’re actually both the same classic passage from Matthew 7?

You see, for so long, our culture has completely twisted and misinterpreted this passage to basically support the idea of complete independence from anyone or anything. We, as Americans, typically don’t like to be told what to do, how to behave, or even be told we are simply wrong. “I’m independent, so don’t you DARE tell me how I’m suppose to live! Don’t judge me! Matthew 7 says so – don’t judge me!”

The crazy thing is that verses 1 and 2 of Matthew 7 really doesn’t say that at all. It doesn’t say ignore the problem, or for you to do your thing and let them do their thing. Instead, it tells us to not judge unless we are willing to be judged by those same standards. This passage isn’t really about “judging” people as we see it in our culture today – pointing out flaws and wrong doings of everyone around you. It’s more about “correcting” people who already believe what you believe – Brothers and Sisters who follow Jesus. It’s saying, “Don’t tell someone not to gossip if you haven’t taken steps to address your own gossiping. Don’t act like you can correct others on an issue you haven’t figured out.”

What people don’t realize is Jesus isn’t against “correcting,” nor is he against us “correcting” each other. In John 7:24 Jesus tells his audience to ‘judge righteously.’ In 1 Corinthians 5:12, Paul tells the followers to judge those inside the church, but to not worry about those outside the church. Being a follower of Jesus BY DEFINITION recognizes that we don’t have it all together and we need help – we NEED correction. We MUST be willing to be judged to follow Jesus. We walk this road together, as one church, correcting each other to look more like Christ. He called out his followers, and he expected them to call out each other.

If the classic American cultural interpretation of ‘not judging at all’ were true, then the next few verses of Matthew 7 wouldn’t make sense. However, it’s the next few verses of Matthew 7 that are truly at the heart of the entire conversation to begin with.

The Heart of The Matter

The problem here isn’t so much that verses 1 and 2 are completely misinterpreted – although that is a problem. The real problem is that verses 3 through 5 are not interpreted AT ALL!

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that Matthew 7 talks about coming along side your brother and working through their problems together with delicate care. With that in mind, re-read verses 3-5 from Matthew 7:

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.”

After telling the people to be cautious in their judging, Jesus gives us this beautiful analogy that is so often ignored, even in the church! Let’s start looking at this by seeing what is NOT here:

1) Jesus doesn’t say to ignore the speck in the brother’s eye because of your plank. The plank needs to be addressed and removed, and so does the speck. Correction, or “judging,” DOES take place!

2) Jesus doesn’t say to point out their speck and walk away. Who removes the speck from the brother’s eye? The audience! Jesus’ followers! You and I, as followers of Jesus Christ have the responsibility of helping make the correction once we can see clearly to do so. We don’t leave them to do this alone.

3) Most importantly, Jesus doesn’t say to jab out your brother’s eye, or slice their face open to remove the speck. Have you ever removed something from someone’s eye? Do you walk up and jab at it? Would you let a stranger off the street remove something from your eye? It takes a lot of trust for a person to allow you to walk up, put a finger to their eye, and remove a speck that is blurring their vision – trust that isn’t given to a random stranger. It takes a lot of patience and care for you to remove the speck without hurting. Often times our attempts at removing a speck are more like jabs and slashes than they are care and patience.

The first statement I gave is one most people can see and understand. The second one, some people might have a harder time accepting. Yet, the last one really is the heart of the matter, and why this passage is such a hot topic in our culture. This is the REAL problem with judging others.

How much care, patience, compassion, and trust does it take to allow someone to remove something from your eye? Do you think Jesus used this analogy by accident? When was the last time you saw all of these qualities being executed when correction was taking place?

Would you normally have a problem with someone correcting you if you trusted them, they truly cared about you, they were patient, they were delicate, and they walked with you through the process, and they weren’t automatically yelling and screaming at you? I would be HONORED to have someone do this with me! It’s the lack of these qualities being present that makes this topic so huge in our culture!

We, as Christians, are so quick to point out others flaws with anger – and in some cases hatred – that no one wants to hear what we have to say. We don’t walk beside them. We yell, scream, and make sure everyone knows what the tip of our index finger looks like. We don’t exercise love in the discussion, and if there is no love, we’re nothing but clashing symbols. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) Of course no one wants to hear what we have to say! Who wants to listen to a bunch of symbols banging away as loud as they can?

And then, of course, there’s the hypocrisy issues that everyone is well aware of, and it doesn’t need to be dissected here. (Side note: Not following Jesus because of the hypocrites that follow him is like not going to the doctor because of all the sick people who are there to see him.) This would also be a non-issue if we could admit to our own shortcomings. Put simply, we need to realize that righteousness is not a synonym for “pride” or “bragging rights.”

We, as Christians, must realize that we are the reason why no one wants to hear about Jesus. If more pastors would preach this, and more church leaders could recognize this, we’d be in a completely different society. It takes love – not this fake, superficial, surface level love, but true, authentic, 1 Corinthians 13 love – to correct someone. It’ll change them, and it’ll change you. Most of all, it’ll solve the real problem with judging.

Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts?