Who Made You Judge?

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 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? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:37–42).[1]

If there is an aphorism derived from Scripture best known and oft quoted in our day, surely it is, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”[2] Its use is typically meant to refute moral judgment on a particular sin, and its effect is typically the equivalent of “Mind your own business.” The source of the expression is our passage today, as well as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. And while I am all for encouraging quotes of Jesus in our culture, I’m not for taking Scripture out of context, for whatever reason. As we will see in our passage today, Jesus was no more dismissing sin than encouraging it, but he was confronting it, a sin that often hides comfortably in the church.

Over the last several months, we have learned of a prominent preacher, notable in Reformed circles, who was involved in a five-year adulterous affair with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter. It is speculated that the affair may well have continued had the woman’s father not discovered it. When I first learned of this, I was shocked, then saddened, and then curious. What I could not comprehend was how the man was preaching, sometimes multiple times each week in churches and conferences, leading a seminary, and running a parachurch ministry while simultaneously carrying on an affair, for five years. I know but for the grace of God go I, but I wonder at what point the weight of conviction would overwhelm you, assuming there was conviction?

Someone who confronts sin in others while committing the same sin, someone who does not practice what he preaches, Jesus calls a hypocrite. The proverbial log is poked in your eye, while you are vigilant to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. So, while the world may take Jesus’s words out of context, I think this is what they see, and draw from. When the church makes statements of moral judgment against sin, the world remembers the hypocrite and wonders, “Who made you the judge?” And while this infuriates those who think the church’s mission is a war on culture, it is far easier and insidious to criticize culture while ignoring the log in your eye.

Look for the Log

Note that Jesus was not talking to the world but his disciples when he said, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” Jesus is teaching us to look in the mirror. It’s like when the Apostle Paul confronted the confused Corinthians, saying, “what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside” (1 Cor. 5:12-13). As much as we want to shake our finger at our neighbor, we need to first examines ourselves. The problem is sin often seems crystal clear in others but less so in ourselves.

Who can’t give lucid commentary on our culture’s moral decline? It’s as obvious as saying water is wet or fire is hot. But who searches his heart daily for sins against his Savior? Who faithfully confesses her sins to the One who is faithful and just to forgive us? Who doesn’t see and lament the moral character of our leaders? Surely, we are at an all-time low. But who considers his own moral purity when no one is watching? Who considers her words when only friends are listening? We see the speck in everyone else’s eye but miss the log in our own. 

Christian, you were not redeemed to be the cultural commentator, critic, or condemner but to be conformed to Christ. The Apostle Peter was not using hyperbole when he said, “as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). We who have been saved according to God’s mercy by his grace through faith in the sinless Son of God, are called to live accordingly. But until death or our Lord’s return, whichever comes first, we must contend with our sinful flesh, which means that we must consistently and continually examine ourselves; we must look for the log.

This means being on the lookout for hypocrisy in ourselves, looking and listening for warning signs. And one of the first warning signs is failing to see yourself honestly. If you do not think you are susceptible to sin, then beware. As God warned Cain, “sin is crouching at your door” (Gen. 4:7). When you think you have arrived, be prepared for the dive, because the Christian life is never passive but active. “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you,” John Owen warned.

Second, the hypocrite minimizes personal sins and emphasizes the sins of others. Rightly should you be offended by the sins of our day. But even more should you be offended by your own sin. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7), Jesus said to the Pharisees of the woman caught in adultery, not because adultery isn’t a sin but because the Pharisees were hypocritically using the woman and her sin. There is only one person in Scripture who is given the title of accuser,[3] and you don’t want to be like him. Better to be disgusted with your own sin, which in turn helps you see others through the lens of God’s mercy.

Third, the hypocrite overestimates his ability to help other sinners, while underestimating the blinding effect of his own sin. Jesus asked, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?” Sin, especially habitual sin, has a conditioning effect that can lead you to gradually accept it, even justify it. That is not a good place to be, because sin that you justify in your life ironically does not lead to looking at other sinners with mercy but with the condemnation of self-righteousness. The most egregious sin you can think of is rarely your own.

When Jesus said, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned,” he didn’t mean for us to dismiss sin that we see or to accept it in others but to start with ourselves. For the sinner who has been saved by God’s grace through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, sin is incompatible with who you are. “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:2), the Apostle Paul asks. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6). We are then to think in our minds as we truly are in Christ: “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:7). And it is then, with the log removed, we may help with the speck.

Help with the Speck

In contrast to judging and condemning, Jesus said, “forgive, and you will be forgiven.” In his book Revolutionary Forgiveness, Eric Wright explains, “A forgiving person is one who, out of a profound sense of being personally forgiven a great debt by God, is quick to ask forgiveness from another, who repudiates anger, bitterness and a desire for revenge to initiate a loving approach to whoever may have hurt him or her, and who offers to freely forgive and forget the injury caused, with the hope that reconciliation may be achieved.”[4] And even if someone has not sinned against you, to be a person who can’t get over the magnitude of all that God has forgiven you, reveals itself in graciousness to others. Think of it this way: How much has God forgiven you? Dwell on that thought for a moment. Now, let that thought carryover to others. How would you view others if you viewed them through the lens of God’s forgiveness given to you? That’s the mentality of a true Christian.

Such generosity flows from the limitless forgiveness we have received. As God has removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west,[5] so we humbly give grace to others, helping them with the speck that only God can remove, by first remembering the log he removed for us. And when we approach life with this attitude of generosity, God will often put people in our paths that need us, and our experiences specifically, not to acquiesce to their sin but to help them confront and conquer it through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as there is no measure to the power of the gospel, so there is no measure to the grace we give, “pressed down, shaken together, running over.” Such is the plentiful outpouring of the grace of God through a forgiven sinner.

With such generosity, Jesus says, “it will be measured back to you.” Do you wish to live life resting in the eternal forgiveness given to you in Christ, then extend the same forgiveness to others. Forgiveness is one the greatest powers on earth and one of the sweetest gifts you can give. Do you wish to live life joyfully mindful of God’s grace given to you in Christ, then extend the same grace to others. The most miserable person you will meet is the one who holds on to grievances and harbors resentment. But happy is the one who holds on to nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ and harbors the fact that he “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20).

Know Whom to Follow

If all of this sounds contrary to the way you have understood the Christian life, let me propose that you consider whom you are following? Have you been following the course of this world, or the one who conquered it? Have you been following the prince of the power of the air, or the Prince of Peace? Have you been following the spirit that is at work in the sons of this world, or the Son of God? Have you been living according to the flesh, listening to your own desires, living like the rest of mankind, or have you been crucifying the flesh, listening to the Word of God, living like a child of God? It is possible that you don’t recognize the way of Christ, because you haven’t been following him.

According to Jesus, we need to be careful whom we choose to follow: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Blinded by sin, the world is a blind guide. Many are the pitfalls in this present darkness. But the Spirit of Christ enlightens our mind to the saving knowledge of Christ and leads us in the way of his righteousness. Quenching the Spirit, we follow the way of the world at our peril, but to follow Christ is to grow in conformity to him.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” Paul counsels, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). To follow Jesus then is to humble ourselves, to serve others, to become more and more like him by the transforming power of his Spirit. He is indeed our Savior but also our example and teacher, teaching us through his Word and Spirit. As we go to his Word, he trains our hearts and minds according to his truth.

But, as Paul points out, Jesus’ humility led him ultimately to do what we cannot do, to die upon the cross for our sin. And it was upon the cross, that “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). It was upon the cross that the good teacher became the great substitute, that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God forever. And it is this gospel that transforms and informs how we see ourselves and others. The world needs this same gospel, and it is ours to live and give.

[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] A variant of the KJV, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1).

[3] Rev. 12:10

[4] Quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 282.

[5] Ps. 103:12