LUKE 6:37-42

Luke 6:37-42
Judge not.  We’ve all heard that, a lot.  From both believers and unbelievers – Christians are not supposed to judge.  After all, Jesus said those words in our text today, do not judge.  And if we don’t know the context, we can make it say all kinds of things it doesn’t say.  I don’t think there’s another verse in the Bible that has been used, abused, and misused more than this one.
For example, Leo Tolstoy, the great 19th Century Russian novelist, thought this verse meant we should not have any judicial system at all – do away with all courts and judges.  We’ve recently tried some measure of that in our country and have found it wanting.  You see, with no law and no law enforcement, no judicial system, no penalty, there would be anarchy – chaos.    
Further, the world uses this verse against the church.  You hear it all the time.  Point out some wrong or sin or injustice in society, and what do you hear?  Judge not.  You Christians aren’t supposed to judge, your Jesus said so.  He that is without sin, cast the first stone.  And so, the world uses this verse against the church to justify their sinful behaviors and quiet any objection we might hold.
Further, the church herself has misused this verse.  Many of you think judging is wrong – that as a Christian, you should never judge.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that.  Judge not.  Of course, we run into all kinds of biblical challenges if that’s the case.
In Matthew 18, He tells us if we see a brother in sin, we are supposed to go to him and confront him.  If he listens, fine, if not, take a witness or two with you.  If he listens, great.  If he doesn’t, tell it to the church – this vast sea I dare call, judges.  That sounds like we’re to be in the business of holding one another accountable to righteousness, which means I must make a judgment about your behavior, and you mine.  If I am in sin or you’re in sin, we’re supposed to make some sort of judgment about that – how else could we confront?  How else how do you know if I’m in sin.  But how often have you heard someone say, “Well, it’s not for me to say.”  Is that true?
Then there’s another story in I Corinthians 5 – it’s a difficult story.  Paul heard the church was tolerating sin, and they weren’t dealing with it – in fact, they were proud of themselves for not dealing with it.  Judge not – so they weren’t.  So, Paul writes them and says, “For I, on my part, …have already judged him who has committed this…”  It gets worse, “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”  What?  How can you say that, Paul?  He goes on, “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,…” and “I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”
Doesn’t sound very Christian to me – so judgmental.  Paul finishes, “Do you not judge those who are within the church?…Remove the wicked man from among you.”  We are supposed to judge one another, rightly.  We are to be critical in that we discern truth from error, right from wrong – in both behavior and doctrine. 
And there are tons of other verses which say we’re supposed to make assessments or judgments.  In fact, in Jesus’ sermon we’re studying, He will say, “For each tree is known by its fruit.”  And He’s talking about good fruit, bad fruit.  So let’s be careful not to make the verse say something it doesn’t.  Otherwise, we’ll be weak, mushy, and we won’t be a pure church, a holy church.
In this sermon, Jesus is talking about life in His kingdom – what He requires if you’re going to be His follower.  Remember, there was a bandwagon effect going on – people were coming from all over to hear this man teach, like they’d never heard before, and do things they’d never seen before.  Miraculous things like healing and driving out demons.  Later, He’ll feed them and calm storms and walk on water and even raise the dead.  Who wouldn’t want to be part of that? 
So Jesus in a sense called a time out and said, if you want to be My followers, this is what life in My kingdom is like.  Remember – the first words out of His mouth – here in Luke and also in Matthew’s very similar Sermon on the Mount.  “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”  Again – this is what to expect – this is what I expect of My people.  He goes on to proclaim the beatitudes – quite different from all the world pursues – and then the corresponding woes.  In fact, if you pursue what the world pursues – wealth and being well-fed and laughing all the time and being popular – woe to you.  There can be significant spiritual consequences to these physical realities. 
From that stunning introduction, Jesus launched into the main body of His sermon which has love as its main theme.  I expect My people to be people of love.  Extraordinary love, supernatural love.  Starting with, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.  We’ve seen He could say those things, because that’s precisely the way He treated His enemies.  He loved them – that is, us – when we were enemies and He died for us so that we could be reconciled to God – and become His children.  Further, He said, don’t be like world and only love those who love you, do good only to those who do good to you.  That’s self-serving.  We are to be different, thereby proving to be sons and daughters of God.  Why, be merciful, since God has been merciful to you.
And from there, Jesus transitions a bit in these verses.  He still talking about love, but now He seems to broaden the topic to include discipleship – how we grow in Christlikeness and demonstrate that in non-judgmental love toward one another.  I’m sure you noticed as we read the text, He starts talking about how we treat one another. 
Judge Not, Condemn Not, Pardon Lots, Give Lots (37-38)
Don’t Be Blind, Follow Faithful Teachers (39-40)
Judge Rightly Without Hypocrisy (41-42)
All of a sudden we’re not talking about our enemies, but our brothers.  A little disjointed, but I think you’ll see Jesus is talking about loving, faithful discipleship.  Starting with, do not judge or condemn – rather, be people who pardon and give generously to one another.  How we treat each other in the church as His followers.
Do not judge – again, what is Jesus saying?  I’ve already referenced it.  Don’t be like the hypocrites, Pharisees, who judge by some external standard of righteousness for the purpose of condemnation.  Don’t be superior, don’t be condescendingly judgmental like you’ve got it together, and everyone else doesn’t.  In a word, don’t be censorious – that is, use your critical powers of discernment, but don’t dole out harsh judgment – don’t be fault-finders who are negative and destructive toward people, who enjoy pointing out other people’s failings.  Does that sound like any churches you know?  We all know people like that.  Always on neighborhood watch – on sin patrol. 
Listen, I spent the introduction talking about how Christians do judge – how we discern right from wrong, and rightly and graciously judge, confront and restore to produce a holy church.  But now, shall we just take Jesus’ words.  He says it, do not judge – and the context seems to be, don’t judge harshly or unrighteously or condemningly. 
You must understand most judgment, even Christian judgment, is not beneficial to the one being judged – it’s critical, it’s arrogant, it’s harsh, uncaring and condemning.  It’s looking at other people, like the Pharisee at the Temple and saying, I thank God I’m not like other nasty people – are they even a Christian?  Bottom line, it is not a righteous, God-honoring, helpful kind of judgment.  It is a self-righteous condemning judgment.  You’ll get yours.
You see, all those examples I gave you about righteous judgment have the other person in mind.  It is not a judging that holds the person in the fire.  It is not condescending, condemning, superior judgment.  It’s humble, loving, gentle, faithful.  It is a judgment that holds people to the truths of God’s word for their good.  Again, it is not a judging that results in condemnation, but one, hopefully and prayerfully, that will lead to repentance and restoration. 
First, you are not God.  Jesus says, “Do not judge and you will not be judged.”  It is a subtle yet strong reminder there is a judgment coming – there is One who will judge – but it isn’t you.  You don’t have the right to judge someone’s motives, someone’s heart.  And you certainly don’t have the right to condemn them – only God can do that.
Second, not only are we not the judges, but we are among those who will be judged, and we are going to be judged in the same way we pass out judgment – that’s what Jesus says in the similar Sermon on the Mount.  Let that sink in – do you want God to judge you the way you judge others – with or without mercy.
Third, when you judge for the purpose of condemnation, you will also be condemned.
Fourth, He says, if you judge that way, you demonstrate the height of hypocrisy, which we will see in our last point.  Jesus actually calls people who judge this way, hypocrites.  And He’s not talking to Pharisees, He’s talking to us.  That’s supposed to be jarring.
You say, how much?  Peter asked the same question – remember?  Right after Jesus talked about church discipline for the purpose of restoration, Peter said, how many times do I forgive my brother?  Seven times?  You see, he thought he was being very magnanimous.  The rabbis taught you forgave someone three times for the same offence.  So, Peter doubled it and added one to grow on – 7 times?  Remember Jesus’ answer?  Seventy times seven.  It’s not that we keep track – 483, 484, 485.  You’ve got five more strikes and you’re outta here. No, we are forgiving people.  We readily pardon – forgive and show mercy – that is, releasing them from the consequences of sin.  That’s what He has done for us. 
And further, we give, and give, and give.  And as a result, it will be given to us.  That’s a divine passive as many of these are.  Don’t judge and you won’t be judged, by God is the idea.  Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned, by God.  Pardon, and you will be pardoned by God.  Now, as we talked last week, we don’t do these things to earn our salvation – to not be judged and condemned, to be pardoned.  We live this way because our lives have been changed.  We don’t judge in a condemning fashion; we pardon, quick to forgive because we have been forgiven.  And as a result of that truth, we prove to be children of God and won’t be judged and condemned; we will ourselves be divinely pardoned. 
And so we give, and it will be given to us.  Lots of discussion as to whether this receiving is now or in the life to come.  Most agree it might be both – notice we read, they will pour into your lap which seems to speak of current receiving, but most assuredly, there is future receiving or reward.  How much?  Jesus references a practice of purchasing grain at this time.  The buyer would take the measure, hold it in his lap, it would be filled with grain, shaken to make sure there were no gaps, pressed down to overflowing into his lap.  The buyer then knew he was getting his money’s worth.  Jesus says, you’ll get your money’s worth – if not in this life, in the life to come.
Which brings us quickly and briefly to our second point.  This is the way you do this – this not judging, not condemning, quickly pardoning and freely giving.  Follow the right example.  Don’t be blind guides, don’t follow blind guides or you’ll end up in a ditch; carefully select your teachers so you will be fully trained to be just like him.  You become like the one you follow. 
This is perhaps a sideways glance at the Pharisees since Jesus calls them blind guides elsewhere.  But He doesn’t mention them here – so it is likely broader.  It was a common saying or proverb at this time – Jesus calls it a parable because it was widely understood, used in a variety of settings, but used here to communicate spiritual truth.  Very simply, be careful whom you choose to follow.  If you follow someone who is spiritually blind, with errors in doctrine or behavior, seeking truth from them, you’ll likely end up in a pit, much worse off. 
So, verse 40, select your teachers carefully.  This was the common practice of the day.  You couldn’t simply go to a library or jump on the internet, that bastion of all truth, or even better, social media.  Back then, the pupil, better disciple selected the rabbi or teacher from whom he would learn, to be trained – in hopes of becoming like the teacher.  Jesus is not only suggesting don’t follow blind guides, but further, carefully select rabbis – likely referring to Himself.  You won’t surpass your teacher, but you can learn to be like Him as you learn from Him.  That is the goal of our discipleship – not to necessarily be like some well-named, well-known teacher, but to be like Jesus.  Paul said, follow me inasmuch as I follow Christ.  You want to be a faithful kingdom person demonstrating this kind of love?  Follow Jesus.  He of all people demonstrated kingdom love.
Which leads to our last point – judge rightly, without hypocrisy.  Yes, it is true, we are to hold each other accountable, which does require humble, righteous, godly, gentle, faithful judgment.  Jesus gives a rather humorous anecdote to illustrate such godly judgment.  It’s one we’ve all heard before.  Take the log of your own eye before you can see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.  It’s more ridiculous than it sounds.  A speck was a splinter of wood or piece of sawdust.  The log was the largest beam in the house. 
Now, this is the way most of us see that.  Okay, before I can judge someone with a little sin, I’ve got to get rid of my big sins.  Okay fine, what are the big sins I need to get rid of.  Go ahead, name a big sin.  How about murder, that’s a big one.  How about adultery – that’s a big one, too.  How about fornication or robbery or rape – yeah, those are good ones.  Good deal, I don’t have any of those, no logs here.  Now, let’s see – who needs my help with their sin?
You ever get something in your eye – a grain of sand, a splinter?  It hurt like the dickens, didn’t it?  It stings like crazy, your eyes water, you can’t see.  You drop everything you’re doing to try and take care of it.  You go to the mirror but you can’t see through the tears to get it out.
And along came someone who loved you.  They didn’t berate you for throwing sand up in the air, at least not why you were crying.  They didn’t trounce you for rubbing your eyes with your work gloves on.  They just helped.  Gently, and softly, tenderly, they applied treatment to remove the speck.  Remember how that felt?  That’s righteous, gentle, kingdom judgment.  That’s recognizing we all have splinters, we all need help.  And the only people who can minister grace and healing to other people are those who have experienced it themselves.  Those who have been broken, those who have been healed.  Kingdom people are loving people, wounded healers, who dispense grace. 
How do we apply all this, this morning?  How do we apply this to become more loving?  First, let me ask you, when you see an unbeliever acting like an unbeliever, what do you see?  Oh yuck – look at that sinner – look at what she’s wearing, look at what he’s doing.  He just flipped me off.  He’ll get his, I would never flip someone off.  Sounds an awful lot like, I thank God that I’m not like other people, especially that tax collector.  That is a critical, condescending, pharisaical, superior, judgmental spirit. 
How do you respond when sinners act like sinners?  It was Mahatma Gandhi, having studied in England and having visited several Christian churches in London, who said, “I might have become a Christian, if it weren’t for Christians.”  Why is it Christians are frequently, and perhaps increasingly, seen as modern-day Pharisees?  Why are we viewed as unloving, judgmental people?  Is it because we are?  When you see unbelievers or believers acting like sinners, with all kinds of splinters in their eyes – it ought to remind us, that’s who we were, till we received mercy.  It ought to remind us to apply first aid, called the gospel. 
Let’s bring it close to home.  How do we act toward one another in the church family when someone has a splinter in his or her eye.  When they’re bruised and broken – in need of a tender, healing touch of grace.  Do we extend grace?  Or do we withdraw, recoil, so we won’t get dirty.  Do you know the church is the last place most people feel like they can be themselves.  Where they can come and express their pain, their struggles with splinters, with sin.  It’s been rightly said, Christians are the only ones who shoot their own wounded.  Or it’s also been said, Christians form their firing squads in a circle.
May we be people of God’s rich, loving, tender grace and mercy.  We have received it – may we be quick to give it.