Sermon: Judging Others

One of my favorite parts of the Sermon on the Mount is a warning not to judge others. But it also appears contradictory. (Matt. 7:1-6)

1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

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? 4How 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? 5You 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.

6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

I am particularly drawn to the first verse. As a Protestant I believe in salvation by faith. And there is enough of a Calvinist in my that I distinguish between a true saving faith that opens one's heart to the Holy Spirit and a nominal faith in which someone gets on their knees and confesses their sins to Jesus, but then largely resists the work of God. I am glad that I do not have to be the one to judge the difference! So I like the first verse because I know that my own faith is a bit of a prideful mess. I hope the weakest believers with barely transformed lives are saved because that way I know that I am saved too. We'll all make it together!

The scapegoat of this passage are the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were people who knew how to read and write. In an era before widespread literacy the scribes were basically the elites. In some cases they were also Pharisees, but not always. Both groups appointed themselves in charge of monitoring others' behavior to make sure that it conformed to the accepted moral norms. They were both the morality police. Jesus' warning is stark: if you can't forgive those who fall short of you then God will not forgive you, who fall so much further short of Him.

But the scribes and the Pharisee's are not that other guy. If you are a liberal Christian they are not the religious right. And if you are a conservative Christian they are not the legalists who don't understand salvation by faith. The scribes and Pharisees are you. They are me. We need to deal with our own inner Pharisee.

And now we come to the seeming contradiction: don't give dogs what is sacred; don't give pearls to swine. I'll bet that a lot of Christians have used this passage as a justification not to act in a forgiving way towards others. But Jesus makes it clear that there is never a justification (Matt. 18:21-23). Rather, dog is a slang term for gentile. Only the gentiles kept pigs. The Jews were forbidden. N.T Wright suggests that what this passage really means is that us Christians should not try to explain sin, heaven, and God's forgiveness to nonbelievers. They will not understand and they will resist. Jesus is saying not to give the "hard sell." Instead give the soft sell of being forgiving and humble.


Fine Print

This is the second post in my sermon series on N.T. Wright's Matthew for Everyone. See all the posts in the series here. I'd like to reserve this thread for sympathetic discussion. Critical comments are welcome here.