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| Don’t Judge… Help series |


* Don’t Judge.
* Don’t Judge… Help!
* Judgement That’s Loving
* What Does Judging/Helping Look Like?







As we talk through Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 7 to not judge others, we left off with this verse last week:



First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:5



In the first verse of the chapter, Jesus tells us to “Judge not”. We asked the question last week: Does this mean that we are supposed to “live and let live”? This instruction Jesus gives us in verse 5 gives a definitive “No” to that question. Jesus tells us not to pass judgement on someone, but He also tells us not to leave them alone. We aren’t called to judge; we are called to help! What does that mean and how do we do that?



Seeing Clearly



In order to help our brother, Jesus makes it clear that we must first be able to see clearly. Specifically, we have to remove the log out of our own eye to be able to see clearly. We talked about how to do that last time, but It makes perfect sense really. Whenever we are struggling with sin, possibly even the same sin, that sin clouds our perspective and twists our heart motivation in making a judgement about the situation.



Have you ever noticed that when confronted about something (maybe someone says, “you’re being harsh”) we often respond by saying, “well you do that too!” In that response are we really trying to help the other person be less harsh? Was that the best moment and way to bring that up to truly help them with something? Aren’t we just looking to justify our own actions? Sin in our own life drives us to justify and defend ourselves, to put others down to make us feel better, to pass judgement rather than help. When we have something in our own eye, maybe we can see they have something in theirs, but we certainly can’t see clearly enough to help them with it.



In exploring how to remove this log last time, we found that we must rely on and seek out God’s judgement. We need His help to be able to even see our own log clearly; how much more so then do we need His help to be able to see their speck clearly. Even in helping to take the speck out of our brother’s eye, we don’t use our own judgement, we ask God to show us His. In this way, what Jesus says in verse 5, to remove the speck, is consistent with what He says in verse 1, to not judge. Rather than judging, we look to God for discernment,