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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?







What do we do when we see someone struggling with sin? In this series we’ve focused on Matthew 7, where Jesus calls us first to not simply pass judgement on them, to condemn them for violating God’s law. But He didn’t stop at what we were called to NOT do, but what we were called TO do. By contrast, He calls us instead to help them overcome that struggle, to help remove the speck from their eye. We’ve seen how this process starts with taking the log out of our own eye and developing a heart to help.



Last time we saw how Jesus demonstrated this in the way that He relied on the Father’s judgement to accomplish His purpose which was not to judge the world but to save the world. But what does this all look like? And does it look the same for believers as for unbelievers? Let’s start with the first question. Jesus illustrated it for us with an inspirational demonstration in John 13.



Washing Our Feet



Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”John 13:8-11



Notice how Jesus connects being washed here with salvation, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me”. In speaking to Peter (a believer), Jesus says that he is already cleansed (i.e., of sin), that Peter is already bathed (i.e., baptized). By contrast, in referring to Judas, Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean.”



However, even as a believer, Peter still needed his feet washed. Even as believers we still struggle with sin, our feet still get dirty and need to be washed. This is a process called sanctification. Ephesians 5:26 describes how Jesus sanctifies the church similarly: “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” (Ephesians 5:26)



After Jesus demonstrates this by washing the disciples’ feet, He tells us to do the same: Back to Episodes