Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
Our perspective is too limited to be able to clearly and correctly judge others. Actions in the abstract are one thing. But human hearts are something else, something into which only God himself has access, and which only he can properly judge. Because we know, more or less, what is going on inside of us as individuals we are ready and eager to exonerate ourselves of all of our faults. We know all the factors that went in to our falls and have excuses ready at hand. But when we look at others we only see the faults, not the reasons, not the things going on in their hearts that only God himself can see.
For as you judge, so will you be judged
Do we act from a desire to see others condemned? Is this the motive behind our tendency to judge them? We know that to receive mercy from God we must be willing to become a people of mercy, people who prefer to show mercy to strict justice. When we see someone and are tempted to judge them let us instead measure out mercy. Let us acknowledge all of the many unseen factors that may have contributed to the act that may in fact justify it. And even if we can't see clear to immediately doing so let us at least realize that, compared to what is going on within our own hearts, what we see in others is probably only a splinter as compared to a wooden beam.
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.
If we want strict justice leading toward condemnation we are free to take the approach to judging our neighbors. But if we ourselves want mercy and blessing than this should also be what we will for others. It is easy to will mercy for those who seem to us to be without fault. But when we see flaws manifest in others we tend to want to see them get what they deserve even all the while reserving mercy for ourselves. In cases like this we need to open ourselves to the mercy of God so that genuine mercy can flow through us to others. With the board still in our own eye we can do nothing but harm others even if we are trying on some level to help them. Fortunately, it is the Lord himself, the divine physician and the light of the world, who wants to heal us if we will give him leave to do so.
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.
Ultimately within the mutual accountability that is meant to mark the life of disciples we are eventually called to help with the splinters in one another's eyes. But this is a stage of maturity that comes only after we outgrow our desire to delight in condemnation and the insecurity that makes us want to see the faults in others in order that we might ignore our own. How do we arrive at this place of mature discipleship? We begin by noticing when we are tempted to judge and instead measure out mercy. This mercy may seem hard to find, but the source of it is in the mercy we ourselves have first received from Jesus. Jesus certainly had much he could have said about all of us in condemnation if his motivation was strict justice. But he himself preferred mercy, and in doing so showed us how to do likewise.
I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you.
The Church is meant to be the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham, meant to be the way in which all nations attain these promises. Yet if the Church herself only speaks in judgment and condemnation how will the world have any sense of this promise? We have become blinded by the board in our own eye, useless to address the splinters in those of others. We must learn to look to the world with an eye to showing mercy. Only then can all of our eyes be healed.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
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