Matthew: All the Ways We Judge

So Matthew 7, verse 6, a pretty strange verse.

Matthew 7:6

Do not give dogs what is holy.

Do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

So perhaps you've heard this verse before, but what in the world does this mean?

Well, it's a line from the Sermon on the Mount.

It's a line from the core of Jesus' teaching, which we've been talking about for the past couple of months.

And what we've been seeing is, as we've been studying the core of Jesus' teaching, we've been seeing that this teaching takes us into the core of who we are.

And so this morning is how can thinking about pigs and dogs and pearls affect our life?

What does it mean for us today?

Well, all these thoughts are connected.

All these thoughts are connected.

So there's a context to this text.

There's a flow.

One idea is flowing into the next.

So the section before pearls and pigs and dogs is about this judgment and judging others.

And the section about that is what we talked about last week, about not worrying about possessions and food and bills, not worrying, have anxiety about all of that stuff, money and stuff and whatever that is, whatever the thing is in life, the practicalities that creates anxiety inside of you.

Jesus comes into that issue and he says, hey, tomorrow will have enough trouble of its own.

Do you not realize how much worth you have?

So he's a realist, he recognizes there's gonna be troubles, but you know what?

There's enough trouble tomorrow.

What's going on today?

Like, can we bring it into today?

Because so much of anxiety is about what will happen tomorrow, what's gonna happen later, what will happen here, what will happen, what will happen, and we self-create all of this anxiety, and Jesus brings it and he says, Hey, tomorrow is enough trouble of its own.

Can we live today?

Can we live in today?

How are you today?

What about your where can you rest today?

You're worth more than more than the birds, and the birds are taken care of.

So that's the context in Matthew 6.

So what we see in Matthew 6 is we see Jesus saying, surrender yourself.

Surrender yourself, surrender your anxieties, surrender your addiction to stuff and money, and rest in your secure worth.

That's what we talked about last week.

And then in Matthew 7, it moves into surrendering others.

And so what we see is that we see this flow of this context, this teaching.

You surrender yourself to God, and then you surrender others to God.

And so we get chapter 7, verses 1 and 2 that Sam read.

Judge not that you be not judged.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you.

So this word judge can be for legal use or it can be used for just like decision making.

So in that regard, we're all making judgment every day.

We're making judgment just because we're making decisions.

But this passage is about a judging where we lower another person so that we feel higher.

So we feel, right?

Deflate somebody else, and then I'll feel smarter, and I'll feel bigger, and I'll feel like I have my life together.

I'm more with it.

And we all do it, right?

We all we all love, love to judge.

I can mention two names.

I can mention two names, and immediately we will all come to judgment.

Right?

I don't even need to do it.

You already know.

Donald.

Hillary.

And it doesn't matter where you land, all we all have immediate judgment.

And we're right.

You know, we're you know, our view is the right one.

Whatever the one is that you have, your judgment is the right one.

But I could have, I could have said other names.

I could have said your coworker's name, or your boss's name, or your employee's name, or your neighbor who's difficult, their name, or your spouse that's difficult, or your child, or your parent, or your friend.

I could have I could have mentioned any of those names because we love to judge.

Right?

I mean we sort of walk around with a with a tape measure, measuring measuring people, and and then if we if we can just lower them a bit, it helps us feel bigger, smarter, more with it.

Is anybody about six foot three?

Anybody six foot three?

Travis, how tall are you?

No, you're not.

You're about come on, Travis, please come up here for just a second.

Travis is gonna come up here.

I'm guessing you're about six three?

No.

I have on boots.

Let's go back to back just for a sec.

I got you, but I think it's because of the boots.

All right, Sam will put a put a tape on you.

Sam's gonna put a tape on you.

Uh and so we're about the same height.

You got on really low profile shoes, and I have on boots.

I do that.

It's a power move on Sunday morning for me.

So we're about the same height, but judgment comes as as natural as breathing for all of us, really.

And it's like, oh, you oh you don't you don't work out?

Oh you oh oh you oh you do work out.

Three kids.

Oh you oh you do CrossFit.

Oh you do oh you're a you're a CrossFitter?

Oh you oh you run oh you run that far.

Oh you run that often.

Oh, you keep your house that clean?

Oh, you study that hard?

Oh, you eat gluten, sugar, you're you're friends with them, you parent like that, you act like that, you think that, you believe that, you go to that church, you don't go to church.

You're that stubborn, you're distant, you're pretentious, and we go on and on and on with our judgments.

Thank you, Travis.

I know that was painful.

Appreciate that.

Appreciate that.

We measure.

And here's the thing, but here's here's the thing, right?

The measuring tape always comes back to us.

The measuring tape always comes back and measures us.

For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged.

And with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you.

So the tape measure comes back on you and you judge yourself, because if you judge others, inevitably you will judge yourself because you're in a life of comparison, and so you'll judge others, you will you will create guilt.

And whether it's legitimate or illegitimate, you will create guilt inside of yourself.

And when you live with guilt, even illegitimate guilt, you cannot receive and you cannot give love because you're preoccupied with yourself.

This is the danger of perfectionism and comparison life.

This is the cycle of judgment.

This is point number one.

Point number one, you can't see your inner self if you are busy pointing out issues and others.

You cannot see your inner self if you are busy pointing out issues and others.

Another way to say it is this we love to judge because we love to avoid our pain and our issues.

Right?

Listen to Jesus teach on it starting in verse 3.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, 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.

So it's examine yourself first.

Start with yourself always.

So this word hypocrite is an actor who wears a mask.

Right?

We've all worn a mask, and you're gonna wear a mask tonight or tomorrow for Halloween.

Yesterday there was a dinosaur walking down my street.

You can't see who's inside the dinosaur.

So Christy and I are sitting on the porch and we yell out.

Who's inside the dinosaur?

And it's dear Meg over here.

She's walking down the street in her Halloween costume, full like seven-foot dinosaur, right?

It's awesome.

And so tonight, uh, tomorrow night we're having a Halloween party on our street, and all the little kids are gonna come and there's gonna be, and so many are gonna wear masks, and all the adults will walk around and we'll go, uh, who are you?

Who are you, who are you?

Like who's under there and who's under there, and who's under there, right?

Because that's what a mask does.

A mask hides us, and we sort of, we sort of love masks because of that.

We love this because when you can't take being seen or even seen yourself, the easiest path is to wear a mask.

Pretend somebody, to pretend you're somebody else, right?

Avoid your inner, avoid examining yourself or looking at yourself and pick apart everybody else.

Here's a quote I ran into this week from the very wise Henry Nowen.

We spend an enormous amount of energy making up our minds about other people.

Not a day goes by without somebody doing or saying something that evokes in us the need to form an opinion about him or her.

We hear a lot, see a lot, know a lot.

The feeling that we have to sort it all out in our minds and make judgments about it can be quite oppressive.

The desert fathers, and so those were Christian kind of mystics and monks that lived out in the desert, the desert fathers said that judging others is a heavy burden, while being judged by others is a light one.

Once we can let go of our need to judge others, we will experience an immense inner freedom.

Once we are free from judging, we will be also free from mercy.

Let's remember Jesus' words, do not judge, and you will not be judged.

It's just such a waste of energy.

And maybe you're here and you're just so tired of carrying judgment for people.

For your mom or your spouse or your neighbor or that group or that party or that family or that church.

Point number two, seeing your inner self creates confession and compassion.

I read this week in a commentary this sentence.

The remedy to a judgmental attitude is an understanding of one's own need for spiritual healing, for righteousness, and for mercy.

So let me talk to you if you're married.

I know a lot of you aren't married.

Maybe you'll be married at some point.

Maybe you were married and you'll agree with all of this.

So it may you're maybe you're working all day.

Say you're out working all day, you're in the office, you're pounding away, you're stressed, you're working, you're working.

Maybe you're at home and you're working, you're trying to keep it all together, right?

And you can't seem to keep it all together, but about six o'clock arrives, and everybody's finally back in the house, and inevitably it's not all together, and it's a little bit messier than you wanted it to be, no matter where you are on the side of whose job it was to keep it not messy, and the dinner's not quite ready, and the kids are a little crazy, and here's what everybody's thinking: not even here, not even here are things under control.

And so you berate her, or you berate him, or you ignore everybody and you just pound away because you're gonna get it all done and make sure they see the fact that you can get it all done and make sure that your point is that they can't get it all done.

Like, look what I can do, and I'm not gonna ask about you and what's going on inside of you or affirm anything in you.

What I'm gonna do is I'm going to judge the speck.

And you never saw yourself.

You never saw the log sticking out of your own eye, all of that fear and anxiety and self-righteousness that would create.

Why are you so stressed out?

Why is that even there?

Where is that coming from?

Why do you need it all under control?

What is that log?

And see, I know this because I know this story, because when we started the church four years ago, and there's eight people, and you're going, is this gonna go anywhere?

And I left a secure job, and you know, how my runway is like six months before we run out of money, and so I'm asking for money and I'm putting myself out there, and you just start to feel no money's coming in at first, and that's a lot of pressure because no money's coming in, and then some money starts to come in, and by the way, you need money for church to work, and so that is important, it's a part of it.

And so money starts to come in, you go, okay, we're gonna be okay, but now then there's this pressure like, are we gonna fail?

Like, okay, now we have the resource to try to try this, but am I gonna fail?

And and what would that what would happen?

What would that say about me?

What would that say about me if I failed?

And and what would that say about my value and people's view of me?

So everything felt out of control, and then I would come home and newsbreak.

We had the time had a five-year-old and a two and a half-year-old and a baby.

And Christy's working part-time.

Newsbreak, it's not all perfect.

And I'm on edge, right?

And so there was a lot of evenings where I'm stressed out and I'm distant and I'm not affirming, and I'm not helpful out of compassion, I'm helpful out of spite.

Right?

And I'm on edge.

And this took a lot of, this took some counseling.

This took a friend of mine counseling me, helping me to see that I was not on edge because of that.

I was on edge because of a problem in me, because of a log in my own eye.

Right?

I'm on edge because some addiction to other people's approval and a fear of failure, some anxiety that gets produced out of this, an expectation of myself, a moving of my value, of being secure in God's love for me and Jesus to my production in the world, and this creating anxiety and then carrying that into the home.

And parents, let me tell you a secret.

It took me seven years to figure this out.

I'm no parenting expert, but I have figured this bit out.

Your kids will get older, and some of you can amen this if you've raised your kids.

Your kids will get older whether your house is neat or your house is messy, and your kids don't care.

They don't care.

Like they're one, they're the ones causing the mess, and they're like really happy until we go around trying to make sure it's all under control.

What does matter is that in your home are people living in a spirit of judgment?

Or living in a spirit, a presence of non-anxious affirmation?

And your house may be messier.

And it doesn't even matter.

Your hearts and your family will be healthier.

What would if you've family, single, divorce, doesn't matter where you're at, what would your relationships look like if you quit measuring everyone else in your life?

And maybe you're here and you say, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Like if I if I start to look at the log of my own eye, if I face my own issues, doesn't that create guilt?

Doesn't that create pain?

No, no, no, no, no.

That's already there.

The guilt and the pain are already there.

You're just not seeing it.

So you're letting it have power over you and letting it create other stuff in your life.

And you've got to remember this because this is good news.

The passage here is in the context of Jesus saying, I've fulfilled the law for you.

So he's saying, hey, before the law, you've failed.

Okay, you're not gonna be a perfect, non-anxious, affirming presence in your home.

You're not gonna be that.

You're not all of a sudden gonna be perfectly non-judgmental towards all of humanity.

You're not gonna be that.

Jesus, that's what I was.

I was that for you.

And all of your shortcomings and sin in that manner, I took upon myself.

So yeah, even messy, judgmental, you.

I love you.

That's what he that's what he's saying.

I fulfilled the law for you.

And he takes that on himself, and in Jesus, God gives us his righteousness.

So we are his secure beloved wherever we are at.

So here's the good news.

Point number three, you don't have to measure and defend yourself anymore.

You don't have to measure and defend yourself anymore because the verdict on you is already in.

Right?

Remember the flow of this text.

Back in Matthew 6, 26, look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor read nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

See, you and I are free from having to use our judgment of other people to feel better about ourselves because the verdict about us is already in.

We can live as affirming people, not accusing people.

So now the pigs and the dogs and the pearls.

Now, some people think this is sort of uh bringing up another issue that it's talking about, and first these pigs and dogs, it's not Wilbur and Lassie.

I mean, these are nasty, unclean in the context of the history.

Nasty, unclean animals.

And now some people think this is about not wasting energy giving the truths of God to people who don't care.

That could be it.

That's definitely could be it.

But but what if what if in the in the flow of this text, what if the pigs and the dogs are the way of judgment?

The exhausting, nasty, burdensome way of measuring others and yourself.

And what if Jesus is coming here at the end of this whole text and he's saying, you're worth more than living a life in the way of judgment.

Your heart and your spirit are as precious as a pearl in any shortcoming you have before the law, before what you should be, whether it be that career you wanted to be, that perfect family, that perfect house, whether it be your religious striving and how good you thought are gonna be your moral standing and how you failed before that, whether it be any of this that we've read in the last couple months about the way we should be living, and you're going, well, I don't do that one, I don't do that one, I don't do that one really well.

Whether it be any of that, God said, I fulfilled the law for you.

All that sin, all that shortcoming, I take upon myself and give you my righteousness.

You have so much worth.

And the verdict is in on you.

You are beloved, and you are precious, and you are free from having to walk around with a tape measure, measuring everybody else.

You are free to live a life of affirming other people and living in the affirmation that you have in Jesus.

So, my brothers and sisters, the truest thing about you is that while you are imperfect, you are deeply and perfectly loved by God in Jesus.

May we live in that great affirmation and judgment.

Let's pray.

God, thank you that your judgment for us is in Jesus.

It is in your humility and love, the act of the cross, that we need because we are judgmental.

We are hypocrites, we wear masks.

We will judge someone for being pretentious while we are pretentious.

We will judge someone for being anything while we are the very thing.

And we confess this this morning, and we rest in your grace for us, and we trust that your spirit in us would cause great transformation, a humbling, that we would live in the affirmation of the security of your work for us, our standing with you, that we don't have to find worth in our comparison before other people, and therefore we're free of judgment of other people, and therefore we are free to affirm other people.

Would you give us eyes to see?

Would you give us eyes to see the log in our own eye that we might live in confession and in compassion?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.