Don't Judge: The Speck, The Plank, and Mercy - Sermon 1st February 2026

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So we're in Matthew 7, verse 1. Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

Matthew 7:1

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure

you use, it will be measured to you.

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?

How 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?

You 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.

Last week, I spoke about the opinions that we have of ourselves,

that others have of us, and that God has of us.

And I noted that we can't always trust in the opinions that others have of us.

We can't always trust in the opinions that we have of ourselves.

We can be puffed up or debased, but we can always trust in God's opinion of

us, and God's opinion of us is clearly expressed in Jesus.

He loves us with a passion, and that's all you need to know.

But today, I want us to change directions, as it were, and think of our opinions of others.

And I want to do so by looking at this text that Jackie read for us from Matthew

Matthew 7:1–5

7, verses 1 to 5. It's part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

And for those of you who have Bibles, you might notice verses 1 to 6 comprise

a paragraph. Why am I leaving out verse 6?

Because I wouldn't have the foggiest what it means. And even though I've explored

it to quite some extent over years, so I'm just leaving it to one side.

It's all about don't cast your pearls before swine. Who knows?

Oink. Let's now have a look at our opinions of others. Now, no one erects statues to critics.

You won't find critics being lauded and admired and appreciated.

There seem to be negative destroyers eager to tear others down,

and within the church they have a bad name.

And some people do point out in support of that, well, Jesus tells us not to

criticize. No, he doesn't.

He did a fair bit of it himself, actually. Jesus is not telling us in Matthew

Matthew 7:1–5

7, verses 1-5 that we shouldn't criticize others.

He is saying we should not judge others. And I want to just look at that distinction,

and look at other aspects of criticism, how to give it, how to receive it.

First, the distinction between judging and criticizing.

Judging in the Bible, whenever you read the word of judging,

it's got the connotation of condemnation, of delivering a final negative verdict.

And it presumes, therefore, that we are so aware of the facts of the matter

that we can make a proper verdict.

Judging is basically saying, I've reached a decisive conclusion,

and yet, you haven't got all the facts in front of you. Let me give you an illustration of that.

There's an American writer and speaker called Chuck Swindle.

Not very many Australians are called Chuck.

I went to college with a guy called Chuck, but he was Canadian,

which was almost American.

And, and, and, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Don't mention Greenland. Don't mention Greenland.

The American speaker, let's get back to, let's get back to the point.

The American speaker and writer Chuck Swindle was speaking at a big conference.

And on the first day, he noticed a man in the front seat continually drooping

his head and falling asleep.

Now, I can tell you from a preacher's point of view, that's not very attractive.

Thanks, Pete. Right on cue. But over the next two nights, it happened again and again.

And Chuck Swindle thought, this is ridiculous. This man is being so discourteous,

sitting right up the front, right under my nose, and falling asleep.

So he thought, right, I'm going to talk to that man before I next speak.

But before he could do that on the third night, his wife, that man's wife,

came up to him and said, look, Mrs.

Swindle, I just want to say, I'm sorry that my husband seems to be inattentive,

but he is in the last stages of cancer, and the drugs that he taken mean that

he cannot but help fall asleep.

But, you know, despite his sickness, he'd insisted that one of the things that

he must do before he died was to hear Chuck Swindle speak.

And that changed everything. Changed everything for Chuck Swindle,

because now he knew the background, the context.

He knew more facts. He could not make a judgment on that man falling asleep

and calling him discourteous, but rather he could understand just what was going on.

You see, snap judgments are never wise. Never, ever, ever wise.

Do we really know what's behind that person's failures? Can we know how hard

they're trying to overcome that deficiency which some annoys us?

What makes them the way they are? Am I reading the situation correctly?

You need to ask all those questions before making a snap judgment on someone,

because it is that sort of judging that Jesus is condemning.

And another thing that can make criticism judgmental is that we may not be aware

of our own feelings and failings.

And that's the whole point of Jesus' expression in this paragraph.

Jesus' use of planks and specks. He's saying, in effect, how can we insist on

focusing on the faults of others while we're not dealing with our own faults?

That's what he's saying fundamentally. And note that Jesus is not forbidding

removing specks in others' lives.

He's saying, once you've cleaned up your own act, or once you are cleaning up

your own act, you can start to help people clean up their act.

So he's not saying, don't remove the speck out of your brother's or sister's eye.

What he's saying is, be careful of your own faults. Be aware of your own faults.

Because you can't do a good job of that delicate and important business of removing

a speck from someone's eye, and I'm talking literally here.

You can't do that without having good vision of your own.

So how can we jump in with the criticism of others when we are not aware of

being critical of ourselves.

See, judging involves launching into rebuke and correction from a less than humble position.

And some people do that because of what the psychologists call projection.

They just simply project on others the faults they have in themselves.

I might be a terrible gossip.

So what am I going to do? Accusing everyone else of being terrible gossips.

Gets the heat off me. Puts the attention on them.

One megachurch pastor in the USA was constantly denouncing gay rights and gay

marriage from the pulpit.

And of course, all the right-wing Christians there thought he was absolutely

marvellous for doing that, until it was discovered, and he admitted,

that he'd been engaging with male prostitutes all the time.

He was preaching against some of those gay things.

Unable or unwilling to face his own sexual identity, he attacked others.

Classic case of projection I'm not dealing with this in myself so I'll deal

with it out there classic case of going for the specs and ignoring the plank.

As a further warning against unhealthy criticism in verse 2 of that text,

Jesus suggests that how we treat others impacts on how God treats us.

To put it briefly, how would you like it if God treated you the way you treat others?

That's what Jesus is saying.

Do you want God to show mercy to you? Do you want God not to focus on all your

failings and your terrible shortcomings?

Well, have that attitude to others. Show them mercy rather than jumping on their

each and every indiscretion.

So how would it be then if God treated us the way we treat others?

So judging involves a degree of finality and perhaps condemnation.

It involves us ignoring our own failings in order to focus on others,

and it involves us believing that we have got all the knowledge we need to know

about that other person.

So Jesus, I stress, is not saying you must never rebuke or criticize.

He is simply saying, be careful. Yeah, remove the specks, but watch the planks.

Now, in any normal human relationships, there are occasions when admonition

is necessary. The Bible says that admonish one another.

Jesus rebuked people. Paul rebuked people.

But we have to note the danger of judgmentalism that I've just summarized.

And Paul offers us a further perspective in Galatians 6, verse 1,

Galatians 6:1

when he says, if you see a brother or sister going astray, those of you who

are spiritual, and I take that to mean being led by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit,

you should try to get them back on track.

So what he's saying is that's a good task, an important task,

but it's not to be undertaken by someone who wants to dump a whole lot of stuff

on someone else while not being attentive to their own failings.

You who are spiritual, you who are aware of your own failings,

you who are aware of your own struggles to be mature in Christ.

You are the ones who can put people back on track, but please don't undertake

such a task of telling other Christians that they're on the wrong track with

the aim of taking them down a peg or two.

There are some people in life whose mission in life is to take others down a peg or two.

I even heard one theological student who later became an Anglican minister say

that, well, when he preached, his aim was to take people down a peg or two.

Some preachers are a bit like that.

But I tell you what, I couldn't sit under that sort of preaching.

I'm already down a few pegs.

And if a preacher wants to take me down a few more pegs, I'm sorry,

there ain't many more pigs down there.

So, don't make a aim in life to pull others down to your level,

to pull them down a peg or two.

Rather, seek to build them up, and building up can involve constructive criticism.

Now, on a practical note, if criticism is necessary, pick the right time and place.

I'm sure you've done as I've done. Sometimes you've rushed in and criticized

someone, and you haven't just paused to think, now, wait a minute,

what's really going on here?

Any admonition expressed in a bad temper or extreme frustration is likely to

be unhelpful and damaging to all parties.

So if you're hot under the collar about what someone else is doing, don't jump in.

Pick your time, pick your place. There is a time and place for you to just be

quiet, hold your opinions to yourself, and there's a time and place for you

to express those opinions.

And if you're going to express those opinions, don't try to avoid,

or do try to avoid pious cliches, which are subtly trying to indicate your spiritual superiority.

You're coming in as a spiritually superior person to put this poor,

straying person back on track. Oh, rubbish!

No, you're not. You're just trying to show off.

No, be aware of your own failings and faults, the planks in your own eye,

and then you'll be able to get work on specs in others' eye.

And now, going to a related topic, not actually covered by this passage,

but of course it's relevant, so I'm going to cover it.

How do we receive criticism?

I recall meeting up with an elderly minister as part of my entry into Moore

College. I was asked to go to this elderly minister who was one of the so-called

chaplains as students before they entered college.

And I got a sobering insight as I was writing this, that elderly minister that

I consulted was probably about 12 years younger than what I am now.

Isn't that dreadful to realize that this elderly fellow was actually younger than I am now?

Anyway, I don't recall much of that meeting, except for one question he asked

me fairly promptly. How do you take criticism?

And I thought, what? Silly question. I thought he was going to ask me about

the Bible or something. Nope.

He said, how do you accept criticism? And I can't remember exactly my response,

but I think if I was honest, I would have said not very well.

But in the years afterwards, I realized what a pertinent question it was.

Anyone, particularly in public church ministry, is going to cop some plaque. And you do.

Now, there are two unhelpful ways of responding to criticism.

One is to assume each and every rebuke is true and cause us to feel useless.

Every criticism that someone else makes of you, every time they admonish you,

you sit back, take it, and think, yeah, they're right, they're right, they must be right.

But even those who are constructive and loving in their criticism may be mistaken.

Don't assume that every criticism that others make of you, whatever their motives,

is necessarily valid. Might not be.

Certainly Jesus and Paul didn't automatically accept criticisms made of them.

But the other unhelpful way of responding to criticism is to become defensive,

and assume that those who are criticizing us must be our enemies.

But our genuine friends can admonish and rebuke us. And in fact,

if you do have a genuine friend, you can expect some of that because they're

caring for your welfare. They're not just flatterers.

Their criticism of us doesn't mean they've turned against us.

Rather, their criticism may be an expression of their loving concern for us.

So we do best to neither embrace each and every criticism and assume it's valid.

Or dismiss criticisms as coming from those who have no interest or concern for us.

We do best not to react in haste, but to take time to discern.

And we may want to seek others' views. And let me give you an illustration from my own life on that.

At the end of my second year at college, Moore College, which is the alternative

to Morling College, which is the Baptist College, I went to an Anglican college,

but it doesn't matter in the end.

At the end of my second year at college,

my end-of-year interview with the examining chaplains did not go well.

A panel of clergymen who I had never met before, and they'd never met me,

I hardly knew their names.

They informed me that my attitude at college was questionable and that my candidacy

for ordination, that is to become an Anglican minister, might be threatened.

So what were they going to do back on the unemployment queue?

You know, I was quite taken aback. Shook me out.

Those guys were strangers to me. On what grounds could they make such remarks?

Now, I didn't hit back, of course, but I promised to take their words on board,

and so I quickly got my circle of college friends. I had a good supportive fellowship group at college.

I got them, sat them down in my room, and said, hey, here's what the examining chaplain said about me.

Tell me, were they right or were they wrong, or were they a mixture of both?

And in the end, they thought the panel was misinformed. But at the same time,

they said, but they did make some good points, mate.

We can see why they formed those opinions of you, even if they didn't really know you.

But at the same time, we think, no, no, no, no, no, they're overstating things.

No, I don't think they've got the right handle on things. but there's some validity

to what they were saying.

I went to one of my trusted lecturers, respected lecturers in college,

and said to him, what do you reckon?

He said, yeah, they got a point, you know, mate, and yet at the same time reaffirmed,

my so-called good points.

Now, you see, I reflected on all this, and the good news was,

of course, that those in authority reckoned I'd changed enough so as to be ordained.

Apparently, I was a much better boy in third year than I was in second year.

What they didn't realize was that in second year, I was having girlfriend problems.

That was before Jen.

Since then, I haven't had girlfriend problems. But seriously,

there was a whole lot of other stuff, not just that. There's a whole lot of

other stuff going on in my life, and that sort of tended to sort of sway things a bit.

But you see, I don't always act like that when I'm criticized. I really don't.

Sometimes I don't react very well. But when I look back on that,

I think, yeah, that was a properly, a proper reaction.

Not to say, well, a lot of rubbish. You guys who've never met me have formed

conclusions on me. You're judging me wrongly.

Now, I could have gone down that track, or I could have gone down the track

of saying, oh, woe is me, I'm hopeless, I'm worthless, I'm useless.

No, best thing to do was to take the time, a few deep breaths,

think about it, gather people around me who I respected, who I trusted, to say, look,

please tell me the truth about myself.

You see, these episodes can be valuable learning experiences.

In a couple of the churches that I've been involved with,

leading the churches long term, I appointed leadership review groups in each

of those churches of people I trusted and respect and who would speak the truth in love to me.

In other words, they could criticize me, but they weren't judging me.

They weren't presuming to know absolutely everything. Their heart was right.

They were aware of their own faults.

They're not taking it out of me. And at the same time, they affirm me.

And so it's important to have people around you who could do that,

who can admonish you, and yet at the same time, not judge you.

You see, we all have our planks, and we all have our specs.

We all give and receive criticism, and you and I can be torn down or built up by it.

There are times when I've been almost demolished by critics.

There are times when I've come to my senses and woken up because of critics.

You can be a critic, but make sure you're the right sort of critic because,

you see, the wrong sort of criticism can absolutely tear you down.

The right sort of criticism, rightly received, can be a big boost on your road to Christian maturity.

And getting back to Jesus' expressions of the logs and all the planks and the specks,

I think he's really saying that only those whose hearts have been broken by

awareness of their own brokenness,

can presume to mend the brokenness in others. Let's pray.

Well, Father, thank you that your word admonishes and rebukes us.

Thank you that you do that out of love and concern,

thank you that as we saw last week that you who are the only one who has the right to judge us.

Is in fact our saviour so father thank you for showing mercy to us may we likewise,

show mercy to others Amen.