A TIME NOT TO JUDGE

Because Jesus said in Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge...”, many disciples might at first oppose and not approve of this lesson title, Judge Wicked Members When You Gather. But below, I want you to understand what Jesus meant when he made the statement to not judge. Carefully consider the way in which certain religious people show an extreme lack of ability to properly judge others, and therefore, are not qualified to judge, teach, or correct others.

(A) The Problem in Judging is with Certain Imbalanced Religious People

Jesus said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is 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.” (Mt 7:1-5)

QUESTION: Who should not judge?
ANSWER: The person with the log in his eye.

After Jesus said, “Do not judge...”, He then explained the specific reason why He said this. There is a problem with certain people’s standards of measure that leads them to become hypocritical in their judging of others. [Luke 6:37, 38 also records the measurement problem some have in judging others.] So Jesus gave us an example to clearly see this problem of incorrectly measuring others. Compare a log to a speck. Are they similar? What is the difference between the two? Is the difference big or small? Which one is heavier? Which one is lighter? The truth is that there is a very large difference between a log and a piece of sawdust. Jesus used the log and the speck as figure of speech to help us see the different weight of certain sins. The log and the speck represent sin. Logs then are very weighty sins, sins that lead to death (1 Cor 6:9, 10). Specks represent lighter matters or matters of becoming mature in an area of concern. They may not even lead to death (1 Jn 5:16, 17).

The conclusion is this: When Jesus said, “Do not judge,” He meant that the one with the greater sin should not even try to take the specks of sin out of the eyes of others. Who should be judging, teaching, or correcting others on what is right or wrong? Should we let adulterers and adulteresses be our teachers? Should we let those who are in the habit of getting intoxicated be our guides? Should we have greedy men be our leading men? Should we permit a person who is demonstrating rebellion conduct Bible studies with us? Should we let witches, warlocks, magicians, homosexuals, liars, or any other wicked person try to teach what is right to disciples? Does Jesus want these types of people to be teaching His people? Certainly not! If they did try to teach disciples, then they would be what Jesus called them, hypocrites. For this is how Jesus defined who is a hypocrite. Hypocrites are terribly imbalanced. They have a problem assigning proper weights to the things of God. So carefully think about your standard of measurement, of sizing up your brother and what you perceive to be his faults as compared to your own. So consider your own balancing act. Who should judge, correct, and teach others in God’s kingdom? It is evident that only the one without a log in his eye, the spiritual person, not the one with a log in his eye, can be used by God to attempt to take the logs and specks out of the eyes of others (Gal 6:1).

But this study is not primarily about misjudging. It is about properly judging wicked members, the ones with the logs in their eyes.
.... more about this in the Bible Study on Gathering in Spirit & Truth, Part 2