The Sermon and Judgment

The sermon on the Mount and the Plain are all about giving sacrificially, as has been written in past blogs. Even though this seems to dominate the sermons, there are other themes as well, one of which is giving judgment to or forgiving others others.

Luke 6 surrounds the judgment passage with texts saying that whatever you give, you will get back even more. The context of the dishing out judgment passage suggests that if you give out judgment, you will receive a lot more than you dish out. If you give forgiveness, you will receive all the more. So if you see other people with problems, work out your own problem first...then when you get you problems fixed you will be able to help others.

One of the problems about judging others is what I call looking through the log. Jesus said, "Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, `Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye.

So here's the concept. You got a log in your eye so you see it everywhere you look. Do you know people like this? As a pastor I saw it frequently. A lady came to me for counseling who was convinced that her sister, her husband and others she knew were having or had affairs. As we talked the truth came out...she was having an affair.

In the 1970s and 80s Jimmy Swaggart ranted continuously about the evils of pornography while regularly visiting prostitutes and buying adult magazines. He was seeing things through the log he had in his eyes. Ted Haggard spoke regularly against homosexuality while he was taking drugs and hiring homosexual prostitutes. He was seeing things through the log he had in his eyes.

I believe that Jesus was addressing a problem that he saw among the spiritually elite - the religious leaders of his day. But it wasn't only the elite who judged...his own followers were just as easily pulled into the trap of judging others. If not, then he would not have needed to warn his disciples about judging others.