Matthew 7a

7: 1-5.  Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while 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 neighbor’s eye.

Any part of Scripture may be misinterpreted or wrongly applied, but this one takes the cake. Sometimes, the first three words are extracted, and left to stand stark naked as if the phrase was one of the Ten Commandments. It is a favorite quip of gas-lighters when they are criticized for something they have done. “Don’t judge me!” Of course, to use such a club to hit another person over the head is, in fact, to make a judgment.

First, what is Jesus really saying? The Greek phrase is not in the form of a law, it is in the form of a statement about habitual behavior.[1] Perhaps it would be better translated as, ‘Don’t be judgy,” if we had such a word, or better, ‘Don’t be a nag’.  

How else do we know that “Do not judge” cannot stand alone? Soon after, in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets,” a statement that requires a critical judgment (Matthew 7: 15). Later, when Jesus gives instructions to the disciples, he says, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town” (Matthew 10: 14). Such behavior, that is, shaking the dust off your feet at someone, in those days was a sign of judgment. There is little doubt, because Jesus’ next words are, “Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerant for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

Finally, looking outside of this Gospel,[2] Luke records these words of Jesus: “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12: 56-57). Here, Jesus is telling his disciples to judge; so the verse we are dealing with cannot mean what people think it means.  

Then what does it mean? There are guides in the text that keep us from ‘going off the rails’ here. First, we should be careful in evaluating others because whatever standard, that is, ‘measure’, that we use to judge others will be used to judge us. If we want to be hit with niggling zingers, then we can go ahead and use niggling zingers on other people. If we want to have our every move critiqued, then we should critique our spouse’s every move (ouch!).

Second rail; by practicing such petty behavior, we get into the habit of ignoring our own faults, to our detriment. That is why Jesus uses the outrageous analogy of a person pointing out a splinter in someone else’s eye while at the same time being oblivious to board in his own eye. Perhaps this analogy reveals that, to people around us who cringe when we nag, our flaws stand out bright and clear.   

Third rail; only when we have honestly and thoroughly critiqued ourselves are we in a position to offer a friendly critique of the actions of others. Notice that this translation says ‘neighbor’, but the Greek word is more particularly ‘brother’. So, judgment is always a delicate matter that is meant to help a brother or sister, not to show off the acumen of the speaker (see Matthew 18: 15-20).

Finally, indirectly, this text implies we are never in a position to make a final judgment on any person. That issue was addressed previously where the disciples are warned not to make final judgment on people; that is, not to condemn others to hell because that might lead to your own condemnation to hell (Matthew 5: 21-26).

7: 6.  Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

Right after saying, “Do not judge,” Jesus instructs the disciples to discriminate, to be careful of their audience when they teach or preach. This is a form of judgment, for what does Jesus mean by calling people ‘dogs’ or ‘swine’? Well, they are certainly not ‘brothers’ or even ‘neighbors’, as in the last verse.

From a cultural historical perspective, we learn that First Century Jews typically categorized non-believers, that is non-Jews or Gentiles, and then lumped them together with other unclean things like ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’.[3] These two animals were considered to be dirty scavengers, not domestic animals, and certainly not pets.

Jesus addresses this tradition later in the Gospel. When a Gentile woman asks Jesus to exorcize a demon from her daughter, Jesus first answers, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15: 26). It is debatable whether or not Jesus is being playful here. I think that he probably had a twinkle in his eye, given how he deals with the matter.

“She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” (Matthew 15: 27). Ah hah! This is not a dog, this is a person of faith, and a quick wit. Jesus says so. “Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment” (Matthew 15: 28). So, putting what Jesus says here together with our verse for today, one could say that Jesus discerned whether or not it would be prudent to perform an exorcism, which is something holy, in light of his own dictum: “Do not give what is holy to dogs.”  The woman was a person of faith, so Jesus gave her something holy.

For this reason, too, Jesus is often careful about revealing too much too soon about his teachings and healings. Early in his ministry, he frequently warns people that he has healed, “Tell no one” (Matthew 17:9; Mark 7: 36, 9:9; Luke 5: 14, 8: 56). Spread too quickly amongst the wrong people, such news would elicit ridicule and not build faith.

7: 7-11.  Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

This is also a difficult teaching, partly because a superficial hearing implies that whatever you ask God for, God will deliver faster than Amazon! However, if you have lived long enough, you know that that is not true. In addition, your failure to convince God to give you a million dollars or to provide a miracle healing from cancer is not just a matter of you not having enough faith.

I still remember that, a week after my first wife, Linda, died of cancer, a package came in the mail from a high school friend of hers. Inside was a book whose theme was exactly that; if you pray with enough faith, you can get what you seek, but if you don’t have enough faith, then you will fail. I’m glad the book didn’t arrive before she died because it would only have troubled her further and increased her pain, as well as mine.

So, is this a law, like a law of physics? If you push here, will you automatically get a reaction over there? Is it how a hydraulic system works? If you turn a lever here, the spiritual hydraulic fluid will cause a door to open there? Don’t we wish! Unfortunately for our imaginations, but fortunately for the shape of our real lives, nothing we can say or do will give us any control over God. Push that button, pull that lever all you want; you will not force God to do what you want him to do. God is not bound to any magic formula or scientific system. God is always free to do what God thinks is best. Period.

God always hears prayers, and God always answers prayers. Maybe, but the answer is not always what we are hoping for. Here are God’s instructions for the prophet Jeremiah. “As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you” (Jeremiah 7: 16). Here is what God said to the prophet Ezekiel. “Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them” (Ezekiel 8: 18).

What about having enough faith? Here are some instances of Jesus answering prayers and performing miracles even when the petitioners have only a little faith. When there was a storm threating to sink their boat and drown the disciples: “And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a dead calm” (Matthew 8: 26). When Peter began to sink under the sea, and cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus did exactly that, even though he told Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14: 31). When Jesus told the disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, they misunderstood the teaching. Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread?” (Matthew 16: 8). Then, Jesus does not leave them uninformed, but gives them the correct interpretation of what he said, even though they had ‘little faith’.

Finally, when the disciples asked when the “end of the age” would come, Jesus said, “no one knows, … but only the Father” (Matthew 24: 36), indicating that they would not be getting an answer to that question.

So, what are the take-aways from Jesus’ teaching? First, we can trust that God has good judgment in answering prayers; even better than an earthly father who would not give his child a rock if he asked for bread. Second, God is generous in answering prayers; God knows how to give good gifts to his children, even more than earthly parents. Third, God will respond to prayer, and we can be sure that God will discern what is a good gift from what is a bad gift. We can trust God in this; we will not be given something that seems good to us at the time but will boomerang on our lives for evil later.     

7: 12.  In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Like the excellent teacher that he is, Jesus sums up his teachings in a pithy yet compelling saying that sounds like one of the Proverbs. First, notice that Jesus directs the disciples’ gaze away from themselves. Central to Jesus’ teachings is placing the concerns of others above our tendency to be self-centered and greedy. So, Jesus’ summary begins with “Do unto others.”

Jesus was not the first, nor the last, to take this approach. The famous Rabbi Hillel, who died when Jesus was about 10, was born in Babylon but taught in Jerusalem. We would recognize his great grandson, Gamaliel, who taught Saul before he was Paul (Acts 22: 23). He is remembered for this statement: "That which is hateful to you, do not do unto your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."

Kong-fuzi ‘Master Kong’, or Confucius (550-480 B.C.) is a well-known Chinese sage. His famous statement was: "Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself."

Notice that Jesus says that this precept represents both the Law (the Torah, firsts five books) and the Prophets. That means that the criticisms and interpretations of the prophets about godly behavior are also reflected in this saying. In effect, this sums up all the Word of God that existed at the time. It stands true, along with Jesus’ answer to the question about which commandment was the greatest; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 36: 37).

Think on these things.

[1] R. G. V. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, (1961), p. 79. “…(mé followed by the present imperative), makes it clear that it is the habit of censorious and carping criticism that Jesus is condemning, and not the exercise of the critical facility, by which men are able and expected on specific occasions to make value-judgments….”

[2] A careful approach to Bible Study looks elsewhere in the book, the Gospel of Matthew in this case, then to other books in the categories, the gospels in this case, then to the Testament, then to the whole Bible.

[3] The Germans do the same. An epithet thrown at others is schweinhund or ‘pig-dog’.