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Living to Glorify God Brings Satisfaction to the Soul

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Christ Admonishes Thoughtless JudgmentMatthew 7:1-6

Jesus warns against judging others and the calling His redeemed people to perfection.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Verses 1-2: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Use your judgment, of course: the verse implies that you will judge in a right sense. But do not indulge the criticizing faculty upon others in a censorious manner, or as if you were set in authority, and had a right to dispense judgment among your fellows. If you impute motives, and pretend to read hearts, others will do the same towards you. A hard and censorious behaviour is sure to provoke reprisals. Those around you will pick up the peek measure you have been using, and measure your corn with it. You do not object to men forming a fair opinion of your character, neither are you forbidden to do the same towards them; but as you would object to their sitting in judgment upon you, do not sit in judgment upon them. This is not the day of judgment, neither are we his Majesty’s judges, and therefore we may not anticipate the time appointed for the final assize, nor usurp the prerogatives of the Judge of all the earth.

Surely, if I know myself aright, I need not send my judgment upon circuit to try other men; for I can give it full occupation in my own Court of Conscience to try the traitors within my own bosom.”  67 Charles Frederick Schaeffer—Verses 3-5: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

A. Mote=any particle of straw, wood, etc., a splinter here representing a defect or fault.—B. Beam=a rafter, a heavy piece of timber supporting the roof. ‘It is an image of a sin that is immeasurably greater than one represented by a mote.’—Luther.—C. Thine own eye. The eye represents the moral and religious character and conduct. The sense is: Thou hast faults of thine own; thou hast a better opportunity to read thine own heart and judge of its iniquity than thou hast to ascertain the state of thy neighbor's heart. Thy own faults should therefore appear to thee far more heinous than those of thy neighbor. His motives, which thou canst not know, may be in reality less censurable than thine own. (Comp. 23:24, B., ‘thy brother’=thy equal in knowledge, etc.).

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye? How wilt=how canst thou presume to say, etc. (Luke 6:42). The sense is: Thou dost contract guilt already by thy neglect of strict self-examination, and by an unwarranted condemnation of another; thy iniquity is still greater when thou dost hypocritically assume the character of a well-meaning friend and adviser, while thy heart is filled with self-righteousness and pride; these vices exclude all knowledge of thyself, and all sincere regard for the welfare of thy brother (see Rom. 2:21-23, ‘Can the blind lead the blind?’ Luke 6:39).

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Thou hypocrite=who pretendest to be wiser and better than another, study the divine law, and ascertain first thy own sinful state. Then only, when the light of truth guides thee, and when thou hast, as an humble believer, found joy and peace (Rom. 15:13), mayest thou, with the wisdom which faith imparts, ‘see clearly’ how to teach transgressors (Ps. 51:12, 13) and to strengthen thy brethren (Luke 22:32; see Rom. 2:17-24).” 68

John Heyl Vincent—Verse 6: “6. Give not—These exhortations to gentleness are followed very appropriately by the command to beware of the other extreme, that is, an indiscriminate pouring out of holy things from want of judgment. He who forbids our judging (which decides man’s culpability) commands us to form an opinion, (which marks only the state.) This latter is absolutely necessary for the child of God, in order to distinguish the false from the true.—Olshausen. The holy, a technical term for the sacrificial meats laid upon the altar of God. Of these meats no unclean man was permitted to eat; how much less a dog; to the Jew the dog was odious and unclean; even to touch him was to become unclean.—S. Cox. Unto the dogs—The dog was never a pet or a favorite among the Jews. They lived, and still live in oriental cities, in packs, half wild, generally without masters or owners, and barely tolerated as scavengers. Both Bible of vileness and uncleanness (Lev. 11.7; Prov. 11.22; Matt. 15.27; Phil. 3.2; Rev. 22.15.) —Abbott. Neither cast ye your pearls—It has been suggested that the figure alludes to the resemblance of pearls with peas and acorns. Certain it is that the swine touch with their snouts every thing resembling food. As this casting of pearls before swine, however foolish, must have had some show of reason, it may, perhaps, represent an attempt of satisfying their cravings, and such, indeed, is the true character of laxity; it prostitutes what is highest and holiest to satisfy the animal and the devilish propensities of man.—Lange. Before swine—Tho other part of the similitude is of a different character, and belongs entirely to the swine, who having cast to them pearls, something like their natural food, whose value is inappreciable by them, in fury trample them with their feet, and, turning against the donor, rend him with their tusks.—Alford. Rend you—Such, then, are the twofold consequences: that which is holy, with all its treasures, is lost in iniquity, and more; while its unfaithful and vile administrators also perish in their sin.—Lange. Apostles and bishops must not commit the office of the ministry to a wicked man. No sacred deposit, or responsibility, or even principle, (symbolized by pearls,) must be imparted to an unfit man. No doctrines or religious experiences must be brought before an incapable sensualist. In fine, in imparting the official trusts and the truths of the Gospel, we must discern men’s moral qualities, and deal with them accordingly.—Whedon. Good men should so study the judicial capability of bad men as to cause them selves not to be misjudged and injured. Adaptation to men, places, and things, requires consummate judgment; the savage might be more pleased with a brass button than with a thousand-pound note. He who would give a telescope to a wild barbarian would be deranging the true relations of things, as would he also who excluded all but the blind from the galleries of art. Men must be met on their own intellectual plane, and judgment must be so far exercised as not to confound fools with philosophers, or to regard the toys of children as the accouterments of warriors.—Parker. This, however, does not imply that we are not to seek.’” 69

Endnotes:

67   Charles H. Spurgeon, The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Popular Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1893), 40-41. 68   Charles F. Schaeffer, Annotations of the Gospel According to St. Matthew, Part I–Matthew I-XV (New York: The Christian Literature Company, 1895), 159-160. 69   J. H. Vincent, The Lesson Commentary on the International Lessons for 1880 (London: Elliot Stock, 1879), 68-69.