Matthew 7:1-6 NASB
¹Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ²For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
³Why 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? ⁴Or 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? ⁵You 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.
⁶Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Devotional
The question is what you do in your own life with the commandments of God’s Kingdom.
In this closing chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, too, Jesus determines us within ourselves.
He has set forth the commandments, the precepts of the Kingdom of God.
There is a danger that with these commandments in hand we will judge other people. But what matters is, what you do with it in your life.
You may shake your head at the wickedness of others, but you must remember that you yourself are subject to God’s judgment. Instead of judging them, you’d better worry about yourself first (Matthew 7:1,2; Just as there is a connection between being forgiving and being forgiven yourself (Matt. 6:12,14,15), so is there between judging, and being judged yourself).
Jesus works this out in the image of the mote and the beam (Matthew 7:3-5).
We judge by what is envisioned and quickly have our opinion ready. But we forget that there is a great beam between us and the other. The beam of an ‘evil eye’, without a loving heart beating with it. Judging without love is in our blood!
While you yourself will also have to live on forgiveness.
God wants to give it in Jesus. In it he shows His love for guilty people.
From that forgiving love you start to look at other people differently. Then you will certainly see clearly what is wrong with them, but you will not judge them. After all, you know all too well who you are. In stead of judging them, you will with love try to show them the way to Jesus.
“God’s commandments are holy and precious as pearls.
Therefore you must not throw it to the dogs or to the swine,” Jesus says in Matthew 7:6; Dogs and swine were unclean animals, see Leviticus 11:27,28,7,8.
By this he does not mean that you should not speak to unbelievers about God’s commandments. His point is that He gives you God’s commandments not to throw them away, but to adorn yourself with them. Whoever throws them away will experience the negative consequences of that. The received insights into God’s norms and values are a sacred gift to wear yourself as jewelry.
Question
- Are you perhaps most vehement in judging another where your own weakness is? Check that out.
Prayer Suggestion
- Ask the Lord to help you personally to come to terms with Him.
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