Biblical Word Studies Class 7:
Here Come 'da Judge

C. Michael Holloway
1 November 1998

1. Opening and prayer.
2. Review of what we've done so far.
1. The basic goal of the class is to increase our understanding of the meaning of certain words used in the Bible. We're doing this by concentrating on determining the meaning of certain English words as they appear in the New American Standard translation.
2. The word heart has several different meanings in the Bible, but that it most often expresses the totality of a person's nature and character and includes all 3 of the traditional personality functions of man: the affections, the intellect, and the volition.
3. The words knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are intimately related, but not quite synonymous.
4. The Bible speaks of a difference in types of knowledge, but the commonly used phrases 'head knowledge' and 'heart knowledge' are not particularly good ones to describe the distinction that the Bible makes. Better phrases would be 'propositional acquaintance' and 'knowledge'.
5. Gossip and slander are at the root different manifestations of the same sin, namely, saying something about someone that you ought not say.
6. Humility is 'esteeming oneself as altogether contemptible and odious in oneself; attended with a mortification of the disposition to exalt oneself, a free renunciation of one's own glory, and an exaltation of Christ above all'. It is intimately intertwined with all the other attributes of holiness; it cannot be pursued in isolation. You cannot be humble, and not be righteous. You cannot be righteous, and not be humble.
3. The subject of today's class is the word judge. As I said the last time we met, we'll be concentrating on the use of the word as a verb, not as a noun (actually, what I said the last time we met was that we'd concentrate on its use as an adjective, but what I meant was as a verb). We'll need two weeks to cover this word.
4. Let me give you a few facts about our word.
1. The word judge and its variants (not including judgment) appear 292 times in 256 verses in the NASB.
1. 189 of those times and 170 of the verses are in the Old Testament.
2. 103 times and 86 verses are in the New Testament.
2. The most common Hebrew word translated as judge is shapat. This word refers primarily to the exercises of government. It's meaning is more expansive than what we tend to give to governmental judging today, because the functions of O.T. governments weren't divided as cleanly into executive, legislative, and judicial branches as our own governments usually are.
3. Although I didn't do a count, I believe that judge is used in the O.T. primarily as a noun.
4. In the New Testament, judge is used as a verb 81 times in 69 verses. The Greek word underlying nearly all of these occurrences is krino. Its basic meaning is to separate, choose, select, or determine. Like the English word judge, it has many different shades of meaning.
5. The following definition from the 1913 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary captures many of these shades of meaning: "To compare facts or ideas, and perceive their relations and attributes, and thus distinguish truth from falsehood; to determine; to discern; to distinguish; to form an opinion about."
5. Your homework for this week was to explain what is prohibited by Jesus in His statement, "Do not judge lest you be judged." Let's turn to the passage in Matthew from which this statement was taken: Matthew 7:1-6
1. Matthew 7:1-6 -- "Do not judge lest you be judged. {2} For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. {3} And 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? {4} 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? {5} 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. {6} Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
2. Arthur Pink writes the following about the first verse in this passage: "There are few verses quoted more frequently than the opening one of Matthew 7, and few less understood by those who are so ready to cite it and hurl it at the heads of those whom they ignorantly or maliciously suppose are contravening it. Let the servant of God denounce a man who is promulgating serious error, and there are those--boasting of their broadmindedness--who will say to him, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' Let the saint faithfully rebuke an offender for some sin, and he is likely to have the same text quoted against him."
3. As Pink notes, there are some who interpret Jesus' words as forbidding any assessment of the rightness of another's actions.
1. Such folks consider anyone who claims to have faith in Jesus to be a true Christian, no matter how that person might act.
2. They refuse to point on sins in others, and wouldn't think of exercising church discipline on someone.
3. They grant forgiveness to anyone who says, "I'm sorry," without expecting to see signs of repentance.
4. And they do these and similar things believing that they are following Jesus' admonition in Matthew 7.
4. On the other end of the spectrum, however, are people who interpret Jesus' words as being basically without meaning.
1. They are ready to label as unregenerate anyone who does not meet their expectations of how a Christian should behave.
2. They are quick to point out what they believe are sins in others, no matter how minor those sins may be.
3. They are reluctant to grant forgiveness, no matter how repentant someone may be.
5. Pink comments on the widely varying interpretations that have been given to this passage throughout the ages: "This should at once warn us against coming to any hasty conclusion as to the meaning of Matthew 7:1, and guard us against being misled by the mere sound of its words. Yea, it should drive us to our knees, begging God graciously to subdue the prejudices of our hearts and enlighten our minds, and then diligently search the Scriptures for other passages which throw light upon the one now before us. Not only is it very necessary for our own personal good that we spare no pains in endeavouring to arrive at a right understanding of these verses, for it is to our own loss that we misapprehend any portion of Holy Writ, as it will be to our own condemnation if we transgress this Divine commandment, but unless its meaning be opened unto us we shall be at a loss to repel those who would bring us into bondage by the corrupt use they make of it."
6. So, how do we go about figuring out what this passage means?
1. First, we have to examine the immediate context: what comes before and what comes after.
2. Second, we have to examine the intermediate context: earlier and later chapters, for example.
3. Third, we have to examine the full context: look through the rest of Scripture for all other passages that deal with the subject of judging others.
4. This third step is the one most often skipped, but one that is essential.
1. God has often chosen in the Scripture to present a command in one place in a very concise, and seemingly absolute sense, and then give the exceptions and modifications to the command in other places. Give me some examples of this.
1. Jesus' teaching on divorce and remarriage, which cites only adultery as legitimate grounds; expanded by Paul to include the departure of a non-believing spouse.
• Matthew 5:32 ... I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• 1 Corinthians 7:15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.
2. The fourth commandment, which forbids any work on the Sabbath; other passages which allow acts of necessity and mercy on the Sabbath.
• Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. {9} Six days you shall labor and do all your work, {10} but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
• Luke 6:6-10 And it came about on another Sabbath, that He entered the synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. {7} And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him closely, to see if He healed on the Sabbath, in order that they might find reason to accuse Him. {8} But He knew what they were thinking, and He said to the man with the withered hand, "Rise and come forward!" And he rose and came forward. {9} And Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm, to save a life, or to destroy it?" {10} And after looking around at them all, He said to him, "Stretch out your hand!" And he did so; and his hand was restored.
2. Many of the errors that have plagued the church throughout the ages have originated in people taking particular commands out of context, and turning, for example, general principles into ironclad rules that have no exceptions.
3. This extends beyond commands to even Biblical statements. Perhaps, humanly speaking, the saddest example of this was Martin Luther's insistence that Jesus saying of the bread, "this is my body," meant that his physical presence is in the Lord's Supper elements.
4. We within the conservative reformed community can be especially prone to these sorts of errors. Because we recognize that God's Word is true--that absolutes do exist--sometimes we are a tad too hasty to assert absolutes. Rather than admitting that our particular interpretation of some passage is based on, at best, a fairly strong inductive argument, we act as if it were based on a deductive argument, against which no legitimate objections can be made. We assert good and necessary consequence, when the most we have is possible consequence. Eschatology is probably the best example of where this sort of thing goes on frequently, but there are plenty of others, too.
5. All of this means that we need to not jump to conclusions based on isolated passages of Scripture. Knowing what the Scripture means requires searching the Scriptures, not just glancing at them.
7. With all this in mind, let's now look at the immediate context of this passage.
1. What is this passage a part of? ...The Sermon on the Mount.
2. What else does Jesus talk about in earlier parts of this sermon?
1. Character traits of the righteous person
2. How to pray
3. God's care for His people
4. The continuing validity of God's law
5. False interpretations of Scripture
3. In labeling some traditionally taught interpretations of Scripture as wrong, what is Jesus doing? ... He is judging.
4. Now, the fact that Jesus engages in judging in an earlier part of the sermon, does not necessarily mean that He is not absolutely forbidding others to judge in Matthew 7:1. Why?
1. Because Jesus is God, and there are things that He can do that others cannot.
2. For example, Jesus can say, "I and the Father are one". For us to say that would be sinful.
3. This conceivably could be the case with judging, too.
5. However, what does Jesus require people to do in verse 6? ... "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine"
6. Now, unless He is talking about actual dogs and actual pigs, which as far as I know, no one has ever suggested is the case, what does obeying this command require? ... Deciding who the dogs and swine are.
7. What is a single word that describes what you're doing when you decide who the dogs and swine are? ... Judging.
8. So, unless we want to admit to a blatant contradiction that has Jesus saying "you'd better not judge anyone", and "you must judge others" in almost the same breath, we must conclude that Matthew 7:1 cannot be an absolute prohibition against judging others.
6. Of course, while determining what something can not mean is helpful, it is not sufficient. We want to know what the passage does mean. There's still more to learn from the immediate context.
1. Someone read verses 1 through 5 again: "Do not judge lest you be judged. {2} For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. {3} And 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? {4} 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? {5} 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."
2. What effect does the second part of verse 1 have on the meaning of "do not judge" ? ... It seems to me to provide a reason for not judging, namely that if you do it, you too will be judged.
3. In verse two, who is it that is doing the judging of the person who himself judges?
1. It seems to me that it is other people, not God directly.
2. God judges people using His perfect standards, not an individual's own standard.
3. Other people, however, tend to hold a person to the same standards that the person holds them to.
4. Let me give a personal example. At work, I have a reputation of being something of a stickler for correct spelling and grammar in writing. (Not in speaking, 'though, where I'm often quite sloppy in both pronunciation and grammar.) As a result, my own writing receives special scrutiny, even from people who do not give the same scrutiny to the writing of others.
4. Now, what do verses 3-5 say? I'll suggest five things, based primarily on Matthew Henry's commentary.
1. There are degrees in sin. Comparatively, some sins are specks, while others are logs. All sins are grievous, but not all sins are equally grievous. God's law for Israel punished some sins with death, others with minor fines.
2. "Our own sins ought to appear greater to us than the same sins in others: that which charity teaches us to call but a [speck] in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a [log] in our own; for the sins of others must be extenuated, but our own aggravated."
3. "It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a [log] in his eye, and not consider it"
4. "It is common for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and free in judging and censuring others: the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying themselves, were most scornful in condemning others." Two weeks ago we studied humility. I suspect that for many of us, the log that is in our own eye is often the log of pride. We think we see clearly the sins of others, but we can't see the log of pride sticking out of our own eye.
5. "Men's being so severe upon the faults of others, while they are indulgent of their own, is a mark of hypocrisy. ... Whatever such a one may pretend, it is certain that he is no enemy to sin (if he were, he would be an enemy to his own sin), and therefore he is not worthy of praise; nay, it appears that he is an enemy to his brother, and therefore worthy of blame."
7. So far, we've looked in general at the context preceding the verse we're interested in, and in some detail at the context immediately following the verse. Have we looked at enough immediate context? No, we have not. In fact, so far we've missed what I believe is the most important key to understanding what Matthew 7:1 means. We stopped at verse 6, let's continue further ....
1. Matthew 7:7-12 "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. {8} For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. {9} Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? {10} Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? {11} If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! {12} Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
1. Look especially at verse 12: "Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
2. It seems to me that this is the key to understanding what Jesus is forbidding in the first verse in the chapter.
1. Verse 12 sets forth the general abstract principle: treat others the way you want them to treat you.
2. Verse 1 seems to me to be a concrete application of the principle: judge others the way you want them to judge you.
3. What is Jesus forbidding in verse 1? He is forbidding judging others in ways that you do not judge yourself and do not want others to judge you.
2. That this is a correct understanding of the passage is reinforced by looking at some intermediate context, namely Luke's account of similar words by Jesus in Luke 6. Here, the statement of the Golden Rule comes first, and the discussion of judging follows shortly thereafter. See Luke 6:31-42.
3. Now, someone may raise the following objection. "Consider an ultraconservative fundamentalist who believes that even smelling an alcoholic beverage is sin. Such a person would not object to others judging him based on whether he drinks alcoholic beverages. The principle as you state it does not prohibit him from judging others on that basis. But, we know that people shouldn't be judged by that, because God doesn't say that simply drinking alcoholic beverages is sinful. Thus, the principle as you state it can't be correct."
1. On the surface, this seems like a pretty potent objection, but it is not.
2. Perhaps the easiest way to see that it isn't really a potent objection is by an analogy to an equivalent argument that could be raised against the Golden Rule itself. Consider a man who wishes that every woman he sees would attempt to seduce him. Since the Golden Rule says that he should treat others the way he wants to be treated, doesn't this mean that he should attempt to seduce every woman he sees? Of course it doesn't. Why not?
1. Because other parts of Scripture forbid such behavior. Implicit in the Golden Rule is the notion that the way in which you want to be treated must itself be Scriptural.
2. The same sort of notion is implicit in the application of the Golden Rule to judging. The way in which you want to be judged must itself be Scriptural.
4. Someone else may raise this objection. "I don't disagree with what you've said, but you've not really told me very much. You've just stated a fairly abstract principle. I want to know the details. When is it OK to judge another, and when isn't it OK?"
1. This isn't really an objection so much as it is a request for more information.
2. We'll answer this request by looking in more detail at the other Scripture passages that address judging. But that will have to wait until next week.
8. Your homework for next week is the following: List at least 3 forms of judging that the Scripture forbids, and at least 1 form of judging that the Scripture requires.