I’m convinced that I am responsible for keeping clickbait companies going. I see an eye-grabbing headline, and I can’t help myself. So it wasn’t surprising one day a few weeks back when I was scrolling my news feed, and I came across an article saying: “America’s Favorite Bible Passage Will Shock You.” Admittedly, I was surprised. I did more research and judging from solid sources, it seems true. John 3:16 used to be the most well-known passage in the United States, but do you know which verse is today? Matthew 7:1: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Can you guess why? Because our culture has become borderline neurotic when it comes to judgment. We obsess over it. Now, you might be thinking: I’m not judgmental! I’m not like the cancel culture warriors, or the annoying social media “always offended” profiles! But guess what…we are wired to judge! It’s inherently human to judge. Don’t believe me? Check out these stats.
According to a recent Ipsos survey, 90% of American parents feel judged by others and 90% of non-parents admit to judging parents for how they raise their children. Another recent study found that 67% of Americans admit to judging fellow shoppers for what’s in their carts. And get this, already by age 3 according to the American Psychological Association people will make decisions about a person’s character traits, such as trustworthiness, dominance, and competence by looking at their facial features. It’s human to judge. But why is that so?
Because God made us so. Being able to make judgments is critical to experiencing life. The problem we have isn’t that we judge. It’s the standard by which we judge. This is especially true in our instant gratification culture when we have been conditioned to make quick and efficient judgments. Carl Jung was right when he said, “Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.” Judging is easy and doesn’t require much thinking or reasoning. Our brains are wired to make automatic judgments about others’ behaviors so that we can move through the world without spending much time or energy understanding everything we see. But understanding is harder as it requires deep thinking, patience, compassion, and a curious mind. Seeking to understand can always be irritating because often the more we consider someone else’s flaws, we find the same flaws in ourselves. This doesn’t shock us, because as the Bible says, we all have that intense problem of sin. I read a Times of India article where the author wrote, “The world around us is our mirror, and judging someone does not define who they are—it defines who we are. More often than not, the things we detest and judge in others are a reflection of the things we cannot accept about ourselves. The yardstick we use for ourselves is the yardstick we use for the world. The way you measure yourself is how you measure others, and how you assume others measure you.” Does that sound familiar? Because there was someone else 2000 years ago who said the same thing!
Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Yet, what Jesus is proposing is terrifying to us, and why is that? Why are we utterly terrified of judgment?
First, isn’t Jesus so amazingly smart? It’s almost like he has infinite wisdom and knows us better than we know ourselves?! Oh wait, he’s GOD! So many psychologists have written hundreds of pages on the phenomenon of judgment and Jesus can sum it up in one paragraph. Even more to the point, Jesus in a single word describes why we fear judgment so much. The phrase “will be judged” in 7:1 is a single verb in Greek in the aorist tense. This tells us that Jesus isn’t talking about being continually judged by others. He’s referring to the single most consequential judgment we will all face: God’s judgment. We fear being judged by God. We know to him sin is sin, and all of that is condemning so how do we in our sin address our fear of judgment? We shift the standard. If God’s standard is perfection, well that’s impossible, so we shift to comparing ourselves to others, right? We shift it because we know what we deserve, the dreaded place and condition of hell, one of the most taboo topics in our culture because of how terrifying it is to consider. But this shifting creates both inaccurate judgments of ourselves and others and causes damage.
It’s bad enough to judge others based on our standards and not God’s, but it’s even worse that we can cause damage to others as we do so. That’s where I love Jesus’ humor here. Jesus is painting the picture of a plank sticking out of a person’s eye, now if you swing your head around with a plank in your eye, you’ll drill someone, not to mention how painful it is to yourself to have that in your eye! And why do we do it? Because there’s sawdust of the same material in our eye in our neighbor’s eye? Did you notice that? Same material, different sizes in our perception. So Jesus is not saying one sin is smaller than another. He’s saying the same sin is in both people but we tend to minimize our personal sin (which is a distortion) while magnifying it in another.
I was talking with my eye doctor at my last appointment and asked her why she chose that career path and she said, “I wanted to help people see the world as it truly is.” If we want to see people as they truly are and love them we first need to remove our planks of sin. We will not be able to help that other person in their sin, when they can see the same sin in you, clear as day. This causes mistrust, more hurt piled on, healing postponed, and connections severed. Our problem is not that we judge (we are wired to do so). The problem is HOW we judge. So where do we start to grasp what judgment is all about? There’s only one place to go.
We go to the cross. A few church members have said to me, “Pastor, I don’t like seeing Jesus on the cross. It’s so depressing. It’s all about how Jesus suffered hell for me. It’s hard not to feel condemned.” It’s understandable to feel that way. It’s hard to stare at our greatest fear: God’s judgment. But without the cross, without that judgment, we would never know true acceptance, the only real judgment-free zone, it can only come when we’ve been washed in Jesus’ blood of sacrifice, the terror of standing exposed before God with all your nightmare sins laid before him, but then Jesus pulling you behind him and saying, “Your punishment is now mine. By my wounds, you are healed.” And it’s at the cross as Jesus was judged for you and me, that we see what is tied to the hip of judgment that much of our culture misses: Healing.
Without the cross, we could never heal. If God didn’t exact his perfect justice on Jesus, we would never know forgiveness. That’s the biggest problem with the “live and let live” philosophy encircling us. If we allow people and ourselves to walk in our misguided self-perception, we will never know love, healing, and lasting truth. This is why the cross is so precious. Because it’s only when you and I fully grasp the judgment our sins deserve, that we experience the joy of the gospel all the more! We can’t appreciate the gospel without recognizing our need for it. When we consider the planks Jesus removed from us as he was nailed to planks of wood, with the splinters of the wood and the crown of thorns bearing down, we find healing for all the sins we struggle to forgive ourselves for. To dare consider that the God of all would take all of it on himself, to take the only judgment that matters, God’s, one that is not relative but absolute, and to live in joy because we no longer fear God’s punishment but we see life through the clarity of his grace!
When we examine ourselves at the cross, seeing every one of our sins nailed there and there to stay, we can’t help but long to do what Jesus has called us to do, even as many around us may not appreciate it: Judge. To judge within a grace-filled conversation filled with confession and words of forgiveness. Why? So others too can be healed. James put it this way, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” You need to see your neighbor’s fault clearly. It’s not being a hater, but it’s loving the person and loving God’s Word. Think about it. How many people in your life have you been content to keep at an arm’s distance because of some way they wronged you? Imagine going in with a “judging to heal” mentality? Think of the ones you love that you wronged but your pride has held you back from confessing your sin and you’ve missed out on sharing God’s grace in such a personal way. Imagine the impact it would have on our culture if our church community embraced this absolute truth of God’s judgment standard! To be willing to enter the awkward, confessing sins to each other, and giving one another the gift of forgiveness? Author Dan Suelzle writes: “Such is the rhythm of life within the body of Christ. We love one another by not settling to let our brothers and sisters stray off into sin. We love one another by judging sin, calling it what it is rather than ignoring it. We judge sin, not so that we can condemn, but rather so that the gospel can be proclaimed all the more wonderfully—so that all of us can repent and rejoice even more in God’s judgment upon us in Christ: forgiven.”
I heard a true story once of a pastor who confronted a member who had decided to divorce his wife only to start living together with a woman he had been having an affair with. The pastor approached him acknowledging he too was a sinner saved by grace just like him, and because he cared about him, he was compelled to confront him over this sin. The man told him off and said he was done being a part of the church. Years passed, and the pastor continued to write letters saying he was praying for him and that the Lord would change his heart. Two decades later, the man lay dying of cancer, and he insisted to the nurse that he needed to talk with his pastor. As the pastor entered the room, the man with tears looked at him and said, “I’m sorry. I feel awful about what I did to my ex-wife, but even more about how I have acted toward God. I’m guessing there’s no hope for me is there?” And the pastor with a smile, this moment he had prayed for said, “Jesus has forgiven your sin. You’re at peace with God.” The man died a few days later, forgiven and brought home to heaven. Can you see why judging according to God’s design is not only healing? It’s life-saving? Amen.
