Overview
“Judge not that ye be not judged” is a call to stop hunting for other people’s faults and to love them instead. In this teaching from Matthew 7, Rev. Jerry Weller walks through a chain of short parables: the mote and the beam, which exposes the hypocrisy of fault finding; pearls before swine, which asks how far you should go with the word; and A-S-K — ask, seek, knock — which is how you get guidance about people you are unsure of. All of it lands on the golden rule of Matthew 7:12 and the two great commandments of Matthew 22: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Transcript
Wisdom in the Parables of Jesus Christ
Well, thank you very much for the privilege to teach and to be with all y’all this morning. One thing I’d like to consider this morning is wisdom in the parables. I’ve been working on those or studying them for several years now, and they provide no end of satisfaction and enlightenment as you consider the things that Jesus Christ said to his disciples.
These parables, they meant something to the individuals in that day and time, so it had value as he addressed the different crowds and confronted Pharisees or encouraged disciples or astounded people at times. But for us today, as his disciples following in his way, they provide a multitude of great thought-provoking time in the word. So I’d like to look at a series of parables that come to a scintillating point of conclusion, and it’s interesting that this is something that I’ve heard throughout my whole life, and many people said it and quoted parts of it.
And then to see where it comes from in the word, just really blessed me to see that. So we’re going to start out in Matthew chapter seven, and we’re just going to start out in verse one, and we’re going to go through a few of these different parables here. Some of them are short in length, maybe even only a verse, but the amount of thought that they provoke when you meditate on them, it’s really astounding.
Matthew 7:1 – What “Judge Not That Ye Be Not Judged” Meant
So we’ll start out in chapter seven, Matthew chapter seven, and in verse one, judge not that ye be not judged. Bullinger adds that that was a Jewish proverb of the day, judge not that ye be not judged. Verse two, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Well, here’s a encouragement to not be judgmental of people. And then he goes forth with several parables that help illustrate this for us.
The Mote and the Beam: A Speck You Can Already Feel
Verse three, why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye? But considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye. Now a mote is a speck, or a splinter, or like chaff of a piece of wheat, or have you ever been like sitting in a sunlit room, and there’s a beam of light coming through, and you can see the little particles floating through the air? It’s those little teensy particles that float through the air. And as I thought about that and considered it, if you have a speck in your eye, are you oblivious to that fact? No, no, you know, and you got a little speck in your own eye, don’t you? You do, you’re aware of the fact that you guys, and it’s uncomfortable.
And you go to the mirror, or you might pull your eyelash out and pull it over top of your whatever you do to get that thing out of your eye. But then it talks about having a beam in the other person’s eye. Now a beam is obviously a massive piece of timber.
Some of you that work in construction can relate to that. They’ve got steel beams, and sometimes you see big flatbed trucks hauling beams down the road, whether it’s a concrete beam for a bridge in Buckman, or it’s a large steel beam for some kind of building, or structure, or even a wood beam in an old barn. Now what’s interesting is a speck will fit in your eye, but a beam will not fit in your cranial vault, let alone your eye, right? So how much visual imagery would Jesus Christ have been drawing into the situation? There might even have been a beam laying there that he could have pointed to, you know, you got a speck in your eye, this guy’s got a speck in his eye, and you got this giant beam in your eye, and you’re worried about this other guy, right? Verse 3, or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold the beam is in thine own eye.
How Can a Blind Man Pull a Speck Out of Someone Else’s Eye?
Now think about that. If you have a beam in your eye, can you see? No. How is a blind person going to pull a speck out of someone else’s eye? See how thought-provoking it is? In the imagery, you know, you’re like, wow, you know, this is pretty cool.
Then he brings it even more into perspective, so you can understand more. He says, thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. Now what he’s addressing here is people that are into fault finding.
It’s not like the person that has a fault doesn’t know that they have a fault, right? If you’ve got a speck in your eye, you know it. If a person has a fault in their life, they know it, you know, and then you’ve got someone else that’s over there that’s being judgmental of them. The speck is an uncomfortable nuisance, but the beam is blinding, you know, and oftentimes I’ve wished that people that could see themselves as others see them.
Then I thought, I wonder what I would think about myself if I could see myself from the outside. Would I like me? Would I like the behaviors that I manifest or the words that I speak? So it’s interesting, sometimes people are oblivious to the fact that maybe that what they’re doing is irritating to others, or they may have other things going on, and that’s why Jesus Christ is addressing it as a hypocritical issue. They’ve got these things that are huge in their own life that they’re not addressing, yet they want to go find someone else and pick a speck out of their eye.
Fault Finding, Hypocrisy, and Judging the Action Not the Person
The hypocrisy being confronted here is criticism of others’ faults that they are egregiously large in their own lives. It’s like a wasp complaining about the sting of others. Doesn’t make any sense, right? Because the Lord is talking about hypocrisy, the fault finder has the same fault that he dislikes.
Somehow the fault finder has freedom from the offending fault from those they are judging. They should clean up their own backyard before they start complaining about their neighbor’s backyard, right? Also, consider this, if it is your job to judge another person’s actions, we should do exactly that. Judge only the action, separate the sin from the person, and treat them with love and respect, not with hypocrisy.
Matthew 7:6 – Pearls Before Swine and the Structure of the Verse
Let’s move on to verse 6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Now, looking at Bullinger’s, he’s really into structure, and I thought it was interesting how he draws your attention to the structure in there. Dogs, hogs, hogs, dogs. Dogs, swine, swine, dogs. So that’s how this verse goes at an angle of attention. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.
Now, you got to think about the audience in which Jesus Christ is addressing, and they would have been very familiar with what we consider the Old Testament, the Pentateuch and the scrolls and the prophets, the law and the prophets, all that. And in Leviticus, it talks about the holy things, and how those holy things are to be dealt with. And you don’t give holy things to an unclean person.
If someone is unclean, then they’ve got some things that they need to address. And then by sunset, when sunset occurs, it’s a new day, and then they can move on if they’ve done the proper cleansing. Or it also talks about not giving that which is unclean to people that are outside of the nations of Israel.
What an Eastern Dog Was, and What “Rend” Means
Leviticus lays those things out beautifully. So when he’s talking about unclean things and dogs and swine, we have to consider dogs and swine in that culture. One, an eastern dog is not like our domesticated dogs that we enjoy here.
I love my dogs, and I work diligently to train them daily. But we’re talking about wild dogs that only keep company with themselves. And they are not friendly.
They are not conducive to society, and they’re looked down upon in that eastern culture. They were very vicious animals. And where it talks about where they turn again and rend you, that particular part of it, where it goes to that structure, dogs, swine, swine, dogs.
At the end of the verse, it talks about how they turn again and rend you. Rend means to tear to pieces, to shred, to viciously or violently tear apart. So it isn’t just the casual thing of like a dog biting the hand that feeds it, because in a domestic animal, that can be trained out of them to not have food hoarding or food aggression or whatever that behavior is, food guarding.
We’re talking about a beast that only travels with other beasts of the same thought and are only concerned about themselves and their own survival. And then swine, as you know that swine are not things that eastern people would keep in their house. They didn’t eat them. They didn’t fool with them at all. They didn’t want anything to do with them. It was considered unclean.
Why Dogs and Swine Pictured the Spiritually Unclean
So when you consider the Old Testament and areas of the Psalms and Proverbs, dogs and swine are associated with that which is unholy and unclean. Therefore, you can easily see the connection between being spiritually contaminated. We do not give things that are holy, the gospel and our great treasures of the word to the spiritually unclean that cannot be redeemed or changed.
So it’s interesting to think about that. He’s saying be careful about what you do. Those pearls that are cast before swine, just think about if a swine or a hog had a whole trough full of pearls. I mean, in some places, that’s a great treasure. And in the east, pearls were very costly, and they were a great treasure if someone were to have one or to find one. To have a whole trough full, wow.
But to a hog that’s going there to expect grain and finds pearls, how indignant or how irritated or aggravated would that thing be to come upon that trough full of things that it doesn’t consider valuable at all. So consider what you say when you’re dealing with those that are unclean. So thinking about that, remember now how did we start this dialogue, this section of teaching with these parables that he said? We started with a Jewish proverb, right? Judge not that ye be not judged.
If We Are Not to Judge, How Do We Know Who to Talk To?
So that doesn’t mean that you have to wonder, is this person a swine or a dog or whatever, and you’re judging in your mind because of perhaps how they look or how they act or something that they say. So if we’re not supposed to be judgmental and we’re not trying to be a mote hunter in somebody’s life where we’re seeking out something that we can tell them about, how do you know who to talk to? How do you know how far you can go with the word that you’re going to share with someone if it’s not going to irritate them or they’re going to turn around and use what you said to tear you apart in the mind? That word rend also means an act of violence of thoughts where someone utilizes thoughts against you to tear you apart. So how do you know? How do you know who to talk to? Jesus Christ, he might be there to teach his disciples.
What about us in our day and time? Well, the Lord continues on with his teaching to show them how to get their need met. Let’s continue on with verse seven. That first word is huge.
A-S-K in Matthew 7:7 – Ask, Seek, Knock
Ask. I want you to consider that. You might even write that on your paper as A period, S period, K period. Ask. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Now, let’s just think about a little illustration. Say you have a child and he wants a cookie, right? So he sees his mom in a room and says, Mom, can I have a cookie? Sure, they’re in the jar. You can have one. So he asks. So what if his mother isn’t in the room? Then what he’ll do is he’ll seek for what he misses. He misses his mom. So he’ll go find his mom. He’ll seek for her and then ask her, Mom, have a cookie? Sure, baby, they’re in the jar.
Then what if he seeks for it and he doesn’t find her, but there’s a door. Maybe he goes to her bedroom and the door is closed and it says he’ll knock. So he knocks because he’s shut out and then he’ll go in. It says, and it will be open unto you.
Now it’s interesting in the East, if someone knocked, somebody did not just open the door. They would communicate through the door and then after this acknowledgement, they may open the door, but this just says knock and it opens. That’s something that didn’t happen in the East, but Jesus Christ is teaching them about getting their need met by asking God. Ask, seek, knock, and it’s open unto you. And that verse seven starts out with ask.
When the Door You Knock On Does Not Open
Remember I said that? That acronym will help you remember this verse. A-S-K, ask, seek, knock. We ask God, we seek him out, and if we don’t have it, we don’t understand what’s going on, we can knock. We can say, God, I seem to be shut out of this situation. Can you open it up? Can you help me understand? Sometimes our prayers are answered right away. He may reveal it to us in one way or another where we can understand.
Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes doors that we knock on don’t open because they don’t need to. We don’t need to know whatever it is when we can move on and with the particular situation.
So if we’re dealing with people and we’re working the situation, whether we should hold forth the truth to them, or we should share a certain point with them, or bring up something, some kind of information with them, and we don’t know, God, how should I do this? And if it’s clear, great, it’s clear. And if it’s not clear, then maybe we don’t say anything. Like Jesus Christ prayed three times that the cup was taken away from him and there was no answer given to him. That we know of, it’s not recorded. So it couldn’t change. Maybe the situation you’re in doesn’t change and that’s enough information for you to know to just move on.
Spiritual Things Need Spiritual Solutions
Because life isn’t just physical. And when we’re dealing with spiritual things, we need spiritual solutions. And Jesus Christ knew that he wouldn’t always be there with his disciples and he taught them to ask.
Ask God. Ask, seek, and knock so that they could get the answers. They ask for what they wish. They seek for what they miss. And they knock when they’re shut. God always gives people what we need in answering our prayers or blessing us and providing for us that more of abundant life.
Matthew 7:9-11 – A Father Gives Bread, Not a Stone
Verse 8, for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. He’s telling them, ask, seek, knock. If you do those things, God will provide. He loves us. We’re his children. He delights in taking care of us and he further illustrates this in verse 9. Or what man is there of you whom of a son asketh bread will give him a stone. Or if he ask a fish will give him a serpent. If ye then being evil or having the potential know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that do what? Ask. They ask of him.
Jesus Christ is teaching and encouraging and directing people to ask God. Lock into your father. Look, you’re in this world and you’re living your life and I want you to not be judgmental. And if there’s things in your own life, take care of it, but don’t be critical of others. Don’t be a mote hunter where you’re out there seeking around and you got these own issues in your life and you’re not taking care of them, but you’re worried about your brother. Well, it’s okay to be concerned about your brother, but take care of your own business and if the door opens for you to help your brother, ask God to help you and you can walk through there.
Well, what if you encounter somebody that’s against all of that stuff? Sometimes against the word. It’s in a point in their life where they will not receive the word at all. No matter how much you pray and beg and everything else, you can’t override that person’s free will, but you know, what do you do? Should I talk to this guy or not talk to this guy? Well, ask God, seek him out and whatever you’re asking for, God is going to provide a good thing.
Matthew 7:12 – The Golden Rule Is the Law and the Prophets
He’s not going to trick you into going the wrong route and all this, these several parables hit a zenith truth. They hit something that parents all over the world, I don’t know whether Christians or non-Christians acknowledge it or not or whatever, but something that, you know, that almost every mother teaches their children and what’s, you guys have probably heard of the golden rule, right? How many of you heard, you know, your mom telling you, you know, follow the golden rule, which is what, you know, treat others how you want to be treated or do unto others, you know, as you would have them do unto you or however they phrase it. The encouragement is to treat other people how you want to be treated.
Let’s read that. Verse 12. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men would do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. That’s huge. I love that. One other time I thought about this as I read this and mulled it over my mind.
What other time does Jesus Christ encourage this or explain it like this, the law and the prophets? Well, let’s take a look at Matthew 22, Matthew chapter 22. For this is the law and the prophets. So how does a person sum up all of the law and the prophets? How can we simply apply this vast charge? How could they possibly do it? So chapter 22 and we’ll read in verse 36 through 40.
Matthew 22:36-40 – Love God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto them, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
All the law and the prophets can be summed up with these two things. Love God with all that you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have doing to them. Or you know what I’m saying.
Love People Instead of Hunting for Their Faults
It’s huge. It boils down to loving people. When you’re loving someone, you’re not judgmental of them. You’re not. You just love them. And if they’ve got a mote in their eye, you can be empathetic with that.
How many of you have a speck in your own eye or have had one? And if the door opens to help them, then treat them and love them the way you would want to be treated and loved. Help others the way you would want to be helped. Because when I have a fault in my life, I don’t necessarily want the world coming down on me about that.
It’s always easier when maybe they start with a compliment or, you know, they sugarcoat it a little bit, but then they tell you the truth that helps you get where you want to go. At the same time, we can do the same thing for others. We can look at them with love and respect and not being judgmental of them and desire to be the best witness or spokesman for God that we can.
And we can live with the golden rule with people. We’re not judgmental. We’re not mote hunters. And we’re aware of spiritual issues in people’s lives. We ask, ask, seek, and knock. And we ask God for help and guidance. And ultimately, we love others like we want to be loved. God bless you.
Key Takeaways
- “Judge not that ye be not judged” was a Jewish proverb of the day, and Jesus Christ follows it with parables that illustrate why fault finding fails.
- A mote is a speck you already know is there; a beam is a timber that blinds you. The hypocrisy is criticizing a fault in someone else that is far larger in your own life.
- If it is your job to judge another person’s actions, judge only the action — separate the sin from the person, and treat them with love and respect.
- Dogs and swine pictured the unclean in that eastern culture, and “rend” means to violently tear apart — including tearing someone apart with thoughts and words.
- A-S-K is the way to know who to talk to and how far to go: ask for what you wish, seek for what you miss, knock when you are shut out. Sometimes a door does not open because it does not need to.
- The golden rule of Matthew 7:12 and the two commandments of Matthew 22:36-40 sum up the law and the prophets: love God, love your neighbor, and treat others the way you want to be treated.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the mote and the beam in Matthew 7 mean?
A mote is a speck, a splinter, or a piece of chaff — small, uncomfortable, and something you already know is in your eye. A beam is a massive piece of timber that would not fit in your eye at all; it blinds you. Jesus Christ calls the fault finder a hypocrite because he is picking at a small fault in his brother while carrying an egregiously larger one himself, and a blind man cannot pull a speck out of anyone’s eye.
Does “judge not” mean Christians should never judge anything?
No. The teaching draws a line between being judgmental of a person and evaluating an action. If it is your job to judge another person’s actions, you should do exactly that — but judge only the action, separate the sin from the person, and treat them with love and respect rather than hypocrisy. What is condemned is fault finding: being a mote hunter who seeks out something in somebody else’s life to tell them about while ignoring his own.
What does A-S-K mean in Matthew 7:7?
A-S-K is an acronym for ask, seek, knock — the three words that open Matthew 7:7. You ask for what you wish, you seek for what you miss, and you knock when you are shut out. It is how the disciples were taught to get their need met from God, including guidance on whether to share the word with someone. Sometimes the answer comes right away; sometimes a door does not open because it does not need to.
Scripture References
Matthew 7:1; Matthew 7:2; Matthew 7:3; Matthew 7:4; Matthew 7:5; Matthew 7:6; Matthew 7:7; Matthew 7:8; Matthew 7:9; Matthew 7:10; Matthew 7:11; Matthew 7:12; Matthew 22:36-40
