1996 SINGLE SERMONS
JUDGE NOT
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
MARCH 17, 1996
MATTHEW 7:1-5
There was a problem at the local church. A baby was born out of wedlock and the mother of the baby was a member of the church and a friend of many. The women of the church were seeking to answer a question—”Should there be a baby shower?” Some women said no. They said gifts should be brought for the baby and even for the mother to show love and to show support, but these gifts should be brought individually and privately. They said a baby shower would amount to an endorsement of promiscuity and illegitimacy. They cautioned that we live in a society where there is already too little sense of what is right or wrong and where there is no sense of shame and where nothing is stigmatized.
Another group of women in the church wanted to go ahead and have the baby shower. They said the mother had already felt humiliated and embarrassed, and they pointed out how difficult it is to be a single mom in this crazy world. They said, “What better way to show our love, what better way to show our support and our hope, than to have a baby shower and to express our hope for this new life born into the world?”
And so there was a debate, and the feelings became heated. They decided to consult the highest of ecclesiastical authority. They wrote to Ann Landers, and they received a response. She said, “By all means, have the baby shower.” She said to go ahead and have the baby shower and she quoted Matthew’s gospel, chapter 7, verse 1, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
Well, I don’t know much about baby showers and certainly the Bible does not deal explicitly with whether or not we should have baby showers for babies born out of wedlock. There’s always going to be differences of opinion about that and a lot of deep feelings, but I know this… I know Matthew, chapter 7, verse 1, has little or nothing to do with baby showers. I know that this verse is one of the most misunderstood verses in the entire Bible. I know that this verse is more often taken out of context than almost any other verse in holy scripture. This verse, Matthew 7, verse 1, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” is our focus this morning. As we focus on this verse, we’re going to seek to answer three questions.
The first question is this: what did Jesus mean when He said, “Judge not”? Now, the Greek word is the word krino. This is the verb form. This word had two meanings. It could mean “to discern”—to discern good from evil, to discern right and wrong, to discern light and darkness. Certainly, this is not the meaning that Christ has here. The teachings of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, the teachings of Christ throughout the gospel, and the teachings of the Old and New Testaments consistently counsel us as the people of God (and in the New Testament as believers in Jesus Christ) to discern good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness. We’re called to discern these things in our own lives and to discern these things even in society. This is not the meaning that Christ had. He didn’t mean “Discern not.”
But there’s another meaning for this word krino, a more primary meaning in the Greek. This meaning is “to condemn.” Jesus meant “Condemn not.” In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, this Greek word krino is used not only to translate the Hebrew word for judgement, the word mishpat, but it is also used to translate the Hebrew word diyn. The Hebrew word diyn was a strong Hebrew word that meant “to vindicate, to punish, to condemn.” Surely that is how Jesus is using the word krino here. He is saying “Vindicate not.” He is saying “Condemn not.”
Now, in John’s gospel, the 8th chapter, the first verse, we’re told how a woman caught in the very act of adultery was brought to our Lord Jesus Christ. She was brought to Christ by the scribes and pharisees, the masters of condemnation. They brought this woman to Christ and they said, “This woman was found in the very act of adultery. In the law we are commanded to stone such people. What do you say?” They meant this as a trap, because if Jesus had said, “Don’t stone her,” He would have been in open violation of the law. And yet if He had said, “Stone her,” He would have fallen out of favor with the people. So the scribes and the pharisees thought, “We have Him either way! We have Him!” And yet you know how Jesus responded? He responded lovingly and brilliantly when He said, “Let the person amongst you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” The Bible tells us that the crowd dispersed, and they departed one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And so there was Jesus with the woman, and Jesus said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Is there no one to condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Do not commit adultery again.”
In this passage we see how Christ discerned but did not condemn. He called sin sin and He even said, “Go and sin no more. Do not commit adultery again,” but He didn’t condemn. He didn’t throw stones and He has given us an example that we should follow in His steps. We understand that Jesus Christ is King of Kings. We understand that He is Lord of Lords. We understand that He has power of condemnation. All authority is given to Him in Heaven and on Earth, and before Him one day everyone must give an account. But, you see, in this passage He has given us an example of what it means to call sin sin and yet not condemn. We don’t throw stones.
Now, of course, Jesus is not speaking governmentally here. I mean, the Bible is clear that earthly governments must deter evil. The Bible is clear that earthly governments must express the wrath of God upon evildoers. and the Bible says, “Earthly governments must not bear the sword in vain.” So Jesus Christ is not speaking governmentally, and He is not really speaking ecclesiastically either. He’s not speaking theologically. Certainly the Bible is clear that the church of Jesus Christ must condemn heresy, must condemn apostasy, and must condemn false teaching in the ranks. The Bible is clear that the church, the Bride of Christ, might be pure. But, you see, Jesus Christ is speaking to us in this passage as individual Christians about how we relate to our neighbors. He is speaking to us as individual Christians and how we relate to friends and to family and to neighbors. Don’t throw stones. Discern, yes. Call sin sin, but don’t condemn. Don’t throw stones.
Of course, we do throw stones. I mean, we throw stones so often. I know that many times I have been guilty of this, and perhaps you have been guilty of this too. You see, we throw stones verbally. Do you ever throw stones verbally? I mean, if you refer to a gay or a lesbian person as a “f**,” you’re not saying “Go and sin no more.” You’re throwing stones. If you refer to a person who is struggling with alcohol abuse as a “no-good drunk,” you’re not saying “Go and sin no more.” You’re throwing stones. If you gossip, you’re throwing stones. If you slander, you’re throwing stones.
The Bible says in the book of James, “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature and set on fire by hell. Every kind of beast and bird, reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue, a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our God and Father and with it we curse men and women who are created in the image and likeness of God. My brothers and sisters, it ought not to be so.” But it is so. It is so. We condemn. We throw stones. And so, we have this warning from our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a commandment from Him. Condemn not. Discern, yes. Call sin sin. But don’t throw stones. Condemn not.
There’s a second question. What are we when we do condemn? How does Christ view us when we do throw stones? How does He view us? This passage of scripture from Matthew 7 tells us that He views us as hypocrites. When we condemn other people, when we throw stones, in His sight we become hypocrites. Now, we need to understand what this means.
This past week Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was suspended by the National Basketball Association because he refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Of course, when he changed his mind and when he agreed to stand, he was reinstated. This past week, unfortunately, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf made many statements (I’m sure some of which he would like to have taken back), and many people became very upset. One of the statements he made concerned the American flag. He said that the American flag, among other things, is a symbol of oppression and tyranny. According to The Denver Post, when he was asked how this nation had oppressed him as a millionaire and as a famous basketball player, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf said that he had been oppressed for his Islamic faith. He was oppressed as a Muslim, he said. He said Islamic people in this nation are being oppressed, and of course that led to many articles in The Denver Post and in the Rocky Mountain News, even in USA Today. Many of these articles rightly pointed out how there are no nations in the world more oppressive than Muslim nations. The articles rightly pointed out how many Islamic nations like Iran or Iraq or Libya or even Saudi Arabia oppress women and Christians and Jewish people. Indeed, in many Muslim nations, people who are of any religious persuasion other than Muslim are oppressed. It’s a very dangerous thing to be non-Muslim in a Muslim nation.
So, some of these articles have described Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s comments as hypocritical. Certainly we can understand why they would say that but, you see, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is not responsible for the oppression that is there in Iran. He is not responsible for the oppression that’s in Iraq or Saudi Arabia or Libya. The Islamic community in America is not responsible for the oppression that exists in Muslim nations. If you want to know what true hypocrisy is, true hypocrisy would be the government of Iran calling America oppressive. True hypocrisy would be the government of Iraq or Saudi Arabia or Libya describing America as oppressive. That would be true hypocrisy because, you see, hypocrisy is judging somebody else for the very thing that you are guilty of.
Jesus said, “Why do you see the speck that’s in your neighbor’s eye, your brother’s or sister’s eye, and not even notice the log that’s in your own eye? How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me get that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye?” He said, “Hypocrites! First take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see clearly to help your brother or sister with the speck that is in their eye.”
You see, we can’t even minister to another human being until we have received ministry ourselves. We can’t even look at the sin of another human being until we have first taken a look at our own sin and never, absolutely ever, are we to condemn. Never are we to throw stones. And in the sight of Christ, whenever we condemn, whenever we throw stones, we really are hypocritical. We’re hypocritical because we ourselves deserve condemnation.
You may have noticed just recently that Hollywood has produced yet another movie centered on the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a story that was first told by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. Robert Louis Stevenson was firmly convinced that, in telling the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was telling the story of every person on planet Earth. Robert Louis Stevenson was firmly convinced that, in telling the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was describing every man and women the world over. He was describing you and he was describing me. I think there’s a sense in which the Bible would affirm that. There’s a little bit of Mr. Hyde in each and every one of us. What the Bible calls the sin nature—the sarx, the flesh—is in each of us. Hopefully it’s not in full bloom in any of us, but it’s there. We all deserve condemnation, and when we condemn others and when we throw stones, it’s hypocrisy. So, what is it when we condemn others? What are we in the sight of God? We’re hypocrites.
Then finally, there is this question: what’s going to happen to us if we bathe in hypocrisy? What’s going to happen to us if we begin to condemn our neighbors and we begin to throw stones? What’s going to happen to us? Jesus tells us there’s going to be eschatological consequences. There’s going to be consequences at the last judgement. At the judgement seat there will be consequences. “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” The Bible says that there will be no mercy for those who have shown no mercy.
You know, the Bible tells us in Matthew, chapter 18, starting with the 23rd verse, the story of the unmerciful servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ told this story. He tells the story of the unmerciful servant, how a king decided to settle accounts with his servants. One servant who had a massive debt was brought before him. We’re told that this servant owed the king a debt of 10,000 talents. If this was a reference to the gold talents, a single gold talent was equal to 15 years’ wages. And yet, this servant owed 10,000 talents. It would have taken 150,000 years to pay the debt. Of course, that’s ludicrous and that’s the point. This was an incomprehensible debt. It was a massive debt that could never be paid back, and so the servant fell down before the king. He fell down before the king and he begged for mercy and the king, in love, compassion, and mercy forgave that servant the entire debt.
Then our Lord Jesus tells us the servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him 100 denarii. A denarius was equal to one day’s wage, so 100 denarii was a little more than 3 months’ income. Seizing this fellow servant by the throat, the unmerciful servant said, “Pay what you owe!” This fellow servant fell down and begged him, “Have mercy on me.” He would not. He delivered him over to the jailers. Jesus tells us that when the king heard what the unmerciful servant did, he called the unmerciful servant to himself. He said, “I forgave you that entire debt. Should not you have had mercy upon your fellow servant even as I had mercy on you?” Then Jesus tells us how the king made the hard pronouncement: “Deliver him over to the tormentors. Deliver him over to the jailers until he should pay all of his debt.”
Isn’t that a tough passage? Isn’t that a tough teaching? I mean, that’s a difficult teaching even to fit into our systematic theologies, but I think there’s a warning here. There’s a warning for us, a warning for you and a warning for me. You see, if you’re a Christian truly; if you’ve embraced Christ as the Lord of your life and you seek to live for Him day by day and you’ve invited Him to be your Savior from sin; if you’ve received Him into your heart; you have been forgiven a massive debt. For all the sin you have ever committed or ever will commit, you have received amazing grace, incomprehensible mercy, and you have escaped condemnation.
But as you come this morning to this table of mercy and you participate in the bread and the cup, there is a warning, a reminder and a warning. Judge not. Discern, yes, but condemn not. Don’t throw stones. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. Show mercy and you will receive mercy. Forgive, forgive, and forgive. There’s no limit to the forgiveness that we are called to manifest in our lives as Christians. This is His counsel to us.
As we come to this table this morning, if in your heart there’s any condemnation towards anyone, today is the day to lay it at the altar. Today is the day. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.