To Judge or Not to Judge | Matthew 7:1-6

Show Notes

Episode 852: 
In this episode of The Bible Guys, Chris and Jeff dive into Matthew 7 to explore Jesus’ teaching on humility, meekness, and what it really means to “not judge.” They unpack common misunderstandings about judgment, emphasizing self-awareness, grace, and approaching others with love rather than condemnation. Through relatable examples and practical insights, listeners are encouraged to choose humility, assume the best in others, and let grace transform their relationships.

What is The Bible Guys?

Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.

Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.

Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible guys. Man, it's good to be here. It is good to be here. We are very excited for this segment in particular because we have to. Be because that's why we're here. That's it. I was just trying to make something up on the spot. So yeah, but it's always exciting. I always think every segment is going to be great because, you know, discovering new truths. By the way, I wasn't planning on saying this, but that is my spiritual pathway. Did you know that discovering new truths? Yeah? So, like, like you know, there's if you read. That, you're where Solent said there's nothing new on it. Sun. Well, in God's word, illumination is new all the time. It's not it's just new to me. It's new to me. Oh okay, okay, so uh but theh but the bottom line is, you know, there's different pathways where you feel closer to God. Some people feel closer to God nature, right, that's a spiritual pathway. Some with social injustice that's you nature. Yeah, some some with worship, and then my spiritual pathway is actually reading God's work. So it's study. Right, So like when I whenever I read something and I figure out there's a new truth or there's there's like an insight that's like brand new, I'm like, oh that, that to me is the thing. So anyway, so yeah, that's that's what I. Was trying to say. Yeah, that's good, and so that's where we're going today. That's exactly right. All right, Well, uh, we are in the beatitudes, and we're connecting the beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Amount to the topics he talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. That's correct. And so we've been talking about blessed are those who mourn, and now we're pivoting into blessed our the meek or the humble the humble. Yeah yeah, yeah, but before we do that, we have mail bags. Mail bags is when people basically write in. So by the way, if you want to send us a question or a comment, send it to info at or email it at info at the Bible guys dot com. And if you want to send a complaint, send it to seize our ba at. Yeah, yeah, whatever, and by the way, that'll that'll probably not get answered. We'll go right into my special. File reading your complaint file. That's right. But but mail bags is when somebody writes in and asks a question or makes a comment. We would love to address yours. So please, we love them, please send them to us. This one is from Mike. Oh, Mike, oh hi, Mike oh. Hey make oh and Mike says, I'm sure it's hard to pick just one, but what's your favorite biblical character or principle to preach about? And why? Oh? Good question? Uh? Those are there seemed to like there seem to be two different choices. Yes, biblical character. Is different than principle to preach about. Okay, well you want to pick one of each? Uh sure, okay, okay. My favorite biblical character to preach about is Jesus. Okay, do you wanna do you wanna do you want to say you want to set Jesus yeah above everybody else? Yeah? So uh yeah, so so we need another biblical character. I'm gonna I'm gonna lay your mind and I'm gonna say my favorite biblical character is the apostle Paul when he preaches on Jesus. Mine is too le minus apart from Jesus. Then who's your favorite Bible character? There's no question, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the reason why is I feel like my life identifies with Paul. So Paul's mission he was given was to reach those who are far from God or the gentiles, are those who are not religious, and that's what I've spent my entire life doing, and that's that's where my heart is, right. So, you know, if somebody is far from God, or they're not religious, or they feel like they're disconnected to God or uh, that's that's where my heart mostly is. I think my favorite person to preach on apart from Paul and Jesus and Jesus, I really like reaching on the disciples as well. But David is probably my favorite character to talk about, just because he's got the whole thing right. He's a warrior, he's a poet, he's a lover, he's a leader, he's a flawed man, he's a man after God's own heart. All the things, all the things, yeah, all the things, and he takes up a huge chunk of the Old Testament. So that's part of it. But my favorite character is Daniel. Wow. Yeah, so you're you're laying them all out. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you choose disciples, said, he admitted it's hard to choose just one. Even Mike understands our quandary here. So what I was saying is, so he's saying favorite to preach about is probably David. Well, no, no, he says he says favorite biblical character or a principle to preach about. I think he's saying biblical character to preach about or principle to preach about. That's the way that sentence. Reads, I guess. So yeah, yeah, sure, what's your favorite principle to preach about? Oh, that is a great question. I didn't put any thought into that before you asked me, Uh, favorite principle to preach about? I would probably say my favorite is probably going to be she wiz, this is really hard. Yeah. I thought I can come up with something by the time I finished my sentence. But that's how most of it works for you. But I'm not sure I can. I guess I could say relationships. That's if that's pretty broad. Really, I would say, the core of your preaching is that God loves you just the way you are that seems to be at the center of the way that you try to talk about God and faith. Yeah, like like God's acceptance, love, value, no condemnation. Identity in Christ, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, Okay, that seems there you preach. I concede. I'll say that. I'll say, yeah, let's let's make it that. My favorite principle to preach about is all of Chris's sins. Those are my. Favorite Chris sins. And that's a one part series. Yeah, I could go for months one part series. Hey guys, it's only one week. It's a standalone and we're getting out early today. We have a list of three things. Yeah. Yeah, So I think the principle I love preaching about the most is the process of salvation, the mechanisms of salvation, the gospel presentation. I love the Billy Graham gospel presentation. Right, we're all sinners. God made us because He loves us. Every our sin separates this from God. Sin has a price that we can't pay. Jesus paid the price for our sin. And everyone who calls the name of the Lord to be saved. Right, and that real life, eternal life begins now and lasts throughout the rest of eternity. I love that gospel presentation. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's probably my favorite. Yeah, that's that's that's a great question, Mike. And yeah, thanks for making man, thanks for making us think, buddy. Yeah, and by the way, that's really hard. It's like it's in some ways, I know this is a. Poor that's what I said. I'm sure it's hard to pick this one. It's in some ways it's a very poor comparison. But like that's like somebody saying, like, what's your favorite song, and you're like, I have like thirty and what's your favorite movie. I don't know, there's so many, right. Favorite song. I mean, dude, you've probably got forty fifty Tailor Swift songs on that list. Come on, I have like two tailors of ones. I like like two or three of them, but Broadway songs. But I am but I am a Tailor Swift fan. Not heard necessarily as a person or political beliefs, but but as a as an artist and as a businesswoman. He's killing it. Huge fan. And then all your other favorite songs will be out of the Greatest Showman. Right stop. Although it's pretty good. Greatest Showman's pretty good. You know. You know that I actually said the other day, I actually said, we need to move on. But I actually said to uh, oh it was Trey or worship got Trey. He's not a musical guy. And I said, well, did you like Greatest Shoman? Because I didn't see it? And I said, in my experience, even people who are not musical people, the only musical that people have said the exception is the Greatest Showman. Did you know that? So they'll say, they'll say, oh, I don't like musicals, but I did like the Greatest Showman, like everybody. I mean, it's an unusual amount of people who actually have said that to me. Wow, yeah, that's amazing. So it seems to be the musical for people who don't like musicals. I was just poking fun, man, I know, we're having fun. Yeah, Okay, So today, Verse five in chapter five of the Book of Matthew, Jesus says, God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth and good thing. That you and I are the ones leading this discussion today, Yeah, because I am We're talking from experience. I want a trophy for being humble. So so this idea of blessed are those God blesses those who are humble, or in the King James or some of the other older translations that said blessed are the meek. I just realized we didn't do a transition yesterday or today. Yeah, we're just jumping right into it. Wow. Yeah, we're getting down of business. All right. Well, let's let's let's let's let's omit the transition today because we've already transitioned. That's right, we'll pick it up tomorrow. So the other phrase for blessed are those who are humble is blessed are the meek? Yeah, right, for they shall inherit the earth. Right. So the verse that we're talking about today to kick this off, would be towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven. So the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew five, six and seven. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus says this in verses one through six. Jesus said, do not judge others, and you will not be judged. You ever hear somebody say judge, not that you be not judged, or not lest you be judged, Do you ever hear people quote that. As a matter of fact, people who've never cracked the Bible, that may be the only verse they know. That's exactly right. That one gets thrown in your face a lot. Yeah, okay, do not judge others, and you will not be judged, for you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye when you can't see past the log in your own eye, hypocrite, First get rid of the log in your own eye, and then you'll be able to see well enough to deal with the spec in your friend's eye. That's what he says. Oh, don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don't throw your pearls to pigs. They'll trample the pearls and then turn and attack you. Yeah. People sometimes wonder if Jesus had a sense of humor. This is absolutely the funniest way you can say this. Yeah, right right, Oh, hey, let me get that little eyelash. You know, I got a two by fourced to comment, I'm hitting you with it, trying to reach it. It's kind of a funny. It is funny. It's probably the funniest way you could possibly say that. Hey so, And then he's in the movie Hypocrite, and. Then he says, don't throw your pearls to pigs. Yeah, that's pretty funny too. Yeah, don't throw your pearls before swine. Right is the King James, cast your pearls before swine. It says in verse six. This is a note here from my study Bible about verse six. You know about the pearls and pigs. Huh. It says, as God's people, we are privileged to handle what is holy. He is entrusted to us a precious truth of the Word of God and references sech Christian's four to seven. And we must regard the truths of God carefully. No dedicated priest would throw meat from the altar to a filthy dog, and only a fool would give pearls to pigs. Certainly, we must carry the gospel to everyone, but we must not cheapen the gospel by a ministry that lacks discernment. Yeah, that's interesting in it. Yeah, I think he is saying, here, don't waste what's holy on people who are unholy. Don't throw your pearls to pigs. I think he is saying, there is a limit. If somebody's refusing to listen, don't keep trying to force feed them. Yeah, it's not gonna work well. And he's also and also goes along the lines of that, we also understand in the Bible that we're not called to judge outsiders, but we are called to judge insiders, right rights, Yeah, and so yeah, in Corinthians it actually says that it's our job as Christians to help and so you know that whole mind your own business thing. I always think of this one scene. I was so outraged by it. I love the series Parenthood. Oh I love it, love it so good. And it's just one of the best things ever created. And the morality's there, everything's there. The faith component, however, is not there. Right, So they're just good people, right, But anyway, I remember one of the two brothers, right, So, Crosby's meeting with his older brother Adam, and Adam is about as gently as possible He's trying to tell his brother, hey man, I'm concerned about you. You're misbehaving in a really bad way. And I'm just and I'm not trying to come down on hard on you, but I'm just saying, maybe you ought to think about the consequences of what you're doing. Right. It was like literally the picture perfect way to approach somebody in the context of love, one on one. It was so great and it's exactly what we're called to do as Christians. Right. If I saw you doing what with Crosby was doing, you better believe I would have a meeting with you and say, hey man, you're acting this way. Okay, your marriage is at risk whatever. Right, But I loved it because he quoted this verse and he goes, judge me, he goes, he goes, you're not supposed to judge others because then you'll be judged or something. And he quotes this verse, which is what you said, right, So non Christians quote. These people who have never even opened the Bible will quote that, don't judge less you be judged. Yeah, he said, you're not supposed to do And then and then this older brother goes, hey man, I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean to judge you. And all I kept on thinking of is, Dude, that is the most like, it is the most It is the worst interpretation of that verse, because dude, he's not judging you, right, he's actually helping you. We're called to judge insiders in a loving way. We're supposed to challenge and encourage. Right, But what he's saying here is we're not supposed to judge others in hypocrisy, and we're not. We're not supposed to judge outsiders, which he what he's saying is, don't cast your pearls before before pigs. He's saying, don't waste godly loving judgment with with with conversations that is, that is meaningless with somebody who's not going to listen, who's an outsider, right, Right, Like if I go to somebody who's a non Christian and I try to challenge them and act like and I say, hey, why don't you have the same barometer as I do? Right, that's senseless. That's what Corinthian says. Right right. You should never expect those who don't know Christ to act like you do, and we shouldn't expect them too, So don't try to impose your standard beliefs on those who are not Christians. Yeah, And this word judge doesn't say don't have an opinion, right, He doesn't say that, Right. I can disapprove of your behavior, and that's not being judgmental. I can love you. I can love my children and not approve of their behavior, and I can love them enough that I'll point out the fact that their behavior is wrong. There's consequences of their behavior. They have to straighten up. That's not being judgmental. Right. That means that I have an opinion, and that's okay, It's okay they have an opinion. The word judge means to have the final say about the consequences somebody. So a lot of times it's that's a bad man and he doesn't deserve to be in this church. That's a bad person, and they're not going to go to heaven. Right. That's the kind of idea behind it, where we have decided that they are bad and we are good, and we've set ourselves on God's throne to make a determination with regard to their standing with God. So when Paul says judge, and this is also another problem with the English language, versus the Greek language. The Greek language is so much more nuanced with regard to behaviors and attitudes and emotions. Right, then the English language is very precise for getting business done, whereas the Greek language was very much descriptive, connecting on their relational and emotional levels of things. And so what gets translated as Judge here is about setting yourself up on the throne to be the fine I'll say, on somebody else's position with God. That's different than Jesus says later on, he says, by their fruits, you will know them. He's literally saying, Judge, is this an apple or an orange in their life? Hey, I'm a Christian, but you're not acting like a Christian. Right, So he does say, use discernment with regard to people's behaviors and determine are they really living out what they're claiming to live out, So much so that he actually in this own passage just calls somebody a hypocrite. Right, He's looking at their behaviors and going, you're a hypocrite. Right, You're going around, but you got this, You got a log in your eye trying to point out a speck, and somebody else's he's he's judging there but not setting it up. I'm God and I'm sit on the throne of God's throne, and I get to this side, who gets go to heaven or not? Then when you get to so that's two different kinds of judging. When you get to Corinthians, and Paul says that we should judge on the inside, not the outside. He's talking more along the lines of Jesus talking about being a fruit inspector. Not even within the church. We don't get to decide God's done with you. You're out right right, So this passage don't judge lest you be judged, is saying, don't you decide that you're going to set yourself on God's throng, because understand God's going to judge you, right, You don't get to judge God. God's judging you, and so you don't have the right to judge others with regard to their spiritual standing with God. Are they going to go to heaven or not? But at the same time, I can discern whether or not what you say is what you're actually living. You claim to be a Christian, but you're not living like a Christian. That's not being judgmental. Right, it's when I decide to start punishing you based on it that at that point, now we have to be careful that we're not putting ourselves in God's Yeah, on God's throw. Yeah, this note right here actually says exactly what you just said. Me and Warren whirsb Man, we're on it. It says we must not pass judgment on others' motives. We can and should examine their actions and attitudes, but we cannot judge their motives, for only God can see their hearts. Yeah, the motives. Remember we just talked about this yesterday when he's talking about you know, oh yeah, you say you don't kill, but what about your attitudes? Right, it's most of what Jesus talks about Matthew five, six and seven. It has the outward side of it, but mostly he's challenging the inside. And that's another one of those where we can't judge the motives of a person. Only God can do that. Yeah. Yeah, And I definitely like the fact that Jesus is giving us something that is extremely applicable in our lives because this is a relational dynamic here, right, I mean, think about it, just about every single conversation that you have with someone, you have to recognize you are a different person than they are. Yeah, right, Yeah, isn't that true? I mean unless you're I mean, you know, my wife and I ares we line up on most things, right, You and I line up on most things, right, but we still are going to be different people. And think about all the people you interact, right, I mean, think about all the meetings you had today. Think about all the meetings I've had today, right, I've met with people who are vastly different than that. Sure, absolutely, So. I love the guiding principles, the relational dynamics that God puts into place that are just practical. That's why I love God's Word because I think that God's Word is just as applicable today as it was back then. And what's so amazing is even though it's thousands of years later and so much has changed in culture and everything else, people say, oh, that's such an ancient book. Well yeah, well then how come God nails it every time when it comes to my motives, when it comes to my heart, when it comes to human tendencies, when it comes to you know, the way that we think, or the way that we act. You know, why is it that human nature has not changed at all? And it's because God created us and he knows us. And so when we interact with one another, Hey, listen, it's not that much different than in the first century. Well, when when we start judging other people's motives, it's amazing how much much more hostile we are towards others and how generous we are to ourselves. Right, we tend to let ourselves out, well, I know what I meant, and then we tend to how dare you, and we guess that they meant it far worse, and we assume that they believe we meant it far less. Right, So when we make an offense, we always try to dismiss it and go, oh, you're taking that out of context. You're making a big deal about nothing. I didn't mean it like that. And we're so generous to ourselves even though what we said was rude or what we did was wrong. And then how often have you read a text and put down with what they mean by that we're trying to put motive behind And listen, when you start assigning motives to texts and emails, you are going to live a miserable life, right, And that's that's you're setting yourself up as judge when you're guessing at motives. And I need, I need, I need people to hear this because it seems like every time I make this comment, there's a lot of people that go, really, but people need to hear this. Texting is the most primitive form of communication. It is the worst. It is the most primitive. And people are like, what do you mean, Like generation alpha is like, what do you mean it's the best form of communication. No, it's the quickest way of communicating, but it is you cannot read body language, which is how much. What percentage of communication is communications? Body language? Yeah, facial expressions, body yeah, all the all the actions that you're doing, and we're talking percent of communication. And then there's more in tone, right, and you can't hear tone in text. And so literally, if you think about it, you're stripping away over ninety percent of of intent, motives, of everything, just by content of text, which can be interpreted in so many different ways. So understand that if you're the more important thing that you have to say requires in person conversation. So I didn't say that, Well, well, here's an illustration of it. I recently had somebody who was deeply offended by a text. I didn't send it, but I stepped in and I said almost the exact same words, and that person said, I'm so thankful you called me. I feel so much better about this now. And I didn't say anything different than it was in the text. Right, there are no new facts, but the tone that they were reading these words with a negative intent. This is what Jesus saying. So remember he says, blessed are we had already said this at the beginning. One of the meanings of the word blessed. Blessed are those who are humble, or blessed is that are the meek. One of the meanings of blessed is you'll be happy. Right, listen, if you're assigning intent, you are going to be miserable because you're always going to guess the worst. Andy Stanley talks about that when there's a gap between what you expect and what you get, you get to decide what goes in the middle, and our natural instincts are we decide usually it's a bad thing goes in the middle, bad intent, bad. Right, we're guessing the worst rather than believing the best. And Jesus is saying, listen, if you're gonna be my followers, you're gonna be different than the way the rest the rest of the world always guess the worst. Intent You're not God, you don't know, give them as much grace as you would expect grace to be given to you. Yeah, so he flips it. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you'll be judged. This is a caution. Listen. It's the same way. If I choose to give grace, I'm gonna get grace. Right. It's the same if I choose to give a little bit of mercy, if I choose to believe the best. I have the reasonable expectation that people are going to believe the best. But if I'm always believing the worst, then people are going to believe the worst. Yeah. And so, just to add a little bit more to what you just said, the anti Stanley message was the exact words that he used were he said, there's a difference between a lot of times when there's a difference between expectation and reality. Right, if your reality comes in short of your expectation, there's a gap. And every time there's a gap, you have a choice to insert either believe the best or assume the worst. And so that's what you're referring to, and that that to me, was one of the best messages I've ever heard him give. Yeah, it's it's it's a profoundly life changing yes. When you decide, all right, I'm going to be a person who's going to choose to believe the best. Yes. And by the way, that's a blessed life. Jesus is telling us my people are going to live a better life if they decide to start applying my principles. That's great. Yeah, well that is definitely our time. So thank you and for tuning in, and we'll see you hopefully tomorrow on the Bible guys. H