Dr. M. Taylor Bach

I Corinthians 5:11-13 Matthew 7:1-5

In Oklahoma several years ago, there was a church that threw out one of its members for immorality. This woman who was thrown out immediately sued the church and then went on talk shows, got written up in the tabloids and actually won her lawsuit based on the scripture that Cameron Etris just read  “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Is that how it should work? What did Jesus actually mean by that scripture in Matthew 7? “Judge not lest ye be judged.” We have a paradoxical scripture that sounds a whole lot like judgment. Cameron read the beginning of it. Let me read more of it. “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and the swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you would have to leave this world but now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls themselves a brother but is immoral or greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, a swindler. With such don't even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside but expel the wicked from among you.” Hum. That is not saying the same thing as& “Judge not lest ye be judged,” does it? On the one hand, it is saying you have to make a judgment call. Somebody in your congregation is being immoral and you might even throw that person out of the congregation. That sounds like judgment to me. Doesn't it to you? Was Paul wrong? Was Paul distorting Jesus' message?

If we look further, and this requires perhaps looking up in a commentary to see what the passage in Matthew 7 really is about, we find that the “Judge not lest ye be judged” passage is specifically against the arrogance of the Pharisees, what you might call pharisaical righteousness. It is what we might also consider judgmental nitpicking. It's always looking down on others and always finding fault in others which is what the Pharisees apparently very easily did. You remember the time when the Pharisee and a tax collector were both in church and the Pharisee said, “Oh, thank God I am not like that man! I tithe. I keep all the commandments. I am wonderful.” The tax collector merely stood at the back of the synagogue and said, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Which one did Jesus approve? He approved of the tax collector rather than the Pharisee who kept the law and did everything just right, but arrogantly judged the other. The Scriptures actually have scales of balance. Can you picture that in your mind, the scales of justice that are frequently in text books where one is not to be weighted too far and the other is not to be weighted too far but are supposed to be weighted evenly? Yes, there are times that we don't judge and there are other times when we do judge. And we have to weigh these equally.

Yesterday, I was required by our denomination to attend a seminar in Dayton, Ohio. The seminar was basically on mistakes ministers make. It was fascinating. I've made some of them and recognized myself in some of the examples. They gave a continual list of case examples of mistakes ministers make. One of the things when the seminar was over that struck me greatly was that we do have to hold each other accountable and responsible for the things that we do. That requires some judgment in the church. Yet at the same time, we have to have traits of mercy. Outside of the church we are to be very cautious in judging people. After all as one of the ministers said yesterday, the Bible says, “Judgment is mine, saith the Lord.” So we leave most judgment to God. Here is the reason why. Apparently God judges us on our motives. Who are we to get inside the head of another and know what their motives are? We can't do that. We don't know what they are thinking at the time.

I remember attending and actually presenting at a conference in Canada. One of the conference attendees had been married five times. She was now living with someone and wasn't even married to that person. Sounds like a Biblical example, doesn't it? As I listened to her story, one of the other therapists there used her as a demonstration client. What he ferreted out was that each time she married someone, she was unconsciously attempting to repair some childhood damage that had come through her father. She kept picking husbands who never repaired that damage but instead added another layer to it. It wasn't until she actually understood this herself that she was then free to find someone who could actually help her. When we have spouses that can help us repair ourselves, that is one of the greatest gifts in the whole world. So I am grateful for mine who helps me and calls me out when I do things that are not right for husbands or ministers to do. Therefore, I have the opportunity to repair myself. That is a judgment call and that is OK. I'm grateful.

Rev. Tom Holladay had this observation. He said this passage in the Bible really is about three things. The log in one's eye is about hypocrisy. Trying to remove the speck in another's eye without removing the log in your own eye is confronting hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek meaning wearing a mask. It was a term for theatrics. Theater actors would put a mask on and they were called hypocrites. So our word hypocrisy comes from that. What it means is &we present a false self to others. That is exactly what the Pharisees did. They wore their phylacteries, their little tassels with passages of the Bible inside a box making it look like they were these great followers of everything in the Bible. Yet, they were known to cheat their parents out of support which is against the fourth commandment. So Jesus condemned the hypocrisy. That is what He meant by “Do not judge,” - “Do not be a hypocrite.” Allow yourself to be authentic.

The second thing that Holladay pointed out then was that the next part of this scripture is& “Remove the log from your own eye.” That requires integrity. That requires being truthful to ourselves. When you look in the mirror, do you really see yourself or do you see how you would want to be? When you think about yourself, are you honest with yourself or do you fool yourself as to who you are and what you are all about? If we have integrity, we have to be able to identify that which is not working in ourselves which may cause sin. We have to have loving truth about ourselves so that we can repair ourselves and we can take the steps necessary to do what is right and not lord our arrogance over others but recognize that we are all sinners. Everyone of us is a sinner and everyone of us has done something wrong at some time or another. We all have flaws and faults. I have often thought, thank God that we are not supposed to judge others because after I have dealt with others in counseling situations, I've come to recognize how complex people's minds are and how complex people's motivations are. In my early days of training, I was assigned two prostitutes to counsel. As I worked with them, this scripture came to me, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” But I kept thinking, “What is their motivation for doing what they do?” And how can I not be in judgment of what they do? Then I heard why they do what they do. They were seriously damaged by men and their prostitution wasn't about sex, it was about getting even. It was about making fools of men, as a way to symbolically get back at the person or persons who damaged them as little girls. So I thought, “Wow! I am glad I am not God because God has to sort all of this out. God has to figure out motivation and God can forgive but we don't know what is in the heart and soul of people. It is very difficult for us to know how to judge. And yet here we have Paul saying that if we recognize external sin in others, we are to judge that in the church and handle it by excluding the person. The last part of that passage on removing the speck in someone else's eye and removing the log in your own eye says that after you remove the log in your own eye, then it is OK to work on the speck that is someone else's eye. That takes some judgment, doesn't it? But it sure takes caution as well.

In Colossians, there are traits given to help remove the speck in another's eye. If we are going to help another person remove sin from their own life, we are to do it with the following qualities:

First, with kindness. We are not to condemn harshly. We are to be kind. Secondly, we are to do it with humility knowing that we too fail and we too aren't perfect. We too have needed confrontation at times. Thirdly we are to be gentle. Have you ever noticed that if you confront somebody hard, they tend to push back. People follow Newton's Law of Physics  for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. If you want somebody to repent, then you don't slam them. As Paul says in Colossians, “Be gentle in your confrontation.” And they are far more likely to repent. You might remove them from the congregation, you might expel them but you expel them only for the purpose of correction so they will repent and come back. Even that should be done lovingly, kindly, humbly and gently. Then the fourth thing that Colossians says is that we should always do this with patience. We should wait on and give people time to change and repair themselves. Paul goes along and says, “We do it to get along with others and always we forgive.” Hardaway says the last sentence of this scripture that Cameron read this morning (Matthew 7) means everything has to be handled with mercy. We are merciful because God is merciful to us. We forgive because God first forgave us. We are non-judgmental because God is not judgmental with us when we are repentant. In fact, in the book of Revelation, it says that God throws our sins into the sea of sulfur never to be remembered again when we repent. Wow! What a judgment that is. That is a great judgment. I am there. He can throw all of my failings in the sea of sulfur never to be remembered again. That would be wonderful!

I have a reading that I will end with that Jan and I found recently. Few things are as powerful as the right word spoken at the right time. But by the same token, words withheld when their season of opportunity is gone are a heavy burden to live with. So as we cautiously avoid arrogant judging, and as we also confront lovingly, we need to remember this example and that withholding judgment creates love in many instances. (These are the words of this author).

I remember when I took your new car on the road and wrecked it. I thought you would be livid and come down hard on me, but you didn't.

I remember when we went to the beach and you didn't want to go because you said it was going to rain. We went and it rained. I was sure you would rub it in and say, “I told you so.” But you didn't.

Then there was the time when I spilled blueberry juice down the front of your new white tuxedo. I knew you would be upset and blame me but you didn't.

And remember that formal evening? I was mistaken and told you it was casual. You wore blue jeans and felt like a fish out of water. I was sure you would storm out in anger and leave me standing there. But you didn't.

I wanted to tell you how much I loved you and how much I appreciated you for all those things when you returned from Vietnam. But you didn't.