The Right Kind of Judgmental
Introduction: The World's Favorite Verse
There is perhaps no verse in the entire Bible more beloved by the ungodly than the command, "Judge not." It has become the great motto of our relativistic age, the ultimate conversation-stopper, the holy verse of a secular culture that wants to be free of all moral accountability. It is frequently hurled like a rhetorical hand grenade by people who have never read the surrounding verses, let alone the rest of the Bible. And they almost always deploy it in the very act of judging the person they are quoting it to. "You shouldn't judge me," they say, which is itself a judgment about your behavior. The irony is thicker than a January fog.
But we must not allow the world's abuse of a text to make us abandon it. The Lord Jesus said these words, and He meant them. The problem is not with the command, but with the corrupt and self-serving interpretation that has been plastered over it. Our culture hears "Judge not" and thinks it means "Discern not," "Distinguish not," or "Have no standards whatsoever." But this is nonsense. The same Jesus who said "Judge not" also said to "judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24). The same Bible that says "Judge not" also tells the church to judge those inside the church (1 Cor. 5:12). So what is going on here? Is the Bible contradicting itself?
Not at all. Jesus is not forbidding the act of judging, but rather a particular kind of judging. He is forbidding hypocritical, proud, unmerciful, and condemnatory judgment. He is forbidding the kind of judgment that flows from a heart that has forgotten its own desperate need for grace. In this passage, Jesus gives us a series of brilliant, interlocking illustrations, the boomerang principle, the blind leading the blind, the log in the eye, and the tree and its fruit, to teach us the difference between righteous and unrighteous judgment. He is not calling us to turn off our brains, but to first cleanse our hearts.
The Text
And do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.
And He also spoke a parable to them: "Can a blind man guide a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a bramble bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil. For his mouth speaks from the abundance of his heart.
(Luke 6:37-45 LSB)
The Law of Spiritual Physics (v. 37-38)
Jesus begins with a fundamental law of His kingdom, a principle of spiritual reciprocity.
"And do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you... For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." (Luke 6:37-38)
Think of this as a spiritual boomerang. Whatever you throw out into the world, you had better be prepared to catch it on the return. If you deal in the currency of harsh, unforgiving, hair-trigger condemnation, then do not be surprised when that is the currency you receive back, from both God and man. But if you deal in the currency of grace, pardon, and generosity, that is what will flow back to you in abundance.
The kind of judgment being forbidden here is the one that is paired with condemnation. This is the judgment of a Pharisee who stands on a pedestal of his own making, looking down his nose at sinners, forgetting that he is the chief of them. This is the final, ultimate, damning judgment that belongs to God alone. When we judge in this way, we are attempting to usurp God's throne.
The alternative is a life of pardon and giving. Notice the beautiful cascade. Don't judge, don't condemn, but instead, pardon and give. This is not a call to be a doctrinal marshmallow or to ignore sin. It is a call to have a default posture of grace. And look at the result. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. This is a picture of a grain merchant filling a container, shaking it to settle the contents so he can fit more in, pressing it down, and filling it until it overflows. This is how God gives grace to the gracious. He is no man's debtor. When you give grace, you are not losing anything; you are opening up your hands to receive an avalanche of grace in return.
Blind Guides and Ocular Deformities (v. 39-42)
Jesus then gives two vivid parables to illustrate the folly of hypocritical judgment.
"Can a blind man guide a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye." (Luke 6:39, 42)
The hypocritical judge is a blind man offering to lead others on a tour of the Grand Canyon. The result is predictable and disastrous. He cannot see his own sin, his own massive spiritual deformities, and so he is utterly unqualified to point out the sins of others. His leadership is a public menace. A student who follows such a teacher will simply become a carbon copy of his blind master, and they will go into the ditch together.
The illustration of the log and the speck is one of the Lord's most devastatingly humorous critiques. The picture is absurd. A man with a railroad tie sticking out of his eye socket is offering to perform delicate ophthalmic surgery on his brother's minor irritation. The problem is not that the brother doesn't have a speck. He may very well have one. The problem is the surgeon's complete and utter lack of self-awareness. His own condition is a thousand times worse, yet he is obsessed with the minor flaw in his brother.
This is the very definition of a hypocrite. He is an actor, playing a part. He pretends to be a righteous oculist, but he is just a blind man with a log in his eye. Now, pay very close attention to the solution Jesus provides. He does not say, "Therefore, never try to help your brother with the speck in his eye." He does not say, "Just leave him alone and mind your own business." No, He says, "First take the log out of your own eye, and THEN you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye."
The goal is not the abolition of judgment, but the purification of it. The goal is to get to a place where you can actually help your brother. And that place is found only through repentance. When you have dealt with your own massive sin before God, when you have confessed the log of your pride, your lust, your bitterness, then, and only then, are you in a position to see clearly enough to offer gentle, humble, and redemptive help to your brother. The aim is restoration, not condemnation.
The Telltale Fruit (v. 43-45)
Jesus concludes by connecting our words of judgment directly to the state of our hearts. The mouth is a window to the soul.
"For each tree is known by its own fruit... The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil. For his mouth speaks from the abundance of his heart." (Luke 6:44-45)
You cannot separate what you say from what you are. A thornbush does not produce figs, and a bramble bush does not produce grapes. In the same way, a heart full of pride, bitterness, and self-righteousness cannot produce words of grace, humility, and righteous judgment. It will inevitably produce the thorns and brambles of hypocritical condemnation.
Our words are the fruit, and the heart is the root. If the fruit is consistently rotten, you know there is a problem with the tree. If a person's speech is constantly critical, cynical, and condemnatory, Jesus tells us exactly what is going on. It is an overflow of the evil treasure stored up in their heart. Conversely, a person whose speech is gracious, edifying, and merciful is revealing the good treasure of a heart that has been transformed by grace.
What is in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of the mouth. You cannot fake it for long. Your judgments of others are a spiritual cardiogram, a direct printout of your relationship with God. The way you talk about the specks in other people's eyes reveals to everyone whether you have ever dealt with the log in your own.
Conclusion: The Gospel for Hypocrites
So what is the takeaway? Are we to despair because we recognize this log-eyed hypocrite in the mirror every morning? No, not at all. This entire passage is a severe mercy. It is designed to drive us out of ourselves and to the foot of the cross.
The fundamental problem is that we all have logs in our eyes. We are all blind guides by nature. We are all bad trees producing bad fruit. The ground is level here. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The first step to seeing clearly is to admit your blindness. The first step to bearing good fruit is to admit you are a bad tree.
And the gospel is the good news that there is a physician for the blind. Jesus Christ came for hypocrites. He is the one who can perform the surgery we cannot. On the cross, He took the log, the great beam of our collective sin, upon Himself. He absorbed the condemnation we deserved so that we could receive the pardon we did not deserve.
When the Spirit of God applies this truth to our hearts, He performs a divine heart transplant. He takes out the heart of stone, the evil treasure chest, and gives us a heart of flesh, a good treasure chest filled with His grace. He makes the bad tree good. And then, and only then, can we begin to bear good fruit. Then, and only then, can we begin to judge rightly. We can now approach our brother with a speck in his eye not as a superior, but as a fellow patient. We can offer help not with the cold steel of condemnation, but with the gentle hands of a sinner who has been saved by an immeasurable grace.
The world says, "Judge not," and means, "Have no standards." The Christian says, "I will judge with righteous judgment," which means, "I will apply God's perfect standard first and most severely to myself, and then, in humility and love, I will seek the restoration of my brother." That is the right kind of judgmental.