The Authority of Righteous Judgment Text: John 7:14-24
Introduction: A World Without Authority
We live in an age that is allergic to authority. Our entire culture is built on the sandy foundation of autonomous man, the self-law man, who believes he has the right to define his own reality. He wants to be his own god, his own savior, and his own ultimate standard of truth. This rebellion is not new; it is as old as the Garden, where the serpent first whispered, "Did God really say?" The result of this rebellion is not liberation, as the world promises, but rather a descent into chaos, confusion, and a particularly nasty form of tyranny. When men reject the authority of God, they do not become free. They simply become enslaved to lesser, and far more brutal, authorities, whether it be the state, their own disordered passions, or the shifting opinions of the mob.
Into this swirling vortex of rebellion, Jesus steps into the Temple, the very heart of the Jewish world, and begins to teach. And His teaching immediately creates a crisis. The crisis is one of authority. Who is this man? By what right does He speak? He has no credentials from the established seminaries. He hasn't been vetted by the presbytery. He doesn't have the right degrees from the right schools. And yet, He speaks as one who has authority, and not as their scribes. This is the central conflict in the Gospel of John, and it is the central conflict of our time. The world is not divided between those who believe in authority and those who do not. The world is divided between those who submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and those who submit to some other counterfeit authority.
In our text today, Jesus confronts the religious leaders of Israel on this very point. They question His credentials, and He answers by pointing them to the source of His teaching, the will of His Father. He exposes their hypocrisy, showing that their feigned concern for the Law of Moses is a smokescreen for their murderous hatred of Him. And He concludes by giving them, and us, the standard for all true evaluation: "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." This is a word we desperately need to hear. In a world that alternates between refusing to judge at all and judging with the most vicious and unrighteous standards imaginable, Jesus calls us to be a people who know how to make righteous distinctions, because we are submitted to the ultimate authority of the God who makes all things.
The Text
But when it was now the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. The Jews then were marveling, saying, "How has this man become learned, not having been educated?" So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God or I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
"Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you does the Law. Why do you seek to kill Me?" The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?" Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
(John 7:14-24 LSB)
The Uncredentialed Teacher (v. 14-15)
We begin with Jesus making His appearance in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles.
"But when it was now the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. The Jews then were marveling, saying, 'How has this man become learned, not having been educated?'" (John 7:14-15)
Jesus had come up to the feast secretly, but now He goes public in the most conspicuous way possible. He goes to the Temple, the center of Jewish worship and teaching, and simply begins to teach. This was a direct challenge to the established order. The authorities are immediately perplexed. They marvel, but it is not the marveling of faith. It is the marveling of suspicion. Their question reveals their entire worldview: "How has this man become learned, not having been educated?"
What they mean is, "Where are His diplomas?" He hasn't been through our rabbinic schools. He hasn't been discipled by Gamaliel. He is outside our system. He is not accredited by our institutions. They were judging entirely by external, human standards. For them, authority came from a human pipeline. You had to have the right resume. But Jesus' authority did not come from men; it came directly from God. This is a perennial temptation for the church. We can become so focused on our own institutions, our own seminaries, our own processes, that we fail to recognize the voice of God when it comes outside our established channels.
The Source of True Doctrine (v. 16-18)
Jesus answers their unspoken challenge by pointing them away from Himself and toward the ultimate source of His teaching.
"So Jesus answered them and said, 'My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God or I speak from Myself.'" (John 7:16-17)
Jesus' defense is that His doctrine is not self-generated. He is not an innovator; He is an ambassador. He is speaking on behalf of the One who sent Him, God the Father. This is the claim of every true prophet and apostle. They do not come with their own hot takes and novel ideas. They come with a "Thus saith the Lord."
Then Jesus gives the key to spiritual discernment. How can a person know if a teaching is from God or not? The answer is not found in intellectual acuity alone, but in the disposition of the heart. "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know." The Greek word here for "willing" is thelema, which implies a settled desire, a deep-seated resolve. The person who truly desires to do God's will is the one whose spiritual eyes will be opened. The obstacle to understanding is not primarily intellectual; it is moral. Unwillingness to obey is what makes men blind. They don't want the teaching to be true, because if it is true, they would have to change. Therefore, they cannot see that it is true. Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge.
"He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." (John 7:18)
Here Jesus gives them a test to distinguish a true teacher from a false one. What is the teacher's ultimate motivation? Does he seek his own glory, or the glory of God? The false teacher is always, at bottom, a self-promoter. He is building his own brand, his own platform, his own kingdom. His teaching will always be subtly bent in the direction of his own ego. But the true teacher, the one sent from God, is consumed with the glory of God. Jesus' entire life was a seeking of His Father's glory. Because His motive was pure, His person was pure. "He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." This is a staggering claim of sinlessness, made in the middle of the Temple, and it hangs in the air, challenging them to find fault in Him.
The Law, Hypocrisy, and Murder (v. 19-20)
Jesus now turns the tables on them, moving from a defense of His authority to an indictment of their hypocrisy.
"'Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet none of you does the Law. Why do you seek to kill Me?' The crowd answered, 'You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?'" (John 7:19-20)
They prided themselves on being the people of the Law. The Law given through Moses was their great boast. Jesus affirms the divine origin of the Law, "Did not Moses give you the Law?" But then He immediately exposes their utter failure to keep it. "And yet none of you does the Law." This is a radical charge. He is telling the most religious people on the planet that they are all lawbreakers. And He gives a specific, damning example of their lawlessness: "Why do you seek to kill Me?" The sixth commandment says, "You shall not murder." And here they are, plotting to murder the Son of God, all while preening themselves on their meticulous observance of Sabbath regulations.
Their hypocrisy is so thick that they cannot even see it. The crowd, likely distinct from the leaders who were actually plotting, is incredulous. "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?" They dismiss His accusation as madness. This is what happens when a culture is steeped in self-righteousness. It becomes blind to its own murderous heart. They cannot see the beam in their own eye. They are so busy judging Jesus for healing on the Sabbath that they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are violating the most basic tenets of the Law they claim to cherish.
Righteous Judgment vs. Appearance (v. 21-24)
Jesus now addresses the specific issue that has so enraged them: His healing of the paralytic on the Sabbath back in chapter 5.
"Jesus answered them, 'I did one work, and you all marvel... For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man.'" (John 7:21-22)
He points out their inconsistency. They are marveling, in a negative sense, at His one work of healing. Then He sets up a brilliant argument from the lesser to the greater, using their own practice of circumcision. He notes, correctly, that circumcision predates the Mosaic Law, going back to the patriarchs, to Abraham. But Moses incorporated it into the Law. According to that Law, a male child must be circumcised on the eighth day. What happens if the eighth day falls on a Sabbath? They perform the circumcision anyway. They understood that the command to circumcise on the eighth day took precedence over the general prohibition of work on the Sabbath.
"If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?" (John 7:23)
Here is the devastating logic. If you will "break" the Sabbath rest to perform a ritual on one part of a man's body in obedience to the Law, why are you filled with rage when I make an entire man whole on the Sabbath? Circumcision was a sign of the covenant, a sign of cleansing and belonging to God's people. Jesus' healing was the reality to which the sign pointed. He was performing a work of restoration, of re-creation, that was perfectly in line with the purpose of the Sabbath, which is rest and wholeness. Their outrage was completely inconsistent. They were straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.
This leads to His final, climactic command:
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)
Their judgment was "according to appearance." It was superficial. They saw an external act, Jesus healing, on an external day, the Sabbath, and they concluded it was a violation. They were not looking at the heart of the matter, at the meaning of the Law, at the character of God. Jesus calls them to a different standard: "righteous judgment."
Righteous judgment is not the same thing as refusing to judge, which is what our culture means by "don't be judgmental." Jesus is not saying "stop judging." He is saying, "stop judging unrighteously and start judging righteously." Righteous judgment is judgment that is based on God's standard, not man's. It is consistent, not hypocritical. It looks past the surface to the underlying principles. It understands the spirit and purpose of the law, not just the letter. It is a judgment that flows from a heart that is submitted to God's will and seeks God's glory. It is the kind of judgment that can see that making a man whole is a greater good than maintaining a fastidious, but heartless, external observance.
Conclusion: The Crisis of Authority
This entire exchange forces a decision. The Jews in the Temple had to decide who Jesus was. Was He a demon-possessed, uneducated blasphemer? Or was He the Son of God, speaking the very words of His Father, with an authority that superseded their traditions and exposed their sin?
We are faced with the same decision. Every day, in a thousand different ways, we are confronted with the authority of Jesus Christ. His teaching is not His own; it is from the Father. It comes to us in the Scriptures. And we have a choice. We can be like the Pharisees, judging by appearances, protecting our own little kingdoms, and becoming enraged when His Word exposes our hypocrisy. Or, we can be those who are "willing to do His will." We can come to the Word with a heart of submission, ready to obey, trusting that as we do, He will give us the light to understand.
The call to judge with righteous judgment is a call to discipleship. It is a call to saturate our minds with the Word of God so that we begin to think God's thoughts after Him. It is a call to apply His law consistently, first to ourselves, and then to the world around us. It is a call to look at the world not with the superficial gaze of the evening news, but with the deep, theological insight that comes from knowing the One who is true, and in whom there is no unrighteousness. When we submit to His authority, we are freed from the tyranny of human opinion and empowered to see the world as it truly is, and to judge it with the righteous judgment of God Himself.