“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Matthew 7:1-6 (NIV)
This is becoming the most quoted verse in the Bible. Our age of tolerance has exploited this verse to leverage a non-confrontational mindset.
Jesus is explicitly wanting His followers to look first at their own life before they become the critic of someone else.
Have you ever noticed— in other people of course because clearly you and I are better than this—that people tend to get angry and frustrated with others who are guilty of the same things they, themselves, are guilty of?
Someone who is a poor at com imaging with their team will get frustrated quickly with someone for not communicating with them.
A person who has a habit of being late gets mad at someone for arriving late to their meeting.
Your mom drives you crazy and then one day it hits you, you’re just like her.
It’s a simple and troubling truth that we are critical of others where we are weak ourselves.
Jesus wants His followers to examine your life first before you begin to dissect someone else’s life.
My next step:
Look at my actions and attitude before I criticize someone else for their’s.
Here Jesus isn’t telling us to stay away from judging. We’re to examine our life before we criticize someone else.