Sermon: Judge Not Lest You Be Judged

Matthew 7:1-6 and the Misuse of “Judge Not”

So today, I'm gonna pick back up in the Kingdom of God series. I'm gonna be doing Matthew 7, one through six. And so I titled it, Judge Not Lest You Be Judged, which we've all heard, right?

Yes.

So, unless you've been living under a rock or aren't on social media, you're not aware of the couple of weeks we've had. It's been rough, just to be transparent. We've had a few articles posted on the internet that's gone kind of crazy, saying some crazy stuff about us that is further from the truth.

And it's funny though, the last three times I've taught on Sunday, there's been some sort of major blow up on social media. Like as I was preparing, and it's gone right along with every message I taught.

So I think God's trying to show me something bigger. But like I mentioned, we've all heard it. We've all heard someone say, stop judging me. Only God can judge me. And of course, well, the Bible says not to judge.

The question is, is that what it really says? So the text again is Matthew 7, one through six. Judge not that you be not judged. For the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

One of my favorite quotes you've probably heard Jeff mention is from Paul Washer. He says, people tell me, judge not lest ye be judged. I always tell them, twist not scripture, lest ye be like Satan. So today I wanna explain and show you why taking that verse like that is twisting it like Satan.

But before we do, let me pray. Lord, I just thank you once again, just for this opportunity to bring the word before the church today, Lord. And I ask that you would speak through me, that you'd get me out of the way, that you'd give me the words to say, Lord, and that you would be glorified.

I ask that we'd come away with a better understanding of this text. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Okay, so judge not. Matthew 7, one through two, I'll repeat it. Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

This is probably, besides maybe John 3, 16, the most quoted verse by non-believers, by atheists, and by secularists. A .W. Pink said this, which before I get into, let me mention this, I just told Isaac, it's funny, I had my notes pretty well prepared this week.

I've been working on them, and then I came across A .W. Pink's commentary on Matthew, and I was like, what have I got myself into? Because he's just incredible, and there was way more material that I missed.

So I've been kind of scrambling to fit stuff in and bring it all together, but I'm gonna quote Pink a few times. He's got some really great insight. So he said, there are few verses quoted more frequently than the opening one of Matthew 7, and few less understood by those who are so ready to cite it and hurl it at the heads of those whom they ignorantly or maliciously suppose are contravening it.

Let the servant of God denounce a man who is promulgating serious error, and there are those boasting of their broad-mindedness who will say to him, judge not that ye be not judged. Let the saint faithfully rebuke an offender for some sin, and he is likely to have the same text quoted against him.

Moral Relativism and the Culture of “Don’t Judge Me”

So in the media, who are the ones that are always judging?

Christians, right?

We're always told we're being judgmental. Anytime we make any sort of stance on any moral argument whatsoever, we're automatically the ones judging. Here's my question. Isn't that judgmental to say that I'm judging?

Aren't you judging me, saying that I'm being judgmental? Lonnie said yes. I heard him. Of course, this is true, right? Unless you're a Christian. And then you can just throw that little piece of logic right out the window.

What we have today is moral relativism. So judgmentalism ultimately is defined by subjective feelings and emotions. The postmodern moral motto, right? That's what we're up against, is stop judging. And if I'm not allowed to be judgmental, then you can't judge my judgmentalism.

We hear this argument mostly when it comes to things like sex, marriage, abortion, lifestyles. That's when you hear most of the time people saying that you're being judgmental. However, you never hear anybody bring this argument up when you're talking about theft, murder, or rape.

But ultimately, these are all moral judgments. Al Mohler said this. If you have this ethos of complete tolerance, then you have to find a way to tolerate intolerance. Ultimately, we all make judgments.

We have to, life requires it, and God expects it. Couple examples. None of us in this room would ever hire a convicted child molester to be our babysitter. Neither would any of us hire a thief to be our accountant.

And it's not just us as Christians. I think most people in the world, most unbelievers would do the same thing. But you have to make those judgments against people. For the intolerices, as Doug Wilson calls them, the issue is not that we're making moral judgments.

It's just that we're not making their moral judgments. So let's get into the text. So first, my first point is Christ is not saying not to judge. He's not saying we should not judge. If you look at the context, verse six, he tells us to make judgments against dogs and swine or pigs.

So he's not saying not to make judgment, or not, but judge how you want to be judged. So before we get into the verse, I'm gonna look at the bigger context of the chapter. So verse 15, in the same chapter, Christ says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Judge between the wolves, right? Verse 16, you'll recognize them by their fruits, our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistle. Again, he's telling us to judge. Verse 20, thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Here we're supposed to judge false prophets by their fruit. Verse 23, and then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So here Christ is speaking of future judging, but the question now becomes how do we define lawlessness by the context of this verse?

Verses 28 through 29. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. So the answer to that question, how do we define lawlessness, is by Christ's authority, by his standard.

If we accept this idea of no judgmentalism, does that mean that we escape judgment? The answer of course is absolutely not. Ultimately all men's thoughts, all men's actions will be judged righteously by God's perfect judgment.

So the bottom line is we judge according to God's law, not by arbitrary subjective reasoning, but by God's objective standard. John 7 24 says, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

To reiterate, again, he's not saying to not judge at all, but judge righteously. Ultimately, God is the judge. We're not the judge, but we're only proclaiming what the judge says. We should desire to be judged by God's law, not man's law, not autonomously.

No one in their right mind, I don't think, would want this. I know I wouldn't want to be judged by my autonomous standards, and I think that's part of the problem with our culture is everybody is wanting to subjectively determine.

What is truth.

At that point, there's no standard of justice, and every decision ultimately becomes arbitrary. Thank goodness God does not judge us like that. The second point I want to make here is, let's look immediately, preceding this first look at the context.

Who is Christ speaking about specifically in verse three? The brethren. He talks about looking at the speck in your brother's eye. So the entirety of the context of this is a Sermon on the Mount. He's talking to his disciples, and he's explaining to them what he requires as far as their character and their conduct, and the fact that he expected to be radically higher than their religious elite, like the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So if an atheist says to you, the Bible says not to judge me, ultimately we can say to them, so what, right? To use what Jeff always says, so what if I'm judging you? However, if someone claiming Christ says to you, well, scripture says not to judge me, which I've had happen, and I'm sure most of us in this room probably have as well.

Again, two points. Christ is not saying we can't judge, and specifically this refers to believers. So not only is he not saying we can't judge, but he's saying to judge believers. So that brings us to the text.

Verse one, again, judge not that you be not judged. Judge here literally means to judge, to pass judgment, or condemn. The idea is that you're putting someone on trial before court. So do not pass judgment lest judgment be passed on you.

Do not condemn lest you be condemned. At this point, Calvin says, this depraved eagerness for biting, censuring, and slandering is restrained by Christ when he says judge not. It is necessary that believers should become blind and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue eagerness to judge.

For otherwise, the proper bounds of rigor will be exceeded by every man who desires to pass sentence on his brethren. So verse two, for the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Pink here warns us that there is one above whose eye is ever upon us and his ear open to every word we utter. If that solemn fact were more seriously laid to heart by us, it would act as a powerful restraint upon us.

So do you wanna be judged righteously? Then you should judge righteously. Do you wanna be judged by God's standard? Then you judge by God's standard. You will be measured by the same way you measure others.

This does not mean that we should judge others with leniency or generously, hoping in return that God would judge us with leniency or generously. We should judge others truthfully, expecting the enduring scrutiny of the divine judge.

And just because we have a right to stand before God because of Christ's death for our sins, it does not mean that we won't be judged here on earth. In fact, God promises to discipline his children. The parallel passage in the gospels is Luke 6, 37 through 38, which says, "'Judge not, and you will not be judged.

"'Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. "'Forgive, and you will be forgiven. "'Give, and it will be given to you. "'Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, "'running over, will be put into your lap.

"'For what the measure you use, "'it will be measured back to you.'". And then also in Mark 4, 24,. "'And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear. "'With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, "'and still more will be added to you.'".

So the idea here is, he's using an example of like measurement of goods. What's given should be equal to what's received. It's like the imagery of equal scales, right? Judgment for judgment, grace for grace, they should balance out.

Again, we are not the judge. We do not occupy the judgment seat. And ultimately, we can only point to the judge's law. Here Calvin says, we are not permitted, but are even bound to condemn all sins unless we choose to rebel against God himself.

Nay, to repeal his laws, to reverse his decisions, and to overturn his judgment seat. It is his will that we should proclaim the sentence which he pronounces on the actions of men. Only we must preserve such modesty towards each other as to make it manifest that he is the only lawgiver and judge.

We should never make our own law, and we should never judge someone by our own law, only by God's laws. James 4 .1, or I'm sorry, 4 .11 through 12 says, do not speak evil against one another, brothers.

The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and destroy.

But who are you to judge your neighbor? Similarly, in Romans 14, 10 through 13, it says, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

At this point, Matthew Henry said this, we must not sit in the judgment seat to make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge our brother. That is, we must not speak evil of him. We must not despise him nor set him at naught.

We must not judge rashly nor pass a judgment upon our brother as he has no ground, but is only the product of our own jealousy and ill nature. We must not make the worst of people nor infer such invidious things from their words and actions as they will not bear.

We must not judge uncharitably, unmercifully, or with a spirit of revenge and a desire to do mischief. We must not judge of a man's state by a single act, nor of what he is in himself by what he is to us, because in our own cause, we are apt to be partial.

We must not judge the hearts of others nor their intentions, for it is God's prerogative to try the heart and we must not step into his throne. What have we to do thus to judge another man's servant? Counsel him and help him, but do not judge him.

So this leads me to my next point, is that practically speaking, we should never judge someone's heart or intentions or motives or their appearance, only their actions. I'm gonna go briefly through here.

Matthew Henry, I just read to you, has a list of judge nots, right? So judge not rashly. Judge not out of jealousy or ill nature. Do not make the worst of people. Do not judge uncharitably or unmercifully or with a spirit of revenge or with a desire to do mischief.

Here Pink says, to pass judgment on the motives of another, which are open to none, save the eye of omniscience, is highly reprehensible, for it is an intrusion upon the divine prerogative and invading of the very office of God.

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. If we could see our brother's heart, what would we see? Probably our own hearts, only probably not as bad. Psalm 51, nine through 10 says this, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Are we ever that grieved of our sins that we ask God to hide his face from them? Pink says, but one who is walking with God, who is painfully conscious of the plague of his heart, who in some measure at least sees himself as God sees him, is so thoroughly aware of his awful corruptions, his many inward and outward defects, that he knows quite well that the worst men can say against him falls far short of the estimate he has for himself.

The one who unsparingly judges himself is unruffled by the criticisms of others. So next time you go to judge somebody, remember this, when I judge, I'm being judged by the judge on how I judge. Let me repeat that.

When I judge, I'm being judged by the judge on how I judge. It's the way we're judging others, honoring to Christ. Is it from selfish motives and ambitions? So, so far to this point, we've looked at this text as God being the judge.

There is some discussion amongst theologians that the judge may actually refer to other people when it says, lest you be judged, you might be referring to, say, your brothers and sisters. I think either one works, but Pink says this, not the judgments of men, but the judgments of God, not the decisions of time, but the verdicts of eternity.

And then Spurgeon said this, if you impute motives and pretend to read hearts, others will do the same towards you. You do not object to men forming a fair opinion of your character, neither are you forbidden to do the same towards them.

But as you would object to their sitting in judgment upon you, do not sit in judgment upon them. Examples of this sort of judging might be say, the way someone looks, the clothes they wear, passing judgment upon them for their outward appearances.

Another example may be, I don't know, some video you saw on social media and you assume their motives and intentions. The next point, and we're gonna move on to Matthew, or the verse three through five, we're gonna look at the log in your own eye.

So verse three, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. I think these verses are pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to get a little bit into the text here.

So the phrase, why do you see, implies why are you concerned? Why do you care? Why do you even pay attention to that speck in your brother's eye? And the phrase, how can you say, has the idea of, do you think it's right to say that?

Or by what right can you say that to your brother? So the word for hypocrites here is hupakrite. We all know this. Jeff talks about all the time. Literally, it's a play actor or a role player. The idea is that you're pretending to be somebody that you're not.

Matthew 6, five says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Christ calls these guys whitewashed tombs, right?

They look real nice on the outside. They're dressed real nice. They look very clean, but their hearts are filthy. Specifically, Christ here is talking to the Pharisees. Typically, throughout the Sermon on the Mount, the Pharisees are standing in the background, kind of muttering amongst themselves, probably whispering, maybe laughing.

And these Pharisees like to parade around the righteousness, right? So that they look good before everybody. Luke 18, nine through 14 is the Pharisee.

And the tax collector.

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

Keep in mind, the Pharisee is the religious elite. Everybody looks up to them. They're the example everybody wants to live by. The tax collector, everybody hates. It's the IRS agent. The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Keep in mind, he's praying this in a way that everybody can hear him. But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. I'd like to share, before I go a little bit further, my background, if you haven't heard my testimony.

I was raised very, very legalistic in Northern Baptist home. I come from a long lineage of missionaries and gospel heroes. My great-grandparents were missionaries in Kenya, where my grandfather was born.

My grandfather went back to the Belgian Congo as a medical missionary, and my mother was actually born in Belgian Congo in the 60s. I consider my grandparents gospel heroes, and I mean that sincerely.

They're some of the most amazing people. My grandfather is now with the Lord about almost four years, but my grandmother is still alive. She just turned 98. And the example they left for me and my family is incredible.

We wanna talk about multi-generational legacy. Just pretty much all their grandkids, all their kids, great-grandkids, are being raised up in the Lord and are involved in ministry. And if I can just share a really cool story.

Actually real quick.

So when my grandpa was in the Belgian Congo, he built a hospital. And actually the Belgian, well, he built a hospital, but then the Belgian government came and built him like a real nice, say they are a hospital.

He ended up having to flee and never use it. But he literally carved this thing out of the jungle, built a house, hospital. And so my dad actually just been looking on Facebook and came in contact with this young man whose first name is Zimmer, which is my grandparents' last name.

So he's named after my grandparents. And so that hospital is still being used today. There's like a village there now and there's believers. And like, so it's just, it's cool, especially in light of everything that's happened this last couple of weeks to like hear the story of someone who's been affected by my grandparents and their view of the gospel and how it affected that area of the jungle in Africa.

So back to what I was saying, I was raised legalistic. I love my grandparents to death, but they were legalists. I grew up thinking that if you smoked cigarettes, you were going to hell,.

Especially a vape pen.

That vape pen's of the devil, right? I thought if you had tattoos, you were probably going to hell. My grandma's never seen my tattoos.

I'll just say that.

I grew up thinking, or at least being told that dancing was like sin. You can't go to dances, right? Like when Cheryl and I got married, we had dancing at our wedding and it was quite the ordeal. But this, my friends, is true judgmentalism.

Although I was raised with an inward holiness, an emphasis on inward holiness, outward holiness was overemphasized. Who established these outward holiness codes? Tell you, it wasn't God, it wasn't the Bible, but legalists.

When Cheryl and I first moved here to Arizona nine and a half years ago, I guess it was the second Sunday we attended a church service where we ended up becoming members, but the pastor was wearing shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops.

And we were like,.

What is happening?

That guy's got shorts on and flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt.

That's how I was raised. When I go back home to Indiana, I don't dare wear my hat in church, which feels really awkward. I feel naked. So this pastor had no three-piece suit on. I'm not wearing a three-piece suit.

It's 120 ,000 degrees outside right now. But I can promise you this, the apostles didn't wear a three-piece suit. They were probably wearing sandals, probably had unkempt hair, definitely had beards.

They probably smelled like homeless people and they had glorified dresses on. Now, if someone walked into church right now dressed like that, I think our church would be very accepting. I can tell you the church I grew up in, if someone walked in like the apostles, they'd be like, this guy needs to leave, call the cops, right?

So they will know you by your fruit, not by the way you dress. Holiness is inward. It's not outward. I'm not saying that the clothing we wear shouldn't honor Christ. I'm not saying that we should come to church dressed like an ASU college student in August.

That would definitely not honor Christ. But the point is that, that we as Christians should not judge other Christians by their outward appearances. So that leads me to the last couple of weeks. I mentioned there's been a few articles, I'm not gonna get into details on that, but the point is that there's this group of people called discernment bloggers.

I think of them as the Christian TMZ because that's what they are. They look for anything they can get a hold of and make a big headline out of it. And they cause division and disunity among the body of Christ for their own glory, for their own Facebook likes, for their own Twitter followers, what have you.

Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says, there are six things that the Lord hates. Seven that are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

So these are the six things that the Lord hates. Yes, he hates things. Despite what, nevermind. The six things God hates. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies.

The seventh thing which is an abomination to him is one who sows discord among the brothers. In this list of things, number seven is worse than even murder. Personally, this church has experienced six of these this week, the last two weeks.

I've learned a very valuable lesson that slander spreads like gangrene and becomes a game of Chinese telephone. One person writes one article that's not true and slanderous, next thing you know, there's six other articles that take it and run with it and get worse and worse each time.

Leviticus 19 .16 says, you shall not go around as a slanderer among your people and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor, I am the Lord. These are modern Pharisees. They revel in others' sin and others' demise.

I liken them to sharks. Why is that? Because they lie in wait. As soon as they smell the blood, they come out of nowhere and jump on whatever's happening and devour their brothers and sisters. This is an unhealthy fascination with the brothers and sisters' sin.

Or lack thereof, this is what I call spin to make sin. You guys, I'm sure, watch O 'Reilly. He's got the no spin zone. I don't recommend it, but I'm just saying,.

You've probably heard of it.

The point is that these guys spin their stories to make it appear as if their brothers and sisters are in some sort of horrible sin in order to get headlines. They love to twist words, again, in order to gain a following on social media.

I liken them to twisters, like tornadoes, not the game twister. If you get too close with a twister and you try to play with it, it's gonna suck you in and destroy you. But if you leave that twister alone and you watch from a distance, it's gonna cause damage, but eventually it's gonna run on a wind, it's gonna die, and it's gonna go away.

Like the Pharisees, these guys are moral supervisors. Remember what the Pharisees said in the parable of the tax collector? God, I thank you that I'm not like these guys. Similar to Matthew 7, 1, Proverbs 3, 34 says, toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

Don't be scornful, be humble. Those of you that are familiar with Humble Beast Records, they have a shirt that says more humble rappers, please.

It's true.

We don't just need more humble rappers, we need more humble pastors, more humble fathers, more humble mothers, more humble TV producers, more humble IT guys, more humble janitors, you name it, go down the list, we need more of them.

The Speck, the Beam, and the Need for Heart Reformation

So back to the text. The idea here is that there's dust or a speck or a splinter in your brother's eye. One point I want to make is that in order to see that little speck of dirt in your brother's eye, it's determined by watching them pretty closely.

It's not something you just happen to notice passing by. You overlook all the good in that brother to find the one little bad speck in their eye. Sin is very blinding, and I want to emphasize that I'm not saying that the person in the story here is blind, but blinded, meaning they're definitely a believer.

They're not completely blind to the truth, but their sin is blinding their vision. There's a foreign substance in their eye that needs to be removed. So he says you can't see the log in your own eye. So log here in the Greek, it's basically a heavy timber.

It's a beam used for roof construction or to bar a door shut. So Christ intentionally exaggerated this to make a point. The handbook on the Gospel of Matthew says, on the other hand, the word rendered log describes a piece of lumber used in building.

The saying about the speck in the log is purposely ridiculous, and is to be compared with the saying in Matthew 9 .24 about the camel and eye of the needle. One scholar describes the figure as intentionally grotesque, since no one can in reality have a log in his eye.

It is intended to contrast the insignificant wrongs that the others do to us with the enormous sins that we commit against God. And so its real purpose is to exclude all condemnation of others. Indeed, this exaggerated language should be retained in the translation to make sure the reader gets the point.

So the idea is that you're walking around basically with this giant log, right? Like sticking out of your eye, and you can't even see that it's in your eye, but you notice this little speck of dirt in your brother's eye.

First, remove the log so you can see clearly, and then you'll be able to remove the speck from your brother. You can't see clearly because you can't see past this giant beam sticking out of your eye. Obviously, the speck and the log are metaphors for sin.

So back to verse one and two, are we to surrender all moral judgment? The answer is no. Are we to point out sin in our brothers and our sisters' lives?

Yes.

Are we to righteously judge our brothers and sisters?

Yes.

But first, we need to clean out our own eyes. If our brother has sin in their lives, do we say, judge not, lest you be judged? No, of course not. We make a moral judgment. But again, first, we have to examine our own hearts, examine our own sin before we can do so.

As a side note, always do it in private. Matthew 18, 15 through 17 says, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Always do it in person, or at least send a private message on social media. I don't recommend you make assumptions and then write an article and blast it all over social media.

Definitely not the way to go about it. So we are to practice moral judgments, but we need to do it with humility. We need to do it as sinners saved by grace. We do need to be concerned with the sin in our brother's lives.

But first, we need to ask the Spirit to convict sin in our own lives. We need to see that sin in our brother's lives clearly. If we don't call out the sin in our brother's lives in a loving way, then we hate him.

Illustration would be, if your brother's house is on fire, you see smoke billowing out his windows, do you say, eh, judge not lest you be judged. No, you go and tell him, hey dude, your house is on fire.

It's the same idea. If your brother is burning himself down in sin, you need to go to him and say, hey man, you're killing yourself here, let me help you. So Christ is not forbidding admonishment of brothers and sisters, but he is forbidding the wrong manner in which so many of us do it.

Our motive must be love, the purpose must be to glory or to glorify God and the aim then is the restoration of that brother. I was just talking to my wife, I think it was last night, cause I was like, I made myself a note to make sure I put this in.

Everybody knows what's going on this week in the news, you know, with the racial tensions and people being murdered. And like I told her last night, I was like, more than ever, we as the body of Christ need to be unified.

We need to have the same goals, the same intentions, and that's to expand the kingdom, to preach the gospel. And then ultimately that will transform the culture. Instead we got to spend more time in the last two weeks trying to combat nonsense on the internet because of other brothers just stirring up strife and disunity.

So we need to put that stuff aside and just focus on the gospel. Spurgeon said this, and it's a little bit of a long quote, so bear with me. The judging faculty is best employed at home. Our tendency is to spy out splinters in other men's eyes and not see the beam in our own.

Instead of beholding with gratified gaze the small fault of another, we should act reasonably if we penitently considered the greater fault of ourselves. It is the beam in our own eye which blinds us to our own wrongdoing.