Good afternoon! I hope that you are having a blessed day! I want to talk about a scripture that many people quote but do not know the true meaning of it. Matthew 7:1 reads, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Many people stop there and do not read the next couple of scriptures that explain what Jesus meant when he said it. Many sinners use this scripture to justify what they are doing wrong. They feel like if someone tells them something to correct them, then the person is judging them. How will anyone know what they are doing wrong if no one tried to help them? When is someone judging opposed to helping?
The next few scriptures answer these 2 questions. Matthew 7:1-5 read, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considereth not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thou brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." A person is judging someone if they are guilty of the same thing that they are trying to correct. For example, an adulterer cannot tell someone to stop committing adultery because they would be a hypocrite. However, if someone does not commit adultery, they can tell someone not to commit adultery. They would not be a hypocrite.
Some people may say that no one is perfect. I totally agree, BUT we should all be striving for perfection. Romans 6:15-18 are good scriptures to correct people who try to justify sin by saying that we are not perfect. "What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." We should be servants of Christ and not servants of sin. God knows when we deliberately try to sin instead of striving for the kingdom of God. He knows if you are sincerely seeking Him, and you slip up.
We should tell others what the Bible says we should do to enter into Heaven. It is helping them escape eternal damnation. Jesus told us to "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." I will blog another day on who can preach the gospel and who shouldn't. We were not all called to preach. I hope that you learned something that you did not know today. I felt led to write about this because so many people use Matthew 7:1 out of context. Thank you for reading! God Bless!
