 It's not even closed. This verse is clearly America's most favorite verse. This is the verse that's quoted most often in America. How popular is this verse? It's so popular that even non-Christians will quote this Bible verse. As a matter of fact, non-Christians quote this verse more often than Christians do. Why? Because this verse is used to try to hold Christians back from trying to let people know what the truth is. What's this verse that we're speaking of? This is in Matthew chapter 7. You've heard it before. Oftentimes, when you hear it, though, you hear it, people quoting it out of context. That is Matthew chapter 7, where he says, do not judge. How do they quote it? They'll say, judge not or do not judge, lest she be judged. So let's look at the passage and see how they're doing it and why they do it incorrectly. The passage simply says, this is Jesus speaking. He says, do not judge so that you will not be judged. Now, the question is, is he telling us to not judge at all? Well, further examination, we look and see that that's really not what he's saying. As a matter of fact, he tells us to go ahead and judge, but he's telling us how to do so. Remember, Jesus is speaking this kind of in view with the Pharisees in mind how they do things hypocritically. He calls them hypocrites, as a matter of fact, how they say one thing but do another. They put on the face of one disguise, but inwardly or in another way, they are actually something else. And so he's really speaking about not judging hypocritically. So what does he say? After he says, I do not judge that you will not be judged. Verse two, for the way you judge will be judged and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. So the same thing that you would put on someone else, how they ought to receive it, the way you judge your standard, that's exactly how it will be judged towards you. Now, how will God do so? Will God send someone else to judge with the same standard or are we speaking of him judging? Well, ultimately, obviously, this is God's judgment. How he uses it, that varies. As a matter of fact, interestingly enough, it might often, as a matter of fact, it might actually be that when you are judged here on earth, you go through something. Sometimes people are so hypocritical, so entrenched in themselves, they don't even realize what they're being judged for or that they're actually being judged. The point will come, the time will come when they will actually know why, when they stand before the Lord. But for us, when we judge, we ought to judge, but to do it right, what he says. Verse three, why do you look at the spec that it's in your brother's eye but not notice the law that it's in your own eye? In other words, you're looking and this seems to give an idea of you're constantly looking. You are, this is the present active indicative. This could be a one-time thing, but more than likely, this is an ongoing thing you are always looking at the way someone else does something and what's happening with this person. And you may very well be right. You could be judging or noticing the right thing. However, if you're noticing that too long intently, it's hard for you to notice their sins constantly and then notice your own. And so what does he say? First, the first thing to do is to then, go down to verse five, you hypocrite, first take the law out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the spec out of your brother's eye. And so he didn't say don't take the spec out of your brother's eye, but first deal with yourself first. That gigantic log that's in your eyes, it should be bigger. As a matter of fact, it probably is since you're sitting and looking at someone else, deal with that first, then you'll see more clearly to help your brother. And let's be honest, we make judgments and assessments all the time, even without noticing, even without trying to, we judge a book by discovery. If a person is overweight, you will judge that that person likes to eat, maybe not like to work out, or if a person is in shape, we'll judge that person likes to work out. They care about their fitness. Certain folks, they care about their hair. You can make that judgment. Certain people, they care about what clothes they wear, how they appear physically to other folks outwardly. You can make that assessment, sometimes properly, sometimes incorrectly. We do that. But should we? Well, sure. How do you know if someone is in sin? How do you know that you're in sin? Well, we take what they're doing and we compare it with the scripture. Oftentimes, you'll hear people from a particular alphabet community who will use this passage. Don't judge me. Or you'll even see tattoos or shirts or what have you. Only God can judge me. Well, number one, he will. But two, you don't wanna get to the point where you have not surpassed or allowed someone else to judge you and you heated before you get to his judgment. So I can promise you, his judgment is far worse. Take the judgment that someone gives. Take this assessment and ponder it. Is it true? Are you behaving in a way that's ungodly? Oftentimes, people will use this passage because they know that they're wrong. They know they're in sin. They'll use this as a defense. Question would be though, what are those passages might they also know? Likely not many. Is it okay to tell a person who is behaving in a racist fashion to let them know that what you just said or did was racist? Is it okay to make a judgment about some woman being beaten or hurtin' by some man or some child being harmed by another adult? Is it okay to judge that? Is it okay to judge certain levels of pollutants or what have you in our food or in our water? Is that okay to judge? Is it okay to judge when a criminal does something wrong? Is it okay to say that's wrong and you must pay for that? Is that okay? Oftentimes when people bring this passage up, they bring it up because they know they're doing something, maybe not necessarily criminally wrong, but certainly morally wrong. And because they have this guilt in them, the way that they can kind of offset the guilt is to quote this passage back at the person that's making the statement. This is what our question, America's favorite passage. However, this is also probably gonna be one of the passages that are gonna condemn them. Now question is, does this passage give us the right not to judge, but to be judgmental? In other words, live a lifestyle of going around, making judgments towards other people? No, no, that will cause us to have to look at our own heart if that's what you're doing. Then the issue is more with you than others. Again, you cannot help someone if you are hypocritically doing the same thing or engaged in something else. That means also that because you also have committed some sort of sin or some sort of moral failure or something like that, that you are no longer able or qualified to also make the assessment. As a matter of fact, people who have gone through things who have sinned and fallen are in a better position to recognize it and help someone else who's in the exact same position that they were in. And so it's good that people who have succumbed to certain sins are no longer in those sins because then they can be best positioned to help that person come out. Someone who was addicted to drugs can tell another person who is dabbling in drugs to tell them best why you should not and what it leads to. Someone who had some sort of sexual issue can turn to another person who is now dealing with the same thing. And so in this regard, the person who was in some sort of sin or some sort of moral failing is to have someone who was just like them to then judge them after that person has removed the law from their eye. That person can then see clearly to help you or someone else who was in the same situation. And so judging is not only is it perfectly fine. As a matter of fact, it's absolutely necessary, especially amongst those who are of the household of faith. Why? Because the Bible tells us that we are going to judge those professing Christians. We don't know who actually is ridden, but we make judgment on them, letting them know this is what the standard is and how we're supposed to live. But without question, this passage is clearly the most quoted passage. It's taken out of context. And because people bring this up oftentimes they want you to stop making godly assessments. They'll call you judgmental. No, we're not being judgmental. We're not being condemning either, but we will make an assessment based on the scripture and that is perfectly fine, perfectly godly, especially if it's done with the right heart. Amen.