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Do not judge

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[ Matthew 7:1]

Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

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Have you heard of the Sermon on the Mount?

The Sermon on the Mount refers to Matthew chapters 5 through 7.

It means the precious words that Jesus spoke on the mountain.

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The Sermon on the Mount contains the important words that we must keep as children of God. Some of those words tell us what God's children should do about judgement.

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Jesus told us not to judge others. Let's read today's scripture one more time.

“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.”(Mt 7:1~2)

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There is a reason why Jesus told us not to judge others. If you judge, the judgment will come back to you. Because a man is not perfect, the Lord said that if I judge others, he will someday judge me.

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In particular, He gave an example in a very interesting way to say that the person who judges should take a look at himself first. Let's express what Jesus said.

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There were two people. But one of the men saw sawdust in another's eyes, and he thought, “No, why doesn't he have sawdust in his eyes?”

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So the man approached the other person and said. “See. Do you know what's in your eyes? You don't even know how sawdust is in your eyes.”

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This person continued. “I will remove the sawdust from your eyes. Come here.” The man who did not know the sawdust in his eyes was ashamed and embarrassed.

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He was more surprised when he saw a man who said he would remove the sawdust from his eyes. Because the person's eyes contained plank many times larger than the sawdust. A plank is a very large tree that supports the house when it is built.

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The person with sawdust in his eyes who saw this said to him. “No, are you telling me to let go of the plank in your eyes and leave the sawdust in my eyes? Hey! Take out the plank in your eyes and say it.”

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Jesus said hypocrites were those who saw the sawdust in the eyes of others without seeing the large planks in his eyes. These hypocrites enjoy themselves doing bigger mistakes, hiding them, and judging others' small mistakes.

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Jesus said that the first thing such people should do is remove the planks in their eyes. Only then did he open his eyes and said that he could pull out the sawdust from the eyes of others.

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It is impossible for a plank to enter your eyes. Jesus told this story to give us a strong lesson. Sawdust is a small mistake. Plank is a big mistake, incomparable with sawdust. Before you judge another's faults, you said that you should look first to see if you have a greater fault.

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Philippians 2:3 expresses this lesson: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” A person who respects others more than himself does not judge others.

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A person who believes in Jesus and becomes a child of God must first look back on himself before judging others and observe what Jesus said not to judge.

From today, let's be a person who sees and praises merit of being better than me in the person rather than judging others with humble mind.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)