1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.2For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.3“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?4How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?5Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
Is Jesus telling us to never point out sin? Verse 2 says I will be treated by God the way I treat others. I want God to tell me when I am sinning. So what does this mean to me and my life?
First, it is not up to us to decide what is and is not sin, that is up to God. But if God has made it clear, than we are not “judging” by simply standing by God’s decision. The question is about what is sin, the question is about how we treat the sinner.
I know that watching pornography on the internet is a sin. If someone I know is doing it and I publicly expose him and tell him how awful he is and have nothing to do with him, have I treated him the way God would treat me? On the other hand, if I do nothing at all, have I treated him like God would treat me?
But what if I went to him and said something like: “Joe, I know what you’re doing on the internet, do you think that is what God wants you to do? Look, I’m far from perfect myself and I know some things are really hard to quit. I love you and I’ll help you if I can and pray for you and pray with you, but do you think you should talk to our pastor (or someone else you know who is qualified and Christian) about this? I’ll be here for you and I don’t want this habit to destroy your life, and someday I’ll probably need you to be there for me. I promise you, Jesus will always be here for both of us. What do you say we pray together about this?”
That’s probably far from perfect, but can you see humility and love in that? And you know, learning to speak to others like that, instead of brow-beating them about their weakness, required that I be crushed by a weakness of my own. I was so judgemental and harsh at one time. Save yourself the pain of learning this the hard way. Sin is sin, but people only see their sins in a mirror made of mercy, and love, and kindness. Beginner’s Online Bible Study *obbs*
