By Curtis Baker
This week we come into the third and final chapter of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just finished a section of teaching at the end of Matthew six where he warned us not to try to find our security in worldly wealth, but instead to find our treasure and security in God and his kingdom. Fresh off the heels of that discussion, in Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus now turns to the subject of generosity. Given the context, one might expect that Jesus is still thinking about money. After all, when we say that someone is a “generous” person, that is usually what we mean. But as we read further into the chapter, we discover it is not money that is on Jesus’ mind, but instead a generosity of judgment.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” This is a statement we hear thrown around a lot these days. If John 3:16 used to be the most quoted passage of the Bible, Jesus’ pronouncement about judging surely has taken its place. Often it is quoted by those who are doing something that they don’t want challenged. They use this verse as a way of shutting up anyone who might make a value judgment on their actions. But Jesus is not saying that we are not to make value judgments in life. Indeed, it is impossible not to! Instead, Jesus is pointing out a fact about life that is only too obvious when you consider it. The generosity (or lack thereof) that you display towards others, is very likely the amount of generosity you will receive in return.
Haven’t you found this true in your relationships? If you generally show kindness and good will toward others, they will usually return it. But if at any moment you become hostile towards them it is quite likely they will return the hostility, which in turn ups your hostility, and a vicious cycle is created. This sort of cycle is seen in the smallest of family disputes, all the way up to disputes between nation states which involve war and misery on massive scales. Can you imagine a life where this is not the dominant reality? Jesus is asking us to consider it.
Think about this…we all have some part of our life that we do better than others around us. The great temptation in life is to take the best part of our lives, and use it in comparison to someone else who doesn’t do that aspect of life quite so well. In return, they will find some part of life that they do better than you. Likely we will try to exit the conversation at that point because we only want to compare our best to their worst.
This is an ugly side of human nature, but Jesus tries to use a light hearted way of illustrating it. He asks, “can someone with a 2×4 sticking out of their head, possibly do the fine surgery it would take to remove a simple speck out of another’s eye. The image is laughable! Jesus means it to be laughable! But the recommendation is serious…worry about the log in your own eye, not the speck in another’s eye. I think we can assume the log, in most cases, is a judgmental spirit itself. You can’t see how to appropriately help another person and their problems if the pride of your own self righteous judgment is in the way.
The same thing is true of our “helpful pieces of advice.” Jesus calls this giving what is holy to the dogs or casting your pearls before swine. Swine can digest almost anything, but they can’t digest pearls. If that is all you provide them to eat, eventually they will turn and eat you! Isn’t this true of our unwelcome “helpful advice” we often force on others that we disagree with. If they don’t invite the help, forcing it upon them does no good.
So with all this in mind, how do we help others who we think are participating in things that are wrong or harmful to themselves? Next week we’ll answer that question from Matt 7:7-12. Here is a quick hint though: it has to do with asking.
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
(curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
