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"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
- Matthew 7:1-12
We are reading through the Sermon on the Mount, which is chapters 5-7 in Matthew's Gospel. Yesterday, we read, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." Here, my study bible tells us, "We will be judged with our own level of judgment because we are guilty of the very things we judge in others (Romans 2:1). We ourselves have failed in repentance and in fleeing from sin. To pass judgment is to assume God's authority. The second part of this verse is found in Mark 4:24 and in Luke 6:38, each in a different context, as Jesus no doubt repeated this particular message many times."
"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." There are other places where Jesus will teach a system of mutual correction in the Church. However, what it is important to note here is that Jesus calls us to self-awareness first, to self-knowledge, and to the practice of "plucking out" an eye that offends, of cutting off a hand that offends. If our eye is full of light, then that light will also illumine what is in our own inner darkness for us to consider and to repent of, to change. Only with that experience are we really capable of helping others. Our own knowledge of ourselves and our practice of what Jesus teaches about repentance, or "changing our minds" (as the word for repentance literally reads in the Greek), is essential to our real capability for helping others.
"Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." My study bible says that "dogs and swine refer to heathen peoples (Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15), but would also include Jews who do not practice virtue. According to the Church Fathers, dogs are those so immersed in evil that they show no hope of change, while swine are those who habitually live immoral and impure lives. The pearls are the inner mysteries of the Christian faith, including Christ's teachings (13:46) and the great sacraments. These holy things are restricted from the immoral and unrepentant, not to protect the holy things for themselves, for Christ needs no protection. Rather, we protect the faithless people from the condemnation that would result from holding God's mysteries in contempt."
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" A note in my study bible tells us: "The verbs ask, seek, and knock are present progressives: 'be asking,' 'be seeking,' 'be knocking.' Note the synergy: our effort is commanded, but never apart from the immediate help of God. We ask in prayer; seek by learning God's truth; and knock by doing God's will." Asking, seeking, and knocking are also ways of seeking discernment -- the illumination of God's way for us. Of the last verse here, it says that "man is called evil not to condemn the whole race, but to contrast the imperfect goodness that is in people (that is, our goodness is mingled with sin) with the perfect goodness of God (see 19:16-17). If imperfect and even wicked people can do some good, all the more will God work perfect good."
"Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." My study bible notes, "The 'Golden Rule' fulfills the demands of the Law and the Prophets and is a practical application of the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (22:39-40). It is a first step in spiritual growth. The negative form of the Golden Rule ('Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you') was well known in Judaism. Jesus' form is positive: this is the action that begins to draw us toward God."
Jesus begins here with the words, "Judge not, that you be not judged." But in reality, the entirety of today's passage is all about a kind of judgment -- albeit one that we usually call "discernment." True judgment -- that is, of an entire person or soul -- is up to God. We cannot take God's place, or do what is God's work. But Jesus does call us to practice "good judgment" in the sense that we are to be discerning in our choices, in what we do, in how we practice our faith correctly -- and that would include the discernment not to practice improper judgment. We can't really tell others where they need to correct themselves so long as we haven't been actively doing the same on ourselves, and have experience doing so! We must not be hypocrites. A hypocrite is a good indication of one who practices judgment improperly, who practices bad judgment. We are to be discerning in how we offer others the pearls of our faith, of Christ's teaching. The same applies to the apostles when they are sent out on their first missions. In this we must be discerning, guard our mouths, consider all the consequences -- especially, as my study bible pointed out, for those others we may be addressing. (And let us note that those consequences are the consequences of God's judgment.) We must be discerning in praying for the things we want, especially when it comes to spiritual understanding, to the things only God can give us, to the awareness of God's mysteries and holy faith. In this we also practice a kind of discernment in asking and seeking and knocking. Here we are encouraged to do so, to come forward in prayer and reliance on God. That is a positive sense of discernment, something we are encouraged by Jesus to actively engage in. And we are given a promise here by Christ: our Father in heaven wants us to seek Him, to seek Him out for personal relationship in prayer, and we will be rewarded for such behavior -- especially when it comes to deepening our faith. Finally, Jesus sums up the essence of discernment: "Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." Here is the "Golden Rule" we follow for our own behavior, our conduct as one of Christ's children, the summing up of the whole of the Law and the Prophets. He calls us to discerning and sober behavior, but there is much more here: He calls us to awareness of every kind -- both of self-knowledge and self-awareness, and also the illumination that comes as a result of asking, seeking and knocking in prayer and the practice of following as best we can that which God calls us to. This is an always active practice, as the tense implies: be asking, be seeking, be knocking. Ultimately it is our awareness and understanding we are called to, the light that banishes ignorance and darkness, our effort that seeks God's help and God's love and all the abundance and understanding that conveys. Can we practice as He preaches?
