“Something in Our Eyes”
(Luke 6:37-42)
Series: Certainty in Uncertain Times
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist CHurch, Henderson KY
(9-5-10) (AM)
- Take God’s Word and open to Luke, chapter 6.
We are continuing our series of messages, verse-by-verse, through the Gospel of Luke. We preach through books of the Bible here at Henderson’s First, believing it’s the best way to learn the Word of God. If your friend wrote you a letter they would be disappointed if you only read a line from the first page and another line from the second. They would want you to read the whole letter in its context to make sure you got the meaning right. Much preaching today is a line from here and a line from there, a verse here and a verse there, but God has given us entire books of the Bible so that we might read them and study them in their entirety.
So we’re making our way through Luke and we’re in chapter 6. Jesus is preaching this sermon, sometimes called the “Sermon on the Plain.” And he has been preaching on loving our enemies, doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Then He makes these statements beginning at verse 37 and I want you to follow along as I read just these six verses this morning, but verses packed with practical teaching that will help each of us this week. Listen to Jesus:
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
37 ” Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
39 And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?
40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
41 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?
42 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Recently our church ordered some new postcards for me to send to visitors or members. I had been using a postcard for nearly 8 years. On one side was a picture of the Bible and on the other side where you write a note was a picture of me in the upper left-hand corner. The picture made the card more personal and it was just a nice little card. When we last ran out of these cards and changed the design of the card it was also obvious that we were going to have to change the picture, too. And the reason we were going to have to change the picture was because we were not really sure who that guy was on the card! Who was this youthful looking guy with the fresh face? He can’t be the pastor. He has…more hair than the pastor. Was he the former pastor? So we had a new picture taken and now there is no question: Hey, there’s Brother Todd!—man, how old is he now?
I kept one of the old postcards for posterity’s sake. I put it down on the desk next to the new one and I looked at both of them and just shook my head. I couldn’t believe how much I had changed. We don’t realize it, you know. I mean you look at the pictures side by side and you say, “Look at the difference! It’s obvious.” And it is obvious when you see the two at once, but it’s not so obvious with each passing day. Our eyes just get used to seeing ourselves as we have always been and, in this sense, we don’t see ourselves as we really are. And so, it is almost like we have become blind to the changes or that we have something in our eyes that prevents us from seeing clearly. And to think that we use these same eyes, these very same eyes, to look out at others and formulate opinions about what we see. So we look at others and, based upon what we see, we make judgments about them and offer criticisms about them and totally unsolicited opinions about them without seeing them as they really are.
This passage will help us look upon others in the right manner. This passage will help us see clearly. Do you want to know how to have a happy marriage? Do you want to know how to get along with your family? Do you want to know how to get along with your superiors, your shift supervisor, manager, or teacher, enemy? This passage will help. It’s not that we come to the Bible looking for “Keys to Successful Relationships.” God didn’t write the Bible primarily with our personal success in view. The Bible may indeed help our self, but it is not primarily a “self-help book.” The Bible teaches us to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And when we seek to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then we will find ourselves the happy benefactors of those who enjoy the unsearchable riches of Christ and live in light of His Word.
Jesus is telling His disciples here how to live. He is telling those who are Christ-followers how to interact with others, how to love them, look at them, and live before them. If we are true followers of Christ we will do these things. They are not options. Not everyone listening to this message will do these things because not everyone is a follower of Christ. Those, however, who love the Lord, will love His Word. If we love our Teacher then we will love His teachings. If we love Christ, we love His commands.
So what does He teach us about others? What are we to do in our relationships? Well, I actually have three main headings for this passage, but we’re only going to get to the first main heading today because the first two verses yielded much more material than I had anticipated in my sermon study and preparation. So here’s the first main heading:
I. We must Love like our Lord (37-38)
Context is king. The key to verse 37 is the preceding verse, verse 36. We left off last Sunday with verse 36. Jesus says, “Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Then, it’s like Jesus says, “Now, let me give you some specific examples of what being merciful looks like. Here’s how to be merciful, to show mercy and love: verse 37, ‘Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, forgive, etc.’” So if we love like our Lord then we’ll not be judgmental, we’ll not condemn, we’ll forgive, and we’ll give generously. We’ll love like our Lord.
These four actions in verses 37 and 38 require a little explanation. The first action, “judge not,” does not of course refer to the right actions of law courts and judges or teachers and students who must discern between truth and error. That kind of judging must always be done. Things are either true or they are false. Rather, the phrase “judge not” has to do with having an ungodly spirit of criticism, of having a disapproving, judgmental nature, even of sinfully enjoying what one calls, “judging for the pleasure of judging.”
In fact, the next action, “Condemn not,” is essentially a synonym for being judgmental. Jesus teaches that we’re never to look down upon others with a high-handed “I’m holier than you” attitude. This is the attitude of the hypocrite who thinks his behavior is far superior to everyone else’s. He thinks to himself, “I may not be perfect, but I’m better than that person over there. Just look at her!” This is the attitude Jesus denounces.
This is the idea in the scenario John writes about in chapter 8 of his Gospel. Jesus is teaching in the temple and the scribes and Pharisees interrupt His teaching by dragging before Him a woman whom they seemed very pleased to have caught in the very act of adultery. They put her there in front of everyone and said to Jesus, “Now the Law says she should die a death of stoning,” and perhaps even at this point they were all passing around a bucket of rocks. They asked Jesus, “So what do You say?” And John suggests that they didn’t care at all about this woman but that they were just trying to catch Jesus in some sort of inconsistency. Remember what Jesus says to all of these men so ready to get on with the brutal execution? He says, “Alright, here’s how we’re going to go about this: the first guy who has never sinned will cast the first stone. So go on now, he who is without sin, go ahead and throw.” And to the credit of formerly eager crowed they all walked out, one by one, leaving their stones behind.
Now based on just these first two actions, “judge not” and “condemn not,” how would lost people, unbelievers in our community and across our country, rate the church’s effectiveness in living up to these two commands? Would they say, “Yes, I think the church is very loving and gracious to unbelievers,” or are they more likely to say that they feel Christians are always looking down their noses at them, always condemning and criticizing them when it is very clear that the Christians themselves aren’t exactly glowing examples of virtue? Isn’t this the very accusation of the unchurched? What do they say? “I’m not going to that church. The church is full of—what?—hypocrites.” Yes, it may be an excuse but if the claim can be fairly made then we should be very concerned. Judge not, condemn not.
In his book on these teachings of Jesus, John Stott writes this about the judgmental person. He describes this person as “the fault-finder who is negative and destructive towards other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failures.” Then Stott sums it all up by describing the judgmental person in three actions: “He puts the worst possible construction on their motives, pours cold water on their [plans], and is ungenerous towards their mistakes.”
Why is it a sin to be judgmental? Why is it a sin to have a condemning spirit? Have you ever thought about this? Isn’t it a sin because when we’re judgmental we are placing ourselves in the position of one who knows all things? We ourselves are not perfect and therefore are unworthy to be un-lovingly critical of others. God is perfect. Let Him judge. And when we’re judgmental we are also attempting to take the place of the only One who knows everything about others, including their inner thoughts and motivations. We place ourselves on a throne that only God can occupy and we hand down these judgmental criticisms because we don’t have all the information. We don’t know everything God knows about others so we’re in no position to have a judgmental spirit or condemning nature.
We are so quick to criticize and categorize people often because we simply don’t have all the information. For example, the woman who frowns at you while you are giving your sales pitch, you feel certain is a fool who disagrees with everything you are saying when in actuality she is just trying really hard to listen to what you are saying. The man who always sits in the office with his arms crossed in front of himself may not be as disinterested as you think; it may be that he is hiding a tremor in his hands, an early sign of Parkinson’s. The guy who sleeps through the sermon may not be a hard-hearted unbeliever; it may be that he was up at 2 AM and 3 AM and then again at 4 AM worried about his teenage daughter. Sometimes we make these quick and faulty judgments because we simply don’t have all the information.
How quick we are to just write people off, categorizing them as hopeless causes because we’ve made a hasty, judgmental determination about them we feel must be true. It can happen in an instant. I mean someone pulls out in front of you as you’re driving 55 miles per hour. The guy just pulls out right in front of you and drives like 35 miles per hour. You just can’t wait to get around this guy and have a look at him. You feel certain when you see this guy he’s going to have his teeth sticking out and big ears and a dumb look on his face and pull up to him and look over at him and he looks just like you; pretty normal. And it’s like in that moment God says to me—yes, this is an autobiographical illustration—it’s like God says, “Hey Brother Todd, have you never done something like that? Hmm?”
Then Jesus says, “Forgive.” Do you have a forgiving spirit? When you are wronged or hurt are you willing to forgive? Let me caution us against making light of this. The ability to forgive is evidence that one is a true Christian. Indeed, all of these actions are actions of true followers of Christ. Jesus says, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged,” that is, by God. If you are judgmental towards a person, showing judgment without mercy, the Bible says in James 2:13 that you can expect God to show the same kind of merciless judgment to you: “Judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.” And Jesus says, “Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.” If you are a true follower of Christ you will not have a spirit of condemnation towards others. If you do you can expect God to condemn you. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Forgive others and God will forgive you. Do not forgive others and God will not forgive you.
It’s quite alarming, isn’t it? If we say we are Christians, but we do not forgive another person we are lying. We’re not Christians at all. This is not the opinion of your pastor. This is the teaching of our Lord. Our Lord’s Prayer is, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us (Luke 11:14).” So be very careful before you say something like, “Well, I forgive but I won’t forget!” Be very careful because your words may mean that you really don’t intend to forgive.
This is why the puritan Thomas Watson said, “A man can as easily go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing.” Jesus says in Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Don’t think for a moment that if you are unwilling to forgive someone who offended you and you go to sleep one evening and die in your sleep, do not think for even a moment that you will have the assurance of waking up in heaven. Jesus says as clearly as it can be said, “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Jesus drives that point home in the parable He tells in Matthew 18. Remember this one? Jesus and His disciples are walking along and Peter asks, “Lord, how many times should I forgive someone who sins against me—seven times?” Then Jesus says, “I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven,” the point being forever. There’s no end, no limit our forgiving others, even if it’s the same guy sinning against us over and over again. Then Jesus illustrates the truth in Matthew 18 by telling about this guy who owed his master something like a trillion dollars. Facing prison for his inability to pay the money back, the guy gets down on his knees and begs him, “Just give me time and I’ll pay back every penny,” which was impossible. He could never pay back the debt. But the master is overcome with compassion and releases the man’s debt and sets him free. But this man goes out and finds a guy in his office who owes him lunch money and he puts his hands around his neck and threatens him to pay it back. So when word of this gets back to the man who had forgiven the trillion dollars he has the guy locked up and delivered over to torturers. Then Jesus says to every Christian listening to Him, “So—or, likewise—My heavenly Father will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother.”
The reason Jesus can say, “If you don’t forgive others then you can’t expect your heavenly Father to forgive you” is because if we really have been forgiven by God we acknowledge the tremendous debt we owed to Him. We acknowledge that we as sinners were on our way to hell and that we deserved nothing but judgment for our sin. But in Christ Jesus God took the debt that we owed and gave to us the credits of Jesus. So if we have experienced forgiveness we will forgive others. It’s just that clear. Forgiveness is not always easy, but we will get around to it sooner rather than later if we have been forgiven by God. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
How do you stay in a marriage? One word: “Forgive.” That’s pretty much it. People are rushing to the courthouse completely throwing aside what they said before God and all the wedding guests back when the minister was leading them through the vows. One of them gets ticked off and says some unkind things and the other says some unkind things back and they begin to say they don’t really love each other anymore, but the truth is they were unwilling to be Christ-like and forgive.
So often marital breakups have little to do with infidelity or the abandonment of a Christian spouse by an unbelieving spouse, both permissions for biblical divorce as I understand the texts. Most divorces are not on biblical grounds but on unbiblical grounds. Someone got their feelings hurt, someone was misunderstood, someone said things they shouldn’t have said and it just escalates.
And what we are doing by not forgiving others is allowing our sin natures to just take over. We become self-focused, self-centered, and blind to our own faults. When we choose not to forgive those who have hurt us what we’re doing is we are minimizing our own offenses by maximizing the offenses of others.
This is what Jesus goes on to teach later in the passage about the speck of dust in your brother or sister’s eye and you’ve got a log in your own eye. We’ve all been to a party or social engagement of some kind and you know you go up to talk with someone and they are talking and you see immediately that they have this little piece of green spinach or something stuck in their teeth and it just looks horrible. And you don’t say anything. And they’re just talking on and on and laughing and there it is for the world to see, that green thing. And then they go and they talk to someone else. Same thing. Little green piece of something lodged there in their teeth. After an hour or so this poor person goes into the restroom and is washing her hands and looks in the mirror and there it is. And she cries and wonders how many people she has gone around talking to looking like this. And so many of us go around interacting with all kinds of people, quick to point out what is wrong with what they’re doing and all the while we’ve got this problem sticking out ourselves that puts us in no position to correct the faults of others.
So how do you stay in a marriage? Forgive.
How do you keep working at that place with the guy who’s so unkind? Forgive.
How do you stay in a church when someone ticked you off and hurt you? Forgive.
How do you stay as pastor of a church when you’ve been hurt? Forgive.
Then Jesus says in verse 38, “Give.” Note how beautifully this word “give” is woven together with these other behaviors. Have a giving spirit towards others. Be quick to extend to them the inexhaustible grace of your love, mercy, compassion, and kindness. Give unto them—do unto them—as you would have them give or do to yourselves. You see how this action belongs here with the others? The word “give” is not to be untied from the verses around it, lifted up and pulled from its biblical context, its meaning changed by a smiling prosperity preacher who promises that if you’ll just give your money to God and His work then He will bless you with more. No, the action is spoken with reference to how we interact with others. We’re to love them like our Lord loves us, showing mercy, not being judgmental or condemning. We’re to have a forgiving spirit toward others and a giving spirit toward others. And if we’ll treat others this way then God will treat us the same.
So if we give our love and compassion and kindness to others, and yes, even of our stuff to others, then God will treat us the same way which may or may not include tangible things like money or possessions, but will certainly include the giving of His limitless favor and kindness. That’s the idea. The measure of love you extend to others will be measured back to you. Have a giving spirit toward others and God will have the same spirit towards you, so gracious is His giving that it’s like when you go to get grain, says Jesus, and you fold open up your cloak in order to catch grain and the guy pours the grain into your cloak that it fills every empty space and just spills everywhere. That’s the superabundant measure of love that God gives to us and that is precisely the measure of love that we are to give to others this week—our spouse, our parents, our children, our fellow church members, our supervisors, our co-workers, our teachers, our students, our friends, and our enemies. We must love others as our Lord loves us.
Judge not. Condemn not. Forgive. Give. In sum, “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”
- Stand for prayer.
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