The Duty of Discrimination

Judge not, that ye be not judged—Matt. 7:1-5

Several meanings may be put on these words.  (1) Pass no final condemnation on anyone; judge yourself critically, but judge others charitably.  (2) Let self-judgment and not judgment of others be the guiding principle of your life.  This is not to preclude discernment and convictions.  (3) The surest way to make folk sit in judgment on you is to maintain a spirit of judgment toward them.  “Do not judge, if you would not be judged” may rightly convey the meaning of Jesus’ instruction.  Indeed, the attitude of others toward you is a fair index of your attitude toward them.

Nothing could be farther from the meaning of this admonition than the conclusion that a person is not to form opinions and tentative judgments.  An honest person must evaluate himself as well as others.  Jesus is, in fact, urging the most careful discrimination between the mote and the beam;  He desires that each of us “sees clearly” his own as well as his brother’s need.  It is a sad fact that most of us do not see clearly enough; we have not properly “proved all things.”

The danger pointed out by Jesus is the tendency to minimize our faults and to magnify the faults of others.  The critical person who sees “the mote” in his brother’s eye is completely unaware of anything in his own!  Such a person commonly has a beam in his eyes, and is in no position therefore to correct his neighbor.

If only a person would first view himself critically!  Jesus calls that person a hypocrite who constantly overlooks his own need of adjustment and ever sees the inconsistencies of others.  “Fist cast the beam out of thine own eye.”  It is one’s own duty to carefully examine and correct his own conduct before he endeavors to help others.

These words have a very pointed applicatio9n for preachers and for Christian workers who are constantly engaged in seeking to help others.  We may be so sure of having corrected certain things in our lives and so solicitous in seeking a similar correction in others that we neglect further personal adjustments.  Our spotty vision, seeing only the errors corrected and self-adjustments already made, may lead us to spiritual intolerance and bitter condemnation of others who have not yet had “the mote” pulled out of their eyes.  On the other hand, a person who is constantly endeavoring to pull “the beams” out of his own eye has almost unlimited access to another brother who is troubled with “a mote.”

--George E. Failing