Matthew 7

7:1-6 We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small faults, while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter, it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in his eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for reprovers; first reform thyself.

CHAPTER 7Sermon on the Mount—concluded.Mt 7:1-12. Miscellaneous Supplementary Counsels.That these verses are entirely supplementary is the simplest and most natural view of them. All attempts to make out any evident connection with the immediately preceding context are, in our judgment, forced. But, though supplementary, these counsels are far from being of subordinate importance. On the contrary, they involve some of the most delicate and vital duties of the Christian life. In the vivid form in which they are here presented, perhaps they could not have been introduced with the same effect under any of the foregoing heads; but they spring out of the same great principles, and are but other forms and manifestations of the same evangelical "righteousness."Censorious Judgment (Mt 7:1-5).1. Judge not, that ye be not judged—To "judge" here does not exactly mean to pronounce condemnatory judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether favorable or the reverse. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is that disposition to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, and unlovely judgments upon them. No doubt it is the judgments so pronounced which are here spoken of; but what our Lord aims at is the spirit out of which they spring. Provided we eschew this unlovely spirit, we are not only warranted to sit in judgment upon a brother's character and actions, but in the exercise of a necessary discrimination are often constrained to do so for our own guidance. It is the violation of the law of love involved in the exercise of a censorious disposition which alone is here condemned. And the argument against it—"that ye be not judged"—confirms this: "that your own character and actions be not pronounced upon with the like severity"; that is, at the great day.

"\nFor with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged,.... Both by God and men; to which agree those proverbial sentences used by the Jews;\n\n"He that judgeth his neighbour according to the balance of righteousness, or innocence, they judge him according to righteousness.''\n\n{w} And a little after,\n\n"As ye have judged me according to the balance of righteousness, God will judge you according to the balance of righteousness.''\n\nHence that advice of Joshua ben Perachiah {x}, who, by the Jewish writers, is said to be the master of Christ;\n\n"Judge every man according to the balance of righteousness.''\n\nWhich their commentators explain thus {y}; when you see a man as it were in "equilibrio", inclining to neither part, it is not clear from what he does, that he is either good or evil, righteous or unrighteous; yet when you see him do a thing which may be interpreted either to a good or a bad sense, it ought always to be interpreted to the best.\n\nAnd with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. This was an usual proverb among the Jews; it is sometimes delivered out thus, \u05de\u05d3\u05d4 \u05db\u05e0\u05d2\u05d3 \u05de\u05d3\u05d4, "measure against measure" {z}; but oftener thus, and nearer the form of it here, \u05d1\u05de\u05d3\u05d4 \u05e9\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd \u05de\u05d5\u05d3\u05d3 \u05d1\u05d4 \u05de\u05d5\u05d3\u05d3\u05d9\u05df \u05dc\u05d5, "with what measure a man measures, they measure to him": one might fill up almost a page, in referring to places, where it is used in this form: besides those in the {a} margin, take the following, and the rather, because it gives instances of this retaliation {b}:\n\n""With what measure a man measures, they measure to him"; so the woman suspected of adultery, she adorned herself to commit sin, and God dishonoured her; she exposed herself to iniquity, God therefore stripped her naked; the same part of her body in which her sin begun, her punishment did. Samson walked after his eyes, and therefore the Philistines plucked out his eyes. Absalom was lifted up in his mind, with his hair, and therefore he was hanged by it; and because he lay with his father's ten concubines, they therefore pierced him with ten lances; and because he stole away three hearts, the heart of his father, the heart of the sanhedrim, and the heart of Israel, therefore he was thrust with three darts: and so it is with respect to good things; Miriam waited for Moses one hour, therefore the Israelites waited for her seven days in the wilderness; Joseph, who was greater than his brethren, buried his father; and Moses, who was the greatest among the Israelites took care of the bones of Joseph, and God himself buried Moses.''\n\n{w} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 127. 2. {x} Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 6. {y} Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. {z} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 9. fol. 7. 4. {a} T. Bab. Megilla, fol. 12. 2. Sota, fol. 8. 2. Sanhedrim, fol. 100. 1. Zohar in Gen. fol. 87. 4. & in Lev. fol. 36.