Peo­p­le tend to look down on others and judge their beha­viour, lives, etc. This is often done out of sheer arro­gan­ce to boost their own self-esteem. This is often done out of sheer arro­gan­ce to increase their own self-esteem. Jesus asks us to start with our­sel­ves first. We are to reco­g­ni­se the bars in our lives and stop doing so. In doing so, we rea­li­se that it is impos­si­ble for us humans to live up to the high stan­dard of the Ser­mon on the Mount. This in turn dri­ves us into the arms of Jesus Christ, who mer­ciful­ly accepts us.

Overcoming one’s own (religious) arrogance

«Stop con­dem­ning others and you will not be con­dem­ned». (Matthew 7:1 NLB). This sen­tence of Jesus can eit­her cau­se us gre­at reli­ef, but also shake our heads. Reli­ef for peo­p­le who suf­fer from others poin­ting out what is wrong with their beha­viour or their way of life. Reli­ef, becau­se this sen­tence remo­ves any accoun­ta­bi­li­ty. I do what I like is the mot­to. This state­ment cau­ses shaking of the heads of tho­se peo­p­le who per­cei­ve the grie­van­ces in the world and in the lives of others. Hel­pful­ly, they say what is on the tip of their ton­gue. Sin­ce we do not live alo­ne in this world, it is neces­sa­ry that others are brought onto the right path. Shaking their heads, as any rebu­ke is now forbidden.

Too often and too quick­ly, such a short-cir­cuit is drawn. But pre­cis­e­ly both inten­ti­ons, that of lais­sez fai­re and that of the mora­li­zer, are not meant here. If we are not to judge, this does not mean that we are not allo­wed to say any­thing to the other per­son. The cru­cial thing is the atti­tu­de behind it. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, peo­p­le who fol­low Jesus Christ are very good at say­ing what others do not do well. Very quick­ly it beco­mes clear what fol­lo­wers of Jesus are against, but what they are for usual­ly remains some­whe­re in the dark. They right­ly assu­me that ever­y­thing that would be con­dem­nable about them has been for­gi­ven by Jesus. But this does not mean that they are allo­wed to act as jud­ges them­sel­ves. Nor does it mean that ever­y­thing is going well in their lives. They still live in the ten­si­on of «in this world, but not of this world». By con­dem­ning others, they say much more about them­sel­ves than about the con­dem­ned. This shows that they them­sel­ves have not yet pro­per­ly gras­ped the for­gi­ve­ness in Jesus Christ. «God did not send his Son into the world to con­demn it, but to save it through his Son». (John 3:17 NLB).

In Matthew 7:1, do not con­demn means do not exalt yours­elf abo­ve others. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus in par­ti­cu­lar are in dan­ger of jud­ging each other. But the injunc­tion not to do so includes seve­ral are­as. Moti­va­ti­on, becau­se we humans do not know the moti­ves behind what someone does. But God sees the heart and tests it (Pro­verbs 17:3). Becau­se of what we see (John 7:24; James 2:1–4). Peo­p­le who are quicker to have a guil­ty con­sci­ence (Romans 14:1–5). The minis­try of other Chris­ti­ans, sin­ce all gifts come from God (1 Corin­thi­ans 12:1–11). Most fun­da­men­tal­ly, as fol­lo­wers of Jesus, do not speak ill of other fol­lo­wers (James 4:11). Rather, mutu­al love is to be a distin­gu­is­hing mark (John 13:34–35). If jud­ging is renoun­ced, then this also has a posi­ti­ve side effect. «For others will tre­at you as you tre­at them. The stan­dard by which you judge others will also be appli­ed to you when you are jud­ged». (Matthew 7:2 NLB). For as a rule, the high stan­dard expec­ted of others is not appli­ed to ones­elf and usual­ly can­not be met.

The pro­hi­bi­ti­on to rebu­ke others does not mean that all is well with the other. But the pri­vi­le­ge of jud­ging belongs to God. For «Only God, who gave the law, can judge jus­t­ly. Only he has the power to save or to des­troy. So what right do you have to judge your neigh­bour?» (James 4:12 NLB). On the one hand this is a limi­ta­ti­on, but on the other hand it is also a huge com­fort. So much inju­s­ti­ce hap­pens in our lives and in the world, but I know that one day God will hold ever­yo­ne accoun­ta­ble. So I don’t have to take reven­ge, but I can trust in God.

Admitting the beam in one’s own eye

After Jesus had spo­ken about not jud­ging, he beco­mes more spe­ci­fic. In the fol­lo­wing exam­p­le, he descri­bes the human ten­den­cy to dis­co­ver the smal­lest fault in other peo­p­le and point it out to them, but to over­look the same fault in ones­elf. «Why are you upset about a splin­ter in your neighbour’s eye when you yours­elf have a beam in your eye? What right have you to say: My fri­end, come, I will help you pull the mote out of your eye, when you can­not see bey­ond the beam in your own eye? You hypo­cri­te! First pull the beam out of your own eye; then per­haps you will see enough to deal with the mote in your friend’s eye.» (Matthew 7:3–5 NLB). In both cases it con­cerns the eye. This is a very sen­si­ti­ve organ. Even one eyelash in the eye is extre­me­ly dis­tur­bing and leads to the who­le body no lon­ger func­tio­ning pro­per­ly. Only when the eyelash has been remo­ved does life get bet­ter again. But the eye is not only very sen­si­ti­ve, it is also the organ that we noti­ce most when we speak. Things that we noti­ce nega­tively in our coun­ter­parts are also often on the sur­face. They are weak­ne­s­ses that are often quick­ly noti­ced. But Jesus Christ asks his fol­lo­wers to look at them­sel­ves first. Yes, he calls tho­se who first see the fault in others hypo­cri­tes, i.e. peo­p­le who pre­tend some­thing to others. They are peo­p­le who cri­ti­cise some­thing they them­sel­ves can­not con­trol. The theo­lo­gi­an Adolf Schlat­ter says the fol­lo­wing in his com­men­ta­ry on this bibli­cal pas­sa­ge «It is hypo­cri­sy to fight evil in others and not in ones­elf.» Jesus does not for­bid hel­ping the neigh­bour to remo­ve the splin­ter. He does, howe­ver, call for the rem­oval of one’s own beam first.

In psy­cho­lo­gy, the phe­no­me­non of see­ing a defi­cit in the other per­son, which is also per­cei­ved but not admit­ted, is cal­led pro­jec­tion. One’s own ina­bi­li­ty may be grea­ter, but it is blan­ked out. This does not mean that the other per­son has done not­hing wrong, but it does mean that ever­yo­ne should start with them­sel­ves. The first thing to do is to look for the beam in one’s life. It may be that one has alre­a­dy beco­me so accus­to­med to a bad habit that this is no lon­ger per­cei­ved so stron­gly. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ must rea­li­se that they have been set free by Jesus, but this does not mean that they are no lon­ger guil­ty of any­thing. They too have bars in their lives and the­se need to be iden­ti­fied. The­se can be addic­tions, depen­den­ci­es, bad habits, but also pri­de, arro­gan­ce and lack of love. The first step to impro­ve­ment is to admit to ones­elf that one is not per­fect – and to accept this. After the beam in one’s life has been detec­ted, it must be actively remo­ved. Depen­ding on the situa­ti­on, this can be a long and pain­ful pro­cess. Often the lar­gest beams are nee­ded to sup­port one’s own life and to build the house of life. Here it is neces­sa­ry to remo­ve the beam and let Jesus Christ in. Other­wi­se, the­re is a gre­at dan­ger that one beam will be remo­ved, but the gap will be fil­led by ano­ther beam. If fol­lo­wers of Jesus remo­ve a beam in their lives, the­re is a gre­at dan­ger that arro­gan­ce and pri­de, ins­tead of love, will fill the gap.

As alre­a­dy men­tio­ned, Jesus does not for­bid remo­ving the mote in my neighbour’s eye once my own beam has been remo­ved. «Jesus does not want to for­bid us to be hel­pful to one ano­ther, to let go of our evil». (Adolf Schlat­ter). The term neigh­bour goes back to the Hebrew con­cept mea­ning a clo­se per­son. It is the­r­e­fo­re a per­son with whom a rela­ti­onship exists. It is allo­wed to advi­se, sup­port and help each other, but it should not be jud­ged. Yes, it is even good when peo­p­le are allo­wed to speak into each other’s lives. But this requi­res mutu­al consent.

Let Jesus open your eyes

With today’s ser­mon on the first five ver­ses of Matthew seven, we start into a second part of the Ser­mon on the Mount. Matthew five and six were pri­ma­ri­ly about the rela­ti­onship with our hea­ven­ly Father and the rela­ti­onship with ones­elf. This was in the fore­ground. Chap­ter seven is first about beha­viour towards fel­low human beings. If the pre­vious two chap­ters were alre­a­dy chal­len­ging in that they descri­bed a cer­tain stan­dard of fol­lo­wing Jesus, now it is very spe­ci­fi­cal­ly about doing. This is defi­ni­te­ly the end of a pas­si­ve atti­tu­de. Here we get down to the nit­ty-grit­ty. Here comes the con­cre­te call. Eit­her what we have heard is put into prac­ti­ce or we deli­bera­te­ly oppo­se Jesus. This is also the case in our five ver­ses. Eit­her we are rea­dy to remo­ve the beam in our eye, that is, to work con­cre­te­ly on and in our lives, or we lea­ve it alo­ne. But tho­se who remain arro­gant sub­mit them­sel­ves to the jud­ge­ment of God, who will mea­su­re with the same yard­stick as they them­sel­ves have applied.

As fol­lo­wers of Jesus, we want to beco­me more and more like him. Yes, we want to be chan­ged more and more into what Jesus thinks of us. Jesus con­dem­ned very litt­le, and if he did, it was only tho­se who were too proud to admit the beam in their eyes. Jesus does not con­demn you, but wants you to remo­ve the beam. The mes­sa­ge of the who­le Ser­mon on the Mount is that we should beco­me more like Jesus and live our lives accor­ding to him. This also rai­ses the ques­ti­on of how the mes­sa­ge of the Ser­mon on the Mount is clas­si­fied. On the one hand, the inter­pre­ta­ti­on as an ent­rance ticket is obvious. This means that a ful­film­ent of all the demands is pos­si­ble for us human beings. Accor­din­gly, the ticket for hea­ven is bought by kee­ping ever­y­thing as well as pos­si­ble. On the other hand, the demands can be clas­si­fied as unat­tainable for peo­p­le, even fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ. No mat­ter how hard peo­p­le try, they can­not meet the high ide­al of Matthew five and six.

As much as we might want the first to be right, it is the second. We can­not live up to the ide­als. We can­not do all this by our own efforts. This can lead us to des­pair, pri­de or arro­gan­ce, or into the open arms of Jesus Christ. He stands with open arms and says «Come to me, all you who are wea­ry and car­ry hea­vy bur­dens, and I will give you rest». (Matthew 11:28). Being a fol­lower of Jesus is not about rea­ching a mini­mum stan­dard in the sen­se that from then on it is enough, but it is about having your cha­rac­ter chan­ged in school with Jesus. It is about being trans­for­med by Jesus Christ into the image that He has desi­gned for us.

Espe­ci­al­ly for peo­p­le who have been wal­king with Jesus Christ for a long time, the­re is a dan­ger that we no lon­ger per­cei­ve the beam in our eye. So peo­p­le try hard to earn their own ticket to hea­ven. This is dou­bly unfort­u­na­te. First­ly, we can­not earn our way into hea­ven and second­ly, we miss the chan­ce to expe­ri­ence hea­ven alre­a­dy here on this earth by run­ning into the open arms of Jesus Christ. The­r­e­fo­re, it is wort­hwhile to come to Jesus in pray­er and ask him to open your eyes to yours­elf so that you can see which beam you should remo­ve. We can­not earn hea­ven, even if we remo­ve thou­sands of bars in our lives. But when we are in Jesus» arms, then the chan­ge beg­ins in our heart and we reco­g­ni­se which beam we should sepa­ra­te from.

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: Matthew 7:1–5

1. Whe­re are you in dan­ger of jud­ging other peo­p­le? Why are you in dan­ger of doing so?
2. Was the­re alre­a­dy a bar in your life that you had suc­cessful­ly remo­ved? How did you mana­ge to do this?
3. Whe­re are the­re are­as in your life that you should address? Is it bet­ter to seek help?
4. Would it be appro­pria­te for you to give a per­son per­mis­si­on to speak into your life? What pre­vents you from doing so? What would be the conditions?
5. How do you inter­pret the mes­sa­ge of the Ser­mon on the Mount? As an ent­rance ticket or as unat­tainable? What impact does this have on your life?