Today we examine a topic which we all need help on - being critical of others. Christ gives us three practical commands in this brief text of Matthew 7:1-6: (1) do not judge another in our thoughts; (2) do not outwardly reprove another in our words; and (3) do not lower the standard of truth and righteousness in doing so. There is a tension here, that only God can enable us to handle - a narrow walk of faith that only the Spirit can help us navigate. To judge others in our thoughts is to assume knowledge and superiority which we do not possess. Judging others invites their criticism and distracts us from working on our own spiritual progress. Puritan scholar Matthew Henry said these words of Christ are "a just reproof to the censorious, who quarrel with their brother for small faults, while they allow themselves in great ones." We think we see the tiny speck in their eye, while neglecting the log that is in our own. Yet Christ's words do not mean that we suspend our good and proper judgment, or that we lose the ability to discern the difference between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood. Christ teaches, instead, that we are to hold the truth in humility of heart, and relate to one another in compassionate grace, not in blind pride or insensitive arrogance. We are to relate to one another as starving beggars who found a source of food, and then share with other starving beggars where they might find it. Blessed are the poor in spirit and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Pastor David Packer
