Good Judgement and Bad Judgement, Part 2

Matthew 7v1-6

21^st March 2025

Last time, we started to look at:

Matthew 7v1-6
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

We saw that judging in the sense of discerning the truth about a person or situation is a good thing, and judging in the sense of condemning another person is a very bad thing. However, there is a whole spectrum between these extremes. It is very possible to judge somebody in the sense of developing a negative attitude towards him without utterly condemning him. Whenever our negative attitude towards another person results in our treating that person in a less loving way, not out of wisdom but out of judgementalism, we sin, and there will be consequences. Jesus says:

Matthew 7v1-2
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Jesus is saying that wherever on this sin spectrum our attitudes and actions lie, God will chastise us, and He will do so proportionately. He is a God of justice, and justice will be done. We know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8v1) but we also know that God will judge us all. This judgement from God comes in at least three ways.

Firstly, God chastises us on earth:

Hebrews 12v5-6
My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves; and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.

When God disciplines us on earth, whether in our prayer lives, or our health, or our circumstances, this is not a sign that He doesn't love us; it's a sign that he does love us. He loves us as a good Father loves his children. God's discipline can be very severe. He is preparing us for an eternity in glory, and He will do whatever it takes to make us as ready for life in heaven as we can be. In some cases, he will even end our earthly lives earlier than we expect, One example of this is:

1 Corinthians 11v29-30
… anyone who eats and drinks [the Lord's Supper] without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have died.

God is much more interested in our eternal destiny than our earthly comforts, or even the length of our earthly lives. He disciplines us on earth in order to shape our characters so we can enter eternity as ready as possible.

Secondly, on the Day of Judgement, God will judge us as to whether we are eternally saved or eternally lost:

Matthew 25v31-34, 41
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'"
…
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

There is no proportionality in this judgement. There is no spectrum here. Either you're a sheep or you're a goat. There is no third option. Either you will be eternally saved or you will be eternally damned. Be a sheep.

Thirdly, after we have been judged to be a sheep, and so to be eternally saved, God will judge us according to our deeds on earth:

1 Corinthians 3v11-15
...no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

The purpose of the first kind of judgement - the earthly judgement - is to ensure that the maximum amount of what we do on earth will survive this test. God uses both encouragements and chastisements on earth to nurture good character in us, to lead us into good works, not bad ones. To the degree that we respond to God's earthly judgements, we amend our thought lives and our actions in ways that produce treasure in heaven - treasure that will last and will not be burnt up on the Day of Judgement.

God is a loving Father, and loves us so much that He will discipline us. But God will never condemn the people Jesus died to save. May we respond well to everything God does in our lives, both comfortable and uncomfortable. May we persevere. May our earthly decisions result in much treasure in heaven.