Chapter 44 –
Judging Others
“Do
not judge, so that you may not be judged. For the judgment you give will be the
judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do
you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own
eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your
eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out
of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your
neighbor’s eye.” Matthew (7:1-5)
I
enjoyed Anthony de Mello’s contribution to this chapter. De Mello talks about the
possibility that when we judge others, we are actually judging something about ourselves.
He states, “Every time you find yourself irritated or angry with someone, the
one to look at is not that person but yourself.” (282) De Mello reflects that
perhaps the irritation we see in others is something that we find irritating about
ourselves, therefore we project that irritation back to the other person.
No
matter what, it is not our place to judge. People make their own choices in
life and who are we to judge what they do. That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t
call someone out when they are being harmful or hurtful to another person, or
if they are breaking the law, or are about to find themselves in danger. Not
judging does not mean not confronting sin.
However,
the speck and the log in our eye that Jesus talks about certainly comes into
play if we deem ourselves better than another for whatever reason. A better
person. A better parent. A better Christian. It is not our place to determine what
is “better”. Only God will be our ultimate judge. In the meantime, our job is
to live in the best way we can, love as much as we can, and do all that we can
to take care of our neighbours.
In these verses, Jesus is calling us to worry more about removing the plank from our own eye than from the eye of others. As they say on airplanes, put your own mask own before trying to help others.
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