Who made you Judge?

On today's episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. Having tackled the passage about loving enemies now we come down to the sticky issue of judgment. Who has the right to judge? To condemn? Even more important who has the right to forgive?


Judging Others
37 j“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” 
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. 


The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 6:37–42.

Prayer list:

Eric Hoke @Erichoke - His year of drawing near to the Lord after stepping down from his Lead Pastor role

Lizzie @farmingandjesus pray for this family they strive to adopt but simply do not have the capital to do so. Pray for providence in this trial and thanks for the frist part of the process getting started with the blessings of the body.

Hillary @mamamelon34 Prayers for a speedy recovery from her first surgery on Tuesday

Transcript

 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. Welcome back, Saints. It is a new week and we are right back at it here on the podcast. Huge shout out to all of you that have been listening along, following along as we continue our journey through Luke. It's crazy to see the traffic increasing on the podcast again after being consistent, having that high at us for a couple of months while I was dealing with my personal issues, 2s focusing on family, focusing on my profession for a few months. It's great to come back. It's great to see that this daily podcast can continue and be a part of my regular day and I hope your regular day as well. Last week we finished off with Jesus talking about who we should love, who we should hate, and whether that's an actual thing. And it was pretty amazing to see how far and wide that concept of love is expected of us. 1s Christ just not showing much room there. Now, obviously, when you've got a beautiful passage on Mercy like that, you would expect there to be some aspect of justice that follows it. And that's what we're going to get into today. Today's passage from Luke is about justice. It's about judgment. It's about who's going to decide right and wrong, who's going to decide how they're going to apply. That what that looks like and what Christ call is for us when it comes to judgment. So we're going to be doing that. We'll take a look at it real quick and then we'll pray afterwards. Let's get down to it. So as always, guys, some of you may be listening on the road, on the commute, in the office, and you're not able to just take a Bible out right there and read it, no problem. I'm going to read the passage as well for those that don't have a Bible handy. If you do have a Bible handy, of course, I encourage you to open that up and read along with me in whatever translation you prefer I read from the ESV. So that's where we're going to be reading from today. And here we go. Luke, chapter six, verse 37. Judge not and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for with the measure you use it, it will be measured back to you. He also told them, a parable cannot blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say that to your brother? Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye, you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you'll see clearly to take out the spec that is in your brother's eye. So this one is a bit of a doozy, and this is one that we constantly see, especially an application of how we treat the world and the world around us. Inside the church, there are a lot of rules about how the elders operate and how we as Christians should come to one another with our sins, with our conflicts, with our aggressions, with one another. And there are rules specifically for that. But here we have Christ preaching to the masses. This is to everybody, right? This is to the believers that are present, the disciples, the apostles, but also to those that might be walking by that are not believers. This is to the Pharisees, the Sadducees, anybody that's just lurking around Romans that happen to hear, right? This is anybody and everybody he is preaching to here. And he leads off pretty simply on the on the judgment part of, listen, guys, it's it's this judge not. You won't be judged, condemned, not you won't be condemned. Again, this is pulling and falling directly after the love your enemies part, right? So we're coming from this idea of love. Love those that you hate, love those that you love. Love, love, love. Okay, well, what about judgment? When is it appropriate to judge? Well, don't judge, and you won't be judged. Condemn, don't condemn, you won't be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it's going to be given to you. This measure seems to be a direct tie to the law that he was talking about in the previous segment of Luke Six here. And it really is this challenge of 1s where are you? What is your focus? Is your focus on taking on that role of the one judge who isn't you? Or is your focus instead on loving the people around you, giving forgiving showing patience, showing mercy? Is that really for you? And he takes it a step further with the parable getting into, okay, so let's say even after reading that passage on loving your enemies and me telling you explicitly, don't judge or you will be judged. Don't condemn or you will be condemned, he goes further to give them this parable with this blind man who seems to have the insinuation that though he's blind, he can offer to take a spec out of somebody else's eye. And then we get into the log and the spec and how that works with your brother. And what's really remarkable here is that idea of almost an arrogance that we can have. Great. So you know your scriptures, you know your Bible, you know right from wrong, and you try to apply that in your own life and that's well and good that's to be encouraged. But trying to force those realizations in that scripture onto other people in the form of judgment and condemnation is very clearly something that's not being called for here. What's being called for here is that idea of continue to use the word to discern for yourself sin, and to apply that in your own life and show people what a life that is dedicated to scripture looks like. But the second you try to force and push that on to people for the sake of judgment and condemnation, well, now we've taken a leap too far on that ship. So I would ask you guys, and if you want to comment on social media, on the podcast, wherever you guys are listening to this, that's fine. I'd be happy to read your thoughts on this passage. But for me, I'm going to challenge you guys today just to take that time and measure and look at your own life and look at the things that you struggle with your sins and I want or how. 1s How much you would love to have people judging you and condemning you for those sins when you know that Christ is working with you and he's trying to work you through those sins and you know they're wrong and you're struggling. Even Paul had that problem, right? I do the thing I do not wish to do. Those things are there, but at the same time, Paul's not looking for judgment or condemnation applied to him on that. He's seeking the mercy of Christ. And Christ is calling us here to give that forgiveness. It's right there and immediately follows. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, it will be given to you. That idea of let's lead instead with forgiveness, let's lead instead with giving, with compassion, with empathy, let's do that. Take a moment and just think about it in your own life. Are there circumstances, are there people, are there groups of people that you do not have that attitude of forgiveness towards, of giving towards instead, you are taking a firm stance of judgment and condemnation and really, really wrestle with that. Is that judgment something that you want in place? If you judge, you will be judged is the reverse of what is being said here. It's also true. If you choose to have that judgment, you will be judged. If you choose to condemn, you will face condemnation. Be very careful. If you choose to forgive, though, you're going to be forgiven. If you choose not to forgive, well, that also has an implication. Wrestle with this today. It's not an easy one. This is a really, really hard passage, and it has wide reaching implications as to how you will react not only to the body, but also to those around you. Do you lead with forgiveness or are you a judge? 1s Alright, guys, hopefully that's enough of a challenge for today. I know that's a big one and I really do hope that you guys take the time to wrestle with that scripture because it is a tough one. It is a tough one. We're going to go into a time of prayer now for those of you that don't know whether you're catching this podcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, wherever you're seeing the posts, if you guys have prayer requests and you put them out, I do go through all of those feeds. I do seek out those that are in need of prayer for the podcast. So if you need to have some anonymity, I can do first name or no name at all, that's completely up to you. If you're comfortable with the name, I do put it in there. First name or full name, whatever you're comfortable with. But I do want to make that a big part of this podcast is lifting up those that are in need of prayer so that we can support them in that way, as well as leading all of you that are listening in prayer, as well as you prepare your day and hopefully face the challenge. So let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the forgiveness that we receive. And I love that that's where you're trying to lead people to here, Lord, that you are the judge. You have perfect wisdom, perfect discernment. You know all that is right and wrong and you can read a man's heart. You are equipped fully to judge and we are not, we are not equipped to condemn, but we have been given the blessing and the ability to forgive. So I pray for those of us that are carrying condemnation and judgment towards others today in our heart that we would lean on forgiveness a little bit more, that we would seek to have that heart of mercy and that we trust in your character. God is judged that you are doing that job and it's not ours to have. Lord, I lift up ericok to you. He's in his year of, we'll call it Sabbatical from the pulpit. He did step down as lead Passer to draw closer to you, Lord, to better understand your calling in his life and the direction he's meant to go. I just pray that he continues to walk with you in that, Lord, that he continues to seek you out. 1s I lift up Lizzie to you. I pray for this family, Lord. They have a good, Godly desire to adopt a child and to bring a child into their lives to share you and to share their family with. And it can be an expensive journey and it can be a very burdensome journey on not only the family, but 1s on the children as well that are awaiting adoption, Lord. So I just pray for Lizzie and her family. Thank you so much for the blessings that have come, but I just pray for continued providence and guidance from You, Lord, in this process as they take their first steps towards adoption. Lord, I lift up Hillary to you. She's going for her very first surgery, and that can be very, very scary if You've never been through it. So I just pray that everything would go well. Lord, you are a great healer, and I pray that the physicians that are working with Hillary on her surgery would be skillful. I pray that you would be there with them as a mighty healer, and I also pray that you would be there in the recovery, Lord, that she would have a speedy recovery and get through this fairly quickly. Thank you so much, Lord, for all that you give us, for all those prayers that are unsaid and know that you hear the Lord. Amen. That's it, guys. Have an amazing day today. I will catch you tomorrow with another episode later. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.