Matthew 7:1 – 6

1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.

2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

This verse is the first one those who are doing wrong go to in order for us to ignore what they are doing.

However since the scripture does not contradict itself and Jesus tells us in John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” We are told to “judge.” Both verses use the same Greek word for “judge.” The difference, in John he says to judge righteously. So we have to understand we do not judge unrighteously.

Righteous judgment is according to the truth and facts in a case. It would not be making judgments based on hearsay, gossip, or from only one witness. Paul required Timothy to only hear accusations of wrong doing by an elder to have 2 to 3 witnesses.(1 Timothy 5:19)

Since we understand now that judging righteously is OK, but unrighteous judging is not then we understand if a person judges without evidence then he becomes the one who is guilty of wrong doing.

Verse 3 speaks of hypocritical actions. The speck and beam are used figuratively to help us understand the inconsistency of hypocritical actions. It speaks of two men who have eye impediments. The first has a serious obstruction in the eye but wants to operate on the eye of the second person whose eye is much less affected. It reality, is like a person judging another and condemning that person for drinking alcohol once a week, when the hypocrite is getting drunk every night of the week.

Verse 4 continues the thought on inconsistency.

The hypocrite needs to attend to his own problems before attempting to guide someone else on their unrighteous behavior.

Verse 6 refers to unworthy individuals when it talks of dogs and swine, both were unclean animals under the law of Moses.

The lesson this verse gives us is we should not be doing favors that help those who are doing wrong to do wrong. If a friend asks to borrow money, but you know they frequently spend their rent or grocery money on alcohol, drugs, or gambling and you give him the money you are enabling his habits. If he needs food, it is better to take him to the grocer and buy him his food, if he needs rent money it is better to take him to the landlord and pay the landlord directly, if he needs money for gasoline to go to work it is better to take his car to the gas station and pay for the gasoline.

We need to assess the situation personally before giving money to individuals or even strangers.