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COPING WITH CRITICS

None of us who like critics. We don't like people who point fingers at others. The religious leaders were like this. Their "righteousness" was a man-made one. They applied their standards against the people. They were critical of others. They oppressively judged the people on their standards. We have this going on today in God's Church. Some people are well meaning and some are are legalistic hypocrites. See Luke 18:10-14. If you exalt yourself than you lower everybody else.

1. We are to avoid hurtful judgment (vs 1-3)

It is critical rock-throwing against others. We are not to take things too far. We can tell people the truth if it is a sin in the Bible. We can say that homosexuality or fornication for example is wrong. You can judge the methods but you can't judge the motives. You can judge what a person does but you can't judge why a person does it. You are not to judge in a critical spirit. If God says something is wrong then it is not wrong to repeat it. It must be in the Word of God. Why is it wrong to have a critical spirit.

We are fallible (vs 3) - We are not to judge without knowing all the facts. We have all had to be corrected because we judged to the wrong conclusion. We don't have all the information. We are not God.
We are fallen (vs 3) - We need to look in our eye before we look in the eye of others. We see a speck of sawdust in the eye of others and miss the beam in our own eye. We are often quick to criticise in other people what we have in our own lives.

2. We are to avoid hypocritical judgment (vs 4-5)

Jesus used humour to make his point. There is a big difference between a speck of sawdust and a telephone pole! How can we do this? When we look at ourselves we do it with a telescope. When we look at others we do it with a microscope. We minimize our faults and maximise the faults of others. We accept in ourselves what we won't accept in others. If you have a telephone pole in your eye, how can you see the speck of sawdust in another person's eye? You find it because you go looking for it.

The person who go looking for faults, is a hypocrite. You need to get the telephone pole out of your eye before you can help others. If you concentrate on your own life you will not have time to throw rocks at others. If you have the beam out of your own eye, then you can help others without hypocritical criticism.

3. We are to affirm holy judgment (vs 6-12)

Christians can confront people with what is wrong. Dogs and pigs were considered the lowest of animals by the Jewish people. We are not spend our time arguing with those who reject the gospel. There are people who are open to the gospel. See 1 Corinthians 2:15. Those who are spiritual can give holy judgment. The hypocrites judge others when their lives are worse than the person they are judging. See Galatians 6:1-2. We are to restore in a spirit of meekness.

If someone goes before a Judge for stealing. Does he set him free because the Bible says not to judge? See John 7:24. We are to judge righteous judgment. You can't judge a book by it's cover but you can judge by it's contents. If people are wrong then we can say so. We are not to do it if we are being hypocritical. We can and should tell people what God's Word has to say.