Joe South: "Walk a Mile in My Shoes"

The sixties was a decade when people became socially conscious of societal wrongs. Judging people by their hair length or skin colour suddenly became a topic of conversation.

Listen to Joe South's scathing indictment of hypocrisy here:

It's a pity that non Christians hear Matthew 7:1 and accuse us believers of hypocrisy. The Bible in Basic English renders the verse this way. "Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged."

Jesus was addressing the Pharisees in that verse. They were the ultimate hypocrites. As Matthew 23:1-3 (BBE) reads, "Then Jesus said to the people and to his disciples:' The scribes and the Pharisees have the authority of Moses; All things, then, which they give you orders to do, these do and keep: but do not take their works as your example, for they say and do not.'" Then he listed some of their grievous acts.

Hypocrites lack empathy and the understanding of a person's situation. As Luke 13:15 and 16 (BBE) recounts, Christ was angry at their picky Sabbath rules. "But the Lord gave him an answer and said, 'O you false men! do you not, every one of you, on the Sabbath, let loose his ox and his ass and take it to the water? And is it not right for this daughter of Abraham, who has been in the power of Satan for eighteen years, to be made free on the Sabbath?"

So when and how may we judge? Hebrews 5:12-14 (BBE) holds the answer. "And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone who takes milk is without experience of the word of righteousness: he is a child. But solid food is for men of full growth, even for those whose senses are trained by use to see what is good and what is evil."

James 1:19 and 20 (BBE) sums the matter up nicely. "You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry; For the righteousness of God does not come about by the wrath of man."

If the judge of all the earth hasn't come by Monday, I hope to explain why we mustn't live in fear of the future.

When Should We Judge?

This post is in answer to my friend Joseph Gudz's question regarding judging. People often quote Matthew 7:1 without knowing the context. They assume the verse means not to be critical of people's actions. Does not judging lest we be judged mean what they think?

Look at the context and the audience to whom Jesus spoke. In what Christians call the Sermon on the Mount, Christ addressed the external religion of the Pharisees and the lay people of first century Israel. They were so busy performing works to demonstrate their conformity with it that they forgot about the condition of their own hearts.

One fault which those people had was judging by external appearances. Anybody seen doing religious rituals in public was assumed to be holy. Consider this parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Luke 18:11-14 KJV) "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Consider how many times the religious establishment condemned Christ for keeping company with the riffraff of society. Luke 7:34 (KJV) reads, "The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, 'Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!'"

As a result of this law-keeping attitude, the people of Christ's time neglected to examine their hearts. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that if a person even looked lustfully at a woman, it was as if they committed adultery. Hiding hatred in one's heart was akin to murder as well. Jesus took the law to its extreme in order to show the utter impossibility of keeping it.

Additionally, I've found that when people quote, or more often misquote, Matthew 7:1, it's an effort to shut me up. For example, if I criticize a politician for wasting tax dollars on a boondoggle, I'm often admonished for hypocritically judging that person. However, I condemn the actions of that politician, not them personally. Many people can't separate the two.

There are also occasions when I recognize a fault in somebody else of which I was once guilty. Is it judge mental to warn that person in order to spare him or her future embarrassment or chastisement? Often times that person doesn't realize what effect his or her actions have on others.

Most importantly, we are called to discern good from evil and righteousness from wickedness by lovingly applying what scripture says. Being censorious isn't the way to correct people, as the legalists of Christ's time did. Rather, we should listen instead of shooting our mouths off. What we might assume to be a fault is instead our misunderstanding of people's motives.