Here are my notes and the questions from last nights LightHouse:
1. How do you spot false teaching? What are its distinguishing marks?
2. How is being a Christian today counter cultural? Where does it lead to conflict? How do you respond to that conflict?
As Jesus teaches his disciples the crowd are watching on and listening in, but Jesus teaching is for the disciples, it is the manifesto of the kingdom for those who follow the King. But Jesus doesn’t just want fickle followers who give up when things are difficult he wants faithful followers who will live out their conviction about him being the king of the kingdom. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount he has been teaching about the counter culture of the kingdom, and we saw (7-12)he calls on them to recognise the resources of the kingdom and pray to their heavenly Father. But a counter culture will always face conflict as it battles against the predominant culture which it is counter to. Jesus has already warned that the citizens of the kingdom will face persecution (5:10), insults and slander(5:11) and will have enemies which it is to love(5:44). Jesus doesn’t sugar coat discipleship, the dangers inherent in it or the challenges it will bring, but he calls disciples to faithfully follow him.
1. Faithfully Follow
What does Jesus call on the disciples to do? (13)”Enter through the narrow gate.” But what is the narrow gate. Turn to Psalm 118:19-24, the Psalm praises God for his love which endures forever, the Psalmist writes:
“Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.”
It is a cry for God to save by granting entry to those who are righteous by their faith in his provision of salvation. The gate is the means of entering into his presence, only the righteous can enter in. And look at the next verse:
“The Stone the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone.” A verse that is picked up of Jesus, Jesus is both the cornerstone which is rejected by some and the gate through which the faithful can enter and be saved. Jesus is the gate, he is the one in whom we become righteous because we are given his righteousness and so we can be citizens of the kingdom. In John 10 Jesus tells us that the gate is himself.
Back to Matthew 7, Jesus is calling on the disciples to put their trust in him, he is the only way to enter the kingdom of God. He explains why this is so important in (13-14) as he compares and contrasts the two different ways to live, and notice that there are only two; two gates, two paths, two peoples and two destinations. There is no third way, they are also not two ways but one destination, they are not different paths that lead to the same place. But the picture is of a choice to be made, a response to be determined, and a future to be faced.
The two ways to live which Jesus sets out are very different. One is easy to enter because the gate is wide, there is no immediate cost to enter it you don’t have to leave things behind or put things down to get in the gate and the way itself is easy it is broad; tolerant and pretty much anything goes, it is also popular with lots of people going that way and living similarly. But **what does Jesus say about its destination? It is destruction.
What about the other way? It is narrow and therefore harder to get through, just think about Jesus claims elsewhere about leaving everything to follow him; that is what they disciples have just done at the end of ch4. It is a narrow road, it isn’t broad and easy but brings opposition and persecution. Fewer people take it, it will not be the way of the majority, **but what is its destination? It leads to life.
Jesus has been teaching them about the counter culture of the kingdom, how distinctively they are to live as his people under his kingship. It will mean living differently from the world and culture around them and will bring them into conflict with the culture. But says Jesus enter through the narrow gate and keep on the path because it leads to life.
Faithfully follow even as you face opposition and persecution, endure, persevere, keep on going even though the way is hard and others think you foolish for not living like them.
Remember here Jesus at this stage of his ministry is surrounded by crowds, (5:1), look at (8:1) large crowds follow him, but Jesus knows they will leave, that most of them won’t enter through the gate and walk the narrow way. They are on the wide way. And increasingly the two roads and two peoples will clash and hostility and opposition will increase and he wants his people to expect it. Living as a citizen of the kingdom, living out Jesus counter culture will be thought of as narrow and restrictive by those on the wide road.
Just think about it today and how that is seen in people’s thoughts on faith and heaven, we live in a broad age, when anything, any belief is enough, when it is viewed as restrictive and narrow to say there is only one way, to claim that all paths don’t lead to heaven. When to live out this distinctive counter culture produces mocking, incredulity and anger. When society pressures us into thinking of the counter culture of the kingdom as isolationist, intolerant, narrow, boring and as a ‘can’t do’ culture so that it can pressurise us into abandoning it in favour of the broad anything goes culture.
But Jesus isn’t saying this narrow path is restrictive or boring or a can’t do culture. We mustn’t isolate this from its Sermon on the Mount context. This narrow way is the path of the blessed, those who know the favour of a loving God and who will receive all the things promised(5:3-10), it is the culture of the children of God who know him as their heavenly father, the community who entrust themselves to God knowing he cares for their every need and are therefore liberated from anxiety. To be God’s child is to be what we were made to be, it is not a kingdom of can’t do but a kingdom of can do. It is radically different not because it is restrictive but because it lives to please God not to please self, it is a kingdom under the rule of king Jesus not under the rule of sin disguised as self rule.
Faithfully Follow.
2. Don’t be put off faithfully following
Having called on his disciples to stay the course, to walk the path, to endure and attain life. Jesus now instructs them **to do what? “Watch out for false prophets.”
If one danger is giving up because of the opposition and difficulty of living counter culturally another is in listening to those whose teaching is wrong. That word false can also mean lying, be on your guard, or be on the look out, beware of lying prophets, those who teach the bible wrongly. What is the expectation Jesus sets up? There will be false prophets so expect it and be ready to spot them.
And in the history of the early church those words prove true, Paul echoes them in Acts 20 warning the Ephesian elders that even from inside the church there will be wolves, in 2 Corinthians he confronts those who claim to be super-apostles and are teaching wrongly, in Galatians he writes to call the church to confront false teaching, Timothy and Titus are called to do the same. Peter too warns the church of false prophets and teachers among them, as does John in his letters and Jude. And in Revelation as John records Jesus warnings to the churches both Pergamum and Thyatira are warned about tolerating false teachers. False teachers are dangerous because they lead us off the path, shipwrecking faiths, so how do we spot them?
Jesus gives them three things to be on the look out for to help them spot false teachers.
a. Don’t go by initial appearance
That is Jesus first thing(15) you can’t always spot them initially. **How do they look? “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” A wolf that looks like a wolf, smells like a wolf and growls like a wolf gets nowhere near the sheep. But there is a deliberateness to this disguise. You can’t tell just by looking at them or listening to them initially what they are like. They will look like a disciple, talk like a disciple, and walk like a disciple. Don’t let initial appearance deceive you, because a wolf is always dangerous and destructive, and ultimately has only one aim for the sheep.
Jesus gives a great illustration using tress. There was a thistle that looked like a fig tree and a buckthorn which could be mistaken for grapes. These trees looked alike until you got up close and saw their fruit. Jesus then backs this point up with the observation that bad or diseased trees bear bad or evil fruit whilst a good tree can’t, a diseased tree bears evil fruit and a good tree good fruit. This teaching on trees takes place in a sandwich, (16, 20)by their fruits you will recognise them.
Jesus is saying we know whether someone is a good teacher by the fruit they produce, but what does this fruit look like?
b. Test #1 – Fruit of their teaching
The fruit that a teacher produces is their teaching. Is their teaching good, in terms of does it fit with what Jesus is teaching? Think about that in terms of the Sermon on the Mount. Does their teaching call people to humbly seek after righteousness, does it call people to all the attributes Jesus calls us to, does it emphasize the cost of discipleship, does it point people to Christ alone as the way of salvation, does it emphasize the need for repentance and ongoing change, does it seek to challenge and encourage as we deal with sin in the light of the gospel?
False teaching denies the things Jesus taught. It denies Jesus is the Messiah, God made man who died in our place for our sin as our substitute, that he was physically resurrected and ascended to rule at his Father’s right hand until he returns. False teaching denies the need for repentance and counter cultural living and opposition now as we wait for our Saviour’s return.
False teaching redefines sin so that what the Bible says is bad is good or permissible. False teaching denies God’s justice in judging sin.
It is not false teaching just because it disagrees with us on a secondary issue like baptism, gifts of the spirit, etc... We must not elevate such things to primary status. False teaching is where someone is deliberately, not mistakenly, denying what the gospel affirms as central about the gospel.
c. Test #2 – Fruit seen in their living
A diseased tree will produce evil fruit, in other words you will see the consequences in their living. Elsewhere we see the connection between misunderstanding the gospel and immoral living. This means we spot good or lying teachers by knowing them and being able to see their lives – not just their cultivated public image. Are they trying to live out the kingdom values? Are they battling with sin? Or are they content and cosy with immorality in their living?
I think there are a few very practical implications of that for us as individuals and as churches:
- Listen carefully, don’t go into auto-pilot when listening to someone teach the bible
- Be asking questions of their teaching – where did that come from, is that what the verse says?
- Make sure they are using, explaining and referencing the bible
- Have your bible open in front of you as they teach
- How do they respond to being asked questions about a passage?
For churches:
- Don’t rush to appoint leaders. It takes time to learn about someone’s life and teaching, not an initially weekend impression. Interestingly in the New Testament leaders were appointed from within not brought in.
- It is better to have someone people know well, or whom some people can vouch for their integrity and beliefs.
Notice finally what this verse doesn’t say, it doesn’t say be critical and refuse the teaching of all teachers. Welcome good teaching, let it bear fruit in you as well as seeing it in them, but look out for bad teaching and lying teachers.
Be Faithful followers enduring to reach home.
1. Where do you feel the counter cultural nature of the kingdom of Jesus? How can we encourage one another to follow faithfully?
2. What areas of teaching must we not compromise on? What areas of teaching may we compromise on?
3. How ought we to respond to good teaching? How ought we to respond to bad teaching?
Showing posts with label Matthew 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Matthew 7. Show all posts
Monday, 14 May 2012
Monday, 23 April 2012
Matthew 7v1-6 Two Ways to See
Here are my notes from LightHouse an dthe questions we used to get us thinking about and applying the passage:
1. How are followers of Jesus to be counter cultural in our society?
2. How is gospel community distinctive from the rest of society?
3. What makes such living hard?
As we come back to Matthew we need to remind ourselves of the context of the gospel. Matthew writes for a number of reasons but here are three of them: he writes so that Jewish Christians are secure in their discipleship of Jesus despite the hostility of their fellow Jews, so that they can answer Jewish objections by pointing objectors to Christ as the fulfilment of God’s promises and the Old Testament, and so God’s people know how to live counter culturally.
Matthew 1-4 show that Jesus is the Messiah, in the line of Abraham, and David, God’s Son speaking God’s word and in him the kingdom of God draws near! (4:25)We see “Large crowds… followed him.” It looks like the kingdom is growing but Matthew sees a distinction, he sees two groups. 5:1 “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.” What are the two groups? Who does Jesus teach?
There are the curious crowd drawn by miracles and the chatter about Jesus, and the disciples, who are committed to following him. Jesus sees the crowd but teaches his disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches his people what it means to follow him, the marks of discipleship, the characteristics of citizens of the kingdom. It is not a universal kingdom, you cannot come anyway you like, it is not an easy kingdom to join and it is radically counter cultural.
It is a kingdom that is concerned with a changed heart and a new relationship with God through Jesus which radically alters everything, which changes the heart and makes God’s kingdom what we seek, and God our greatest treasure. It’s standard is not the righteousness of the Pharisees (6v20)but goes way beyond it, its concern is(5:48) to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And it transforms attitudes, and actions, including radicalising giving, fasting, prayer and reliance upon God.
But there is a danger that accompanies godly living if the attitude of (5:3-11) of thankfulness and gratefulness to God for his salvation begins to slip.
Don’t be judgemental
What instruction does Jesus give his disciples in(1)? “Do not judge...” It’s important that we understand what Jesus is not saying as well as what he is saying. He isn’t saying his people are to have no part in the judicial system under which they live, that Christians cannot serve on juries or tribunals or the like. Nor is Jesus saying that Christians are not to exercise judgement or discernment.
Look at (15)Jesus calls on the disciples to do what? “Watch out for false prophets”. In order to do that you would have to use your faculties of judgement and discernment to assess their fruit, to spot false teachers who you then guard against. So Jesus isn’t saying his followers should never make a judgement on something or someone.
What Jesus is saying is don’t be judgemental. Don’t act as judge, spiritual assessor or auditor of others. Don’t have a critical and fault finding attitude, don’t assume the worst of others, don’t be ungracious towards them.
What reason does Jesus give? “Or you to will be judged...” Remember back to ch5:1-14 where Jesus shows us the heart of those who are in the kingdom. To be judgemental is to believe in my self-righteousness, my ability, my holiness, my meeting God’s standard. When we are judgemental of others it is because we are not meek, not mourning our sin, and not being merciful because we have forgotten that we have received mercy, we have lost that hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness believing we’ve attained it ourselves, the result is that we are proud not poor in spirit and that leads us to be judgemental.
When we are judgemental it’s because we’ve forgotten that we have failed God’s standard and by grace that standard is not applied to us, but we are given Jesus record and he has paid for ours. To be judgemental is to display our failure to understand the gospel.
(3-5)Jesus brilliantly illustrates that with this image of someone with a substantial log or plank in their eye trying to take a tiny speck of sawdust out of someone else’s eye. To be judgemental is to minimise our own sin whilst maximising the sin of others.
2 Samuel 12 provides a helpful illustration of just such hypocritical judgement. King David has just committed first adultery - bedding and getting Bathsheba pregnant - and murder - having Uriah her husband killed on the battlefield. But the shocking thing as the tawdry saga ends in ch11 is that such hideous sin is glossed over, it looks like there will be no consequences. David seems unaware of his sin, he has married Bathsheba and she is expecting his child and both are living happily in the palace in Jerusalem. There is no guilt, no sleepless nights, no conviction and no awareness or remorse for sin.
Until God sends Nathan the prophet. (2 Sam 12:1-7)What is David’s response to the sin of the rich man? He condemns the theft and even calls for God’s standard of justice to be applied to the man, and he doesn’t see his hypocrisy. He can’t see his own sin, though he sees the sin of this other man, he can see the speck but not the plank. But God the perfect judge knows and has graciously sent Nathan to reveal the plank, “You are the man!”
Don’t be a hypocrite in being judgemental in your assessment of others whilst ignoring your own sin. Doesn’t this strike home? Don’t you feel that temptation in yourself? To be quick to condemn someone else’s sin, or to refuse to forgive others as readily as we forgive ourselves or expect their forgiveness when we sin. To be quick to apply the bible to others when we read it or hear it preached on and to utter those words ‘Oh, that was just what _____ needed.’
But I think most subtly we do this in assessing someone’s spirituality by the sins they are struggling with. If I was to ask you to name the three worst sins I wonder what pops into your heads instantly. My hunch is that it is the sin we see in others, not the sins we struggle with. We know mentally in our head that all sin is sin but we have our own private blacklist of sins and are prone to judging others who struggle with them whilst excusing our own struggle with maybe more respectable sins like a lack of thankfulness, or anger, or greed, or idolatry of family or career, or selfishness.
Don’t be a hypocrite dealing with others sins but look to your own heart first. Don’t be judgemental but remain meek, keep hungering and thirsting for righteousness, show mercy to others as you have been shown mercy.
Don’t be judgmental...
But love your brother (5)
It’s vitally important that we don’t misunderstand and therefore misapply what Jesus says here. He isn’t saying that each disciple is an island and is to look out only for sin in their own life. (5)“first take the plank out of your own eye then...” what? “you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other persons eye.”
The kingdom community is one where sin is taken seriously, both as individuals and in others, where we love enough to help each other fight sin. It’s seen in that example we looked at in 2 Samuel, how does God confront David with his sin? He used Nathan, a prophet, a man of God, someone who knew and listened to God but who is also for David and who David trusts.
We are meant to be helping one another deal with sin, but not in a judgemental way, not looking at others before we examine our own hearts, not as a means of spiritual one up man ship, not as a defensive reaction – where someone challenges me therefore I lash out and challenge you telling you a few home truths.
So how do we do this? First of all we do it with humility, when I am aware of sin in others I am to examine myself and my own heart first. Am I seeing that sin because I struggle with it too, is God using that person as a means of grace to highlight a problem for me to deal with before I help them.
Secondly we mourn sin and take it to God in prayer. Jesus has just taught his disciples to pray these words “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation...” The disciples prayer is one of reliance on God, we are to be aware that we are frail sinners in need of grace and we are to pray that God would work by grace. We also check our motives as we pray; are we aiming to restore, rescue and reconcile?
Thirdly we approach the person who already knows that we care for them and want what is best for them, not in public, we don’t air it with others, but go 1-2-1 and express loving concern. And we aim to apply the gospel not promote legalism.
Fourthly we express our forgiveness of them if they have sinned against us, and we pray with them.
Practically we only ought to do this with others if we welcome such input ourselves. If we can straight away think of someone or a few people whose sins we want to put straight this week but we wouldn’t welcome them doing so to us, it is a warning that we are in danger of being judgemental hypocrites. That we need to refresh ourselves in the gospel and what Jesus has done for us.
Such loving application of the gospel ought to mark our marriage, our parenting, our friendships and our church communities.
Don’t be judgemental but love your brother...
And exercise discernment(6)
Jesus moves on to two graphic pictures which both make the same point. Jesus in these pictures is calling on disciples to exercise discernment. But what exactly is he calling on us to do?
What do you think of when you read the word dog? You think of man’s best friend. Images of faithfulness, play time, comfort, care, love, walks all spring to mind. But the dogs Jesus has in mind are the feral untrained dangerous pack animals of the rubbish tips that roamed the city. In Psalms 22 and 59 David uses the imagery of dogs to convey being trapped and threatened by his enemies. In Philippians Paul describes dangerous false teachers as dogs. In Rev 22:15 those opposed to God and his kingdom are described as dogs. And pigs were unclean animals. Both of these animals are a picture of those opposed to God his kingdom and his people.
The second part of the image is the idea of giving something sacred or precious like a pearl to such animals. What is sacred in Matthew is the good news of the kingdom of God, and in chapter 13 the kingdom is described as a pearl of great value.
Jesus is saying that whilst disciples are not to be judgemental, we are to exercise discernment. When people aggressively and repeatedly reject the gospel and oppose God and his people we are to exercise our discernment and stop telling them the gospel because it will confirm them in their rejection and lead to greater opposition.
It seems counter intuitive doesn’t it, it seems almost non-gospel. But it’s a principle we see in practice, when Jesus sends out the 12 in ch10 he tells them to leave a town or village if they reject the gospel. In Acts 18 when those in the synagogue reject the gospel and oppose him Paul leaves and takes the gospel to the Gentiles. In Titus Paul tells Titus to “Warn divisive people once, then warn them again. After that have nothing to do with these people.”
The disciple is not judgemental but loves his brother and exercises discernment.
1. What stops us helping others with sin? Or welcoming their help with our sin?
2. What is at the root of a judgemental attitude?
3. Is it ever right to stop telling someone the gospel? When and why? What do we not stop doing for such a person? (Try to think of real world examples)
1. How are followers of Jesus to be counter cultural in our society?
2. How is gospel community distinctive from the rest of society?
3. What makes such living hard?
As we come back to Matthew we need to remind ourselves of the context of the gospel. Matthew writes for a number of reasons but here are three of them: he writes so that Jewish Christians are secure in their discipleship of Jesus despite the hostility of their fellow Jews, so that they can answer Jewish objections by pointing objectors to Christ as the fulfilment of God’s promises and the Old Testament, and so God’s people know how to live counter culturally.
Matthew 1-4 show that Jesus is the Messiah, in the line of Abraham, and David, God’s Son speaking God’s word and in him the kingdom of God draws near! (4:25)We see “Large crowds… followed him.” It looks like the kingdom is growing but Matthew sees a distinction, he sees two groups. 5:1 “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.” What are the two groups? Who does Jesus teach?
There are the curious crowd drawn by miracles and the chatter about Jesus, and the disciples, who are committed to following him. Jesus sees the crowd but teaches his disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus teaches his people what it means to follow him, the marks of discipleship, the characteristics of citizens of the kingdom. It is not a universal kingdom, you cannot come anyway you like, it is not an easy kingdom to join and it is radically counter cultural.
It is a kingdom that is concerned with a changed heart and a new relationship with God through Jesus which radically alters everything, which changes the heart and makes God’s kingdom what we seek, and God our greatest treasure. It’s standard is not the righteousness of the Pharisees (6v20)but goes way beyond it, its concern is(5:48) to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And it transforms attitudes, and actions, including radicalising giving, fasting, prayer and reliance upon God.
But there is a danger that accompanies godly living if the attitude of (5:3-11) of thankfulness and gratefulness to God for his salvation begins to slip.
Don’t be judgemental
What instruction does Jesus give his disciples in(1)? “Do not judge...” It’s important that we understand what Jesus is not saying as well as what he is saying. He isn’t saying his people are to have no part in the judicial system under which they live, that Christians cannot serve on juries or tribunals or the like. Nor is Jesus saying that Christians are not to exercise judgement or discernment.
Look at (15)Jesus calls on the disciples to do what? “Watch out for false prophets”. In order to do that you would have to use your faculties of judgement and discernment to assess their fruit, to spot false teachers who you then guard against. So Jesus isn’t saying his followers should never make a judgement on something or someone.
What Jesus is saying is don’t be judgemental. Don’t act as judge, spiritual assessor or auditor of others. Don’t have a critical and fault finding attitude, don’t assume the worst of others, don’t be ungracious towards them.
What reason does Jesus give? “Or you to will be judged...” Remember back to ch5:1-14 where Jesus shows us the heart of those who are in the kingdom. To be judgemental is to believe in my self-righteousness, my ability, my holiness, my meeting God’s standard. When we are judgemental of others it is because we are not meek, not mourning our sin, and not being merciful because we have forgotten that we have received mercy, we have lost that hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness believing we’ve attained it ourselves, the result is that we are proud not poor in spirit and that leads us to be judgemental.
When we are judgemental it’s because we’ve forgotten that we have failed God’s standard and by grace that standard is not applied to us, but we are given Jesus record and he has paid for ours. To be judgemental is to display our failure to understand the gospel.
(3-5)Jesus brilliantly illustrates that with this image of someone with a substantial log or plank in their eye trying to take a tiny speck of sawdust out of someone else’s eye. To be judgemental is to minimise our own sin whilst maximising the sin of others.
2 Samuel 12 provides a helpful illustration of just such hypocritical judgement. King David has just committed first adultery - bedding and getting Bathsheba pregnant - and murder - having Uriah her husband killed on the battlefield. But the shocking thing as the tawdry saga ends in ch11 is that such hideous sin is glossed over, it looks like there will be no consequences. David seems unaware of his sin, he has married Bathsheba and she is expecting his child and both are living happily in the palace in Jerusalem. There is no guilt, no sleepless nights, no conviction and no awareness or remorse for sin.
Until God sends Nathan the prophet. (2 Sam 12:1-7)What is David’s response to the sin of the rich man? He condemns the theft and even calls for God’s standard of justice to be applied to the man, and he doesn’t see his hypocrisy. He can’t see his own sin, though he sees the sin of this other man, he can see the speck but not the plank. But God the perfect judge knows and has graciously sent Nathan to reveal the plank, “You are the man!”
Don’t be a hypocrite in being judgemental in your assessment of others whilst ignoring your own sin. Doesn’t this strike home? Don’t you feel that temptation in yourself? To be quick to condemn someone else’s sin, or to refuse to forgive others as readily as we forgive ourselves or expect their forgiveness when we sin. To be quick to apply the bible to others when we read it or hear it preached on and to utter those words ‘Oh, that was just what _____ needed.’
But I think most subtly we do this in assessing someone’s spirituality by the sins they are struggling with. If I was to ask you to name the three worst sins I wonder what pops into your heads instantly. My hunch is that it is the sin we see in others, not the sins we struggle with. We know mentally in our head that all sin is sin but we have our own private blacklist of sins and are prone to judging others who struggle with them whilst excusing our own struggle with maybe more respectable sins like a lack of thankfulness, or anger, or greed, or idolatry of family or career, or selfishness.
Don’t be a hypocrite dealing with others sins but look to your own heart first. Don’t be judgemental but remain meek, keep hungering and thirsting for righteousness, show mercy to others as you have been shown mercy.
Don’t be judgmental...
But love your brother (5)
It’s vitally important that we don’t misunderstand and therefore misapply what Jesus says here. He isn’t saying that each disciple is an island and is to look out only for sin in their own life. (5)“first take the plank out of your own eye then...” what? “you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other persons eye.”
The kingdom community is one where sin is taken seriously, both as individuals and in others, where we love enough to help each other fight sin. It’s seen in that example we looked at in 2 Samuel, how does God confront David with his sin? He used Nathan, a prophet, a man of God, someone who knew and listened to God but who is also for David and who David trusts.
We are meant to be helping one another deal with sin, but not in a judgemental way, not looking at others before we examine our own hearts, not as a means of spiritual one up man ship, not as a defensive reaction – where someone challenges me therefore I lash out and challenge you telling you a few home truths.
So how do we do this? First of all we do it with humility, when I am aware of sin in others I am to examine myself and my own heart first. Am I seeing that sin because I struggle with it too, is God using that person as a means of grace to highlight a problem for me to deal with before I help them.
Secondly we mourn sin and take it to God in prayer. Jesus has just taught his disciples to pray these words “forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation...” The disciples prayer is one of reliance on God, we are to be aware that we are frail sinners in need of grace and we are to pray that God would work by grace. We also check our motives as we pray; are we aiming to restore, rescue and reconcile?
Thirdly we approach the person who already knows that we care for them and want what is best for them, not in public, we don’t air it with others, but go 1-2-1 and express loving concern. And we aim to apply the gospel not promote legalism.
Fourthly we express our forgiveness of them if they have sinned against us, and we pray with them.
Practically we only ought to do this with others if we welcome such input ourselves. If we can straight away think of someone or a few people whose sins we want to put straight this week but we wouldn’t welcome them doing so to us, it is a warning that we are in danger of being judgemental hypocrites. That we need to refresh ourselves in the gospel and what Jesus has done for us.
Such loving application of the gospel ought to mark our marriage, our parenting, our friendships and our church communities.
Don’t be judgemental but love your brother...
And exercise discernment(6)
Jesus moves on to two graphic pictures which both make the same point. Jesus in these pictures is calling on disciples to exercise discernment. But what exactly is he calling on us to do?
What do you think of when you read the word dog? You think of man’s best friend. Images of faithfulness, play time, comfort, care, love, walks all spring to mind. But the dogs Jesus has in mind are the feral untrained dangerous pack animals of the rubbish tips that roamed the city. In Psalms 22 and 59 David uses the imagery of dogs to convey being trapped and threatened by his enemies. In Philippians Paul describes dangerous false teachers as dogs. In Rev 22:15 those opposed to God and his kingdom are described as dogs. And pigs were unclean animals. Both of these animals are a picture of those opposed to God his kingdom and his people.
The second part of the image is the idea of giving something sacred or precious like a pearl to such animals. What is sacred in Matthew is the good news of the kingdom of God, and in chapter 13 the kingdom is described as a pearl of great value.
Jesus is saying that whilst disciples are not to be judgemental, we are to exercise discernment. When people aggressively and repeatedly reject the gospel and oppose God and his people we are to exercise our discernment and stop telling them the gospel because it will confirm them in their rejection and lead to greater opposition.
It seems counter intuitive doesn’t it, it seems almost non-gospel. But it’s a principle we see in practice, when Jesus sends out the 12 in ch10 he tells them to leave a town or village if they reject the gospel. In Acts 18 when those in the synagogue reject the gospel and oppose him Paul leaves and takes the gospel to the Gentiles. In Titus Paul tells Titus to “Warn divisive people once, then warn them again. After that have nothing to do with these people.”
The disciple is not judgemental but loves his brother and exercises discernment.
1. What stops us helping others with sin? Or welcoming their help with our sin?
2. What is at the root of a judgemental attitude?
3. Is it ever right to stop telling someone the gospel? When and why? What do we not stop doing for such a person? (Try to think of real world examples)
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