“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 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? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “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.Matthew 7:1-6

Most of us have read these verse or heard a message about them somewhere. I would like for us to take another look at it, because I believe God is bringing a different message than what we might have learned before.

I don’t think He is just saying we shouldn’t judge, because it says “that you be not judged”. It is because He is not just telling us things to do or not to do, but rather gain a perspective. The perspective we have had before where we look at people while disqualifying them is a reflection of ourselves and how we disqualify ourselves. Therefore He says that the same measure we use gets measured back to us.

Too many a times have we thought this measuring and judgement back on us is God, but I believe it is our own measuring and judgement. We cannot help others when we ourselves don’t walk in what God has for us. Note that He says to help and remove the speck in our brothers eye. He does not say we become experts at pointing to specks in eyes, as if we get really good and pointing to each other’s faults. But rather we help each other gain clear perspective since it speaks of the eye. Our help should bring healing as well to those around us(since it hurts to have something in your eye), but once again this requires us to get our own perspective clear first. This is different than how I heard this before where you need to get your life in order and behave perfectly before you judge other people.

He goes on to say that we are hypocrites if we have the plank in our own eye while trying to look and help, because we cannot see clear to help another. What freedom am I giving someone if I don’t believe it could be had? It’s Hypocritical. Lastly He says to not give what is Holy and pearls to those who cannot receive it. These verses are together because a healthy perspective is not always accepted when given, some people are not willing or not yet willing at least to get help and healed. This is important for you as a believer to notice, to know when someone has a willing heart or not, because it does more damage than good when we give what is costly to those that have not value for it.

So to bring this together, what is a healthy(speckless or plankless) perspective? In Christ you are forgiven, justified, in right relationship with God the Father, healed and are loved completely. That is a good start. If you can accept that, then you can live it out. If you live it out, you will want the same for others.

When we want the same for others that Christ has done for us, then our perspective is clear and redemptive as the Lords’ is over us.