John 7:24
.Arguably, Jesus’ most misinterpreted words is the words we see in the first line of the verse “Do not judge.” People have misinterpreted this to mean no correction, no confrontation, no rebuke, nobody can tell me what to do, everyone should mind their own business. I will do what I want to do. And the verse that gets used often, which is more popular than what we read is Matthew 7:1: “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
Clearly, if we stop here, then it will mean Jesus is precluding any form of judgment or correction. However, reading down the verses, we get the true sense of what Jesus is talking about. He is talking about equity and fairness, holding people by the same standards we will hold ourselves (vv. 2-4). Ironically, in this text, Jesus is actually calling for us to judge and judge rightly. He actually went on to pronounce judgment (v.5)
This morning I want us to consider for a title: Judge Rightly. The title as you can see is from the second half of the text: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). I have one aim in mind for this sermon, that it will help us in our relationship with one another as a church. The reality of life is that there are bound to be conflicts in our relationships. People will sin against us, we will sin against others. People will misunderstand us, we will misunderstand people. And as a church, let us not assume we are going to have smooth relationships. There will be sin to confront. We may hurt or be hurt by others. But in all of these instances, our relationship with one another must be held together by love.
I want to appeal to all of us. Let nobody leave this church because somebody spoke to them wrongly or because of a sermon I preach here. I can assure you I don’t use this pulpit to settle scores or speak against people…at least not yet. You can attest of what we do here. Open the Bible and preach what it says. So I pray nobody will leave us because of offense. Amen!
The Neccessity of Confrontations
Now I know one of the difficult things for people to do, even Christians, is to confront one another with their sins. In fact many people will avoid confrontations and rather bear grudges. But the Bible doesn’t teach that. Jesus teaches we confront when we are sinned against
And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.[b] 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-4)
So with the necessity of confrontation when sinned against out of the way, let’s come to our title: Judge Rightly. In this narrative, Jesus has healed a man on the sabbath (back in Chapter 5:1-18) and the Jewish authorities have taken offense and are seeking an opportunity to kill him. Jesus confronts them (vv. 21,23). He points out their hypocrisy of not keeping the law and yet seeking to uphold the law: “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” (v.19).
The standard for all of us is living in obedience to God’s word. None of us is so special that the standard’s of God’s holy demands is relaxed. James tells us we should be doers of the word and not hearers only (. And this is the problem Jesus was dealing with the Jews in this narrative. They were holding Jesus to a standard they themselves were not keeping. This is hypocrisy. Holding people to a standard we do not keep ourselves. In Romans 2, which we read as our second Scripture reading, Paul piles up a series of questions to rebuke the hypocrisy of the Jews:
21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
Dear friends, like the Jews in this narrative, we are all law-breakers. We have all sinned against God. We are all guilty of God’s judgment.
And there is only one perfect person in this narrative (v.18). And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He never sinned, He is the perfect One who died to save us from our sins. Every other person in this narrative is a law breaker, a sinner and yet they seek to kill an innocent person. Here then is how we must judge rightly.
Humbly
Dear friends, we must be humble in confronting or dealing with sin in others because we are all equally guilty sinners. We must not be judgmental, that is to say, overly critical of the sins of others, while we confront them. Have you ever have to deal with sin in another person’s life? How did you go about it? And I think that for those of us who are parents, perhaps parenting is one of the areas we fall short in humility when correcting our children. I know there are times I have not been humble enough in correcting my children. I know sometimes husband and wife may deliberately say things to hurt one another when they have misunderstanding. That’s not humility. And so today, all couples will repent. In all of our conflict with people, let’s seek to be humble and extend grace.
Here is a good place for us to examine ourselves. Are you a person of one character? Saying one thing and doing another thing like the Jews in this narrative? Do you hold people to standards you yourself do not adhere to?
Truthfully
In the 10 commandments, the 8th commandment forbids bearing false witness. And the Jews in the narrative are guilty of doing that. They are wrongly accusing Jesus of breaking the sabbath when indeed he hasn’t broken it. Commentators have noted they were not actually arguing the true sense of the sabbath, but rather their own extra regulations that have been attached to the sabbath. The true sense of the sabbath is to give rest and Jesus healing on the sabbath is giving rest to the weary. Brethren, Jesus truly offers rest to the weary. All those who put their faith in him, he gives them rest from their sins. He delivers sinners who put their faith in him. Regardless of what your situation may be, if you will trust in Christ, you will receive rest for your soul. This man was bound in sickness for 38years and when he met, Jesus he was helpless; he had lost all hopes of help from anywhere. But that day he met the Lord, his life changed. He was freed from his bondage. Dear friends, if you have encountered Jesus by faith, then truly, you are a free man: If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed (John 8:36).
But sadly, not everyone rejoiced in the freedom of the man, but rather found cause to wrongly accuse Jesus. And Jesus pointed their inconsistency to them (v.23). We must not slander and seek to destroy people in our judgment. To judge rightly in truth is not to slander, gossip, backbite and seek to destroy one another. Titus 3:2 sums up things clearly: “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people”
In judging right, we must not bring any false accusation on anyone. Whenever you hear something about someone, seek to verify with them before you pass any judgment. We must also follow the biblical pattern of conflict resolution. That is to say, we must uphold the Scriptures in dealing with issues:
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18:15-17).
Non-Legalistic
To be legalistic is simply to think what we do is what saves us. The Jews wrongly imposed their human traditions on the law of God. The law no where forbade healing on the sabbath. Like the Jews sometimes we can wrongly judge others by our strongly held opinions, rather than biblical truth and completely miss the point of Grace.
During the week, I saw a conversation on X that perfectly illustrates what I am saying.
A man posted on his feed: “I accepted Christ into my heart today”. Then another person commented on that post: “You don’t invite Him into your heart. You bow the knee and confess Him as your Lord. If Christ isn’t your Lord then He isn’t your Savior.”
Now, tell me if that comment was necessary. It was absolutely unnecessary. Someone has publicly confessed their faith in Christ and that is when you want to talk about fine theology? Well, I got into the comment session. This is what I said: “That someone has expressed faith in Christ is something to rejoice over. This is not the time to argue over fine theology. Accepting Christ into your heart, bowing your knee to Christ is just the same language of faith in Christ.”
See, don’t let us become so obsessed with fine theology that we miss the hand of God at work. This is precisely what happened with the Jews in this narrative. They acknowledged the work of God in Christ, yet they rejected him. That’s really what verse 21 is about, seeing the hand of God and rejecting it because of who it is coming from.
Graciously
God has dealt with us graciously. What he asks us to do, he himself upholds. God doesn’t judge us by our appearance, else none will stand before him (1 Samuel 16:7) What he demands, he has satisfied in Christ
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