The Lord’s Message: Questions that Jesus Asked: “Why Do You Look at the Speck of Sawdust in Your Brother’s Eye and Pay No Attention to the Plank in Your Own Eye?”
The Lord’s Message: Questions that Jesus Asked: “Why Do You Look at the Speck of Sawdust in Your Brother’s Eye and Pay No Attention to the Plank in Your Own Eye?”
Date: October 26, 2025
Where: Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference: Luke 6:37-41
Jesus says in Luke 6:37a, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” Allow me to share with you a true story. Several weeks ago, I was traveling with my wife, Beth and Larry Gowe on North 301, where Barclay Road comes out. I am in the process of passing a car, by moving over to the left lane. I see up ahead another car that is coming out of Barclay Road, who I assume is going to go straight across to the median and turn onto the Southbound lanes. To my shock, this car did not do as I had assumed, instead it turned into the left lane and is coming right at me. What does Jesus say to do? “Do not judge.” I make a judgment call. I know that there is not another car behind me or behind the car that I am passing. So, I slam on my brakes, blow my horn, and turn on my right turn signal. This allows the car that I was passing to continue its travel and me to duck behind it and onto the right shoulder of the highway. I throw on my four-way flashers, hoping to get the attention of the driver that was coming at me to turn around, before they cause harm to themselves and others. What does Jesus say to do? “Do not judge.” I next got out of my truck and see that my efforts were not in vain. The driver has realized their mistake and has turned around. I signal for the driver to pull over the shoulder behind me. What does Jesus say to do? “Do not judge.” I have all of these judgements going through my head as to the condition of this driver. I do not know whether they fell asleep, were having a health problem, are intoxicated, high on drugs or simply made a mistake. I am glad that it is the latter. The lady driver rolls down her window and I engage her in conversation, I find out that she is from Florida, has been up here visiting family in Dover, DE, and is heading back to Florida following her GPS on her smart phone. Now, some of you can imagine the back roads that the GPS has taken her. She had turned onto 301 thinking that it was a single lane travel road and that is why she was coming right at me. After talking with her and her apologizing over and over again. I told her no harm done. I gave her directions to get her to 95 heading to Richmond, VA. The last we saw of her was heading in the southbound lanes of 301.
Now was I right or wrong in the judgement calls that I made. As a Christian, was Jesus wrong in saying that we should not judge? Are there times when we should judge? During those times, how should we judge?
Let us pray.
If you recall several weeks ago, we discussed the ending of the Sermon on the Plain, which was the same ending that Jesus used in the Sermon on the Mount. That ending was about a wise builder and a foolish builder. The wise builder listened to what Jesus said and applied what Jesus said to their life. They built their foundation of their life on faith in Jesus. When the trials and tribulation so this life came against them, they stood firm in the faith and did not waver. Their life was one of order and peace. The foolish builder heard Jesus’ teaching but did not put into practice His teachings in their life. When the trials and tribulations of this life came against them, their faith crumbled. Their life was filled with chaos and fear. In whom are you going to put our faith and trust, Jesus, or the world?
Just as these two sermons have the same ending, in their body of the sermon, there is also a message from Jesus about judging. In Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” It goes on the say in verse 2, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:37-38 has this to say.
Now, let us look at the first question, should we never judge? Before we conclude that Jesus is telling us to never judge, let us look at some examples in the Bible where people of faith showed the importance of judging or should have shown the importance of judging.
In the book of Daniel, we have three friends of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar erected a large statue and told the people that when they hear the music playing, they are to bow down and worship this statue. If anyone will not bow down and worship the statue, they will be thrown in the fiery furnace. Everyone does this except three Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In Daniel 3:16-17, these faithful men tell the king this. This enrages the king. He has the furnace heated up seven times hotter. It is so hot that the men that throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the furnace are overcome from the heat and die. When the king looks into the furnace, he does not see three men, but four men. The fourth man looks like a son of God. It is Jesus. The king calls the Israelite men to come out of furnace. The king discovers that there is no harm to their bodies, their hair is not singed, nor are their robes scorched. In Daniel 3:28-29, the king says this about the God that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego served. Did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego judge what King Nebuchadnezzar was asking them to do? Yes. They refuse to follow the king’s instruction, instead they followed God’s instruction and worship only Him.
I will give you one more example from the Bible that shows the importance of judging. What was David’s most famous sin? Lusting after Bathsheba. Bathsheba was up on her roof taking a bath late at night. David could not sleep. He happened to gaze out from his palace roof top and his eyes lock onto Bathsheba. She is not doing anything wrong, but instead of diverting his eyes away, David stares at her and lust enters into his heart. David made a judgement to stare at Bathsheba and allowed lust to enter into his heart. He could have made a better judgement and gone back into his bedroom, but he did not. The result was that David committed adultery, deception, and murder. David should have judged himself wisely.
Jesus also judged people. After all the men had left who were going to stone to death the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said to her “go and sin no more.” Jesus knew the woman was guilty of the sin of adultery. Jesus did not accept her sin or brush it off, He simply said, “Go and sin no more.”
Obviously, it is important for all of us and Jesus to judge the situation. Why, then, did Jesus tell us not to judge?
If you turn back into your Bibles to Luke 6, the section in the pew Bible before judging is entitled, “Love for Enemies.” The problem in judging is that we make enemies instead of friends, by setting a standard to determine who an enemy is. For example, Larry Gowe would you please stand up. If I determine that Larry Gowe is an enemy to me, then I am not going to have a friendship with him. I am going to pass judgement on him. The relationship that I would have had is condemned before we ever begin. The rest of Luke 6:37 says after do not judge and you will not be judged, “Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
In Luke 6:27-30, Jesus gives us a definition who our enemies are and how we are to treat them. Your enemies are those who hate you, those who curse you, those who mistreat you, those who strike you, and those who steal from you. Our human inclination to all of these kinds of people is to see harm come to them. Much like in Luke 9:54 when the disciples ask Jesus if they should call fire to come down from heaven to destroy the Samaritan who had refused them hospitality. Jesus responded in verse 55. Rebuke means to cast out the demons that are in them.
Instead of seeing harm come to our enemies, Jesus tells us to Love your enemies, by doing good to them, praying for them, turning our cheek to them, and not demanding back what they have taken. If we do this in Matthew 5:45, Jesus tells us that we will be the sons and daughters of God.
The point that Jesus is making is not that we should never judge, but instead when we do judge what standards are we using to judge others; ours or God’s? Jesus tells us in Luke 12:57 that we are to judge what is right? In John 7:24, He also tells us the standard that we are to use is to not judge by outward appearance? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:12, that all are to be judged, including those in church.
There is one thing that we should never judge. We should never say that person is going to hell or to heaven. That is a matter for God alone. We do not know what is in the heart of the person, only God does. We should leave this judgement up to Him.
We should judge our own moral choices. If we do not, then we cannot make moral choices for our life. In Luke 6:38, Jesus tells us if we do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us, and do not demand back what has been stolen from us, then God’s blessing will overflow on us, because our actions will show that we are children of God.
In a preposterous way in Luke 6:41, Jesus asked us an important question when we are judging others. Before we judge others, we need to look at our own lives and make sure that we do not have the same, or worse, problem of sin in our lives.
In conclusion, Jesus is teaching us that we should judge ourselves and others. But we should not apply a different standard in judging others that God applies in judging us. We are taught that we should not condemn or make a final judgment on another person. That is God’s domain. We are certainly not told that we should not judge right from wrong. These are the kinds of judgment that God expects us to make every day.
Our overall goal in judging ourselves is not to condemn ourselves, but to draw us closer to God. To confess our sins, seek forgiveness and repent of our sins. In this way, we remove the log from our eyes.
Our overall goal in judging others should not be to condemn them, but to show God’s love toward them and lift them up. If you look closely at the picture on the Order of Worship, it shows a line of men, each pushing the other one down. That is how the world works. The world works by judging and condemning others, you may rise above that person, but another person is there to push you down. We need to be the people of God by lifting others up.
Continue to read your Bible, live the Bible, and be the Bible for others. Amen.