Bible Verses of the WeekDo Not Judge Your Neighbor1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. (NLT, Matthew 7:1–5) Jesus' comical parable makes a serious point. We are all imperfect people and sinners in our own ways (Romans 3:21-24, 5:12, 1 John 1:8). How then can we help another person see more clearly when, like the man with a log in his eye, we are blind ourselves? Our job is to judge and correct our own sins. We do not have any right to judge, criticize, condemn or gossip about other people. Only God has the knowledge and wisdom to judge correctly! In fact, hypocrisy and self-righteousness are two of the sins condemned most strongly in the Bible (Proverbs 11:13, 12:15, 21:2, Matthew 12:36-37, 23:1-12, Mark 12:38-40, Luke 18:9-14, 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, James 4:11-12). |