This Monday morning was a little rough as we were all tired from the long Sunday before.  My wife and the kids all said the impromptu trip to Burnet for the Bethlehem town was worth it but I still question it.

     During the day I felt aimless at times but I encountered several tasks that kept me busy including dealing with an educational issue.  Thankfully I was able to get in to see someone and get it straightened out.

     I heard a discussion on the radio in the morning about the biblical passage from Matthew 7:1 that says "judge not lest ye be judged." The speaker said that it was a common axiom thrown back at Christians as a rebuttal to criticism, "Christian don't judge me."   The speaker went on to say that it is an incorrect interpretation of the meaning but I felt that he didn't explain very well why this was incorrect.  I actually thought the case he made as the "devil's advocate" was better than his own.

     When I got home I looked it up and read a little before and after and quickly identified the true meaning.  The  footnotes state that this is a statement about judgemental-ism.  It is about passing judgement in a spirit of arrogance in spite of one's own faults.   It is not a prohibition on recognizing the faults of others, just about being hyper-critical of their faults while minimizing or ignoring one's own.  The lines that followed in which the impenitent are called dogs and swine show clearly that it is not a prohibition on recognizing faults. (note how I judged the speaker ;) )

   I think that the main point of this text is that one cannot help others recover from their faulty logic if they have not recovered themselves. It is less about judgementalism than it is about the nature of spiritual consent.  A person to whom one is trying to help will not be open to another if another doesn't live up to that standard.

     Perhaps the beauty in this is that one could answer both sides of the argument with "yes, you are right."   The person who feels judged is right in their motive to defend the just.  But while their conclusion might come from a right motive their premise may not hold up in light of moral truth.  If their truth is based on a relative assessment then the problem is one of perception.


"Stop judging, that you may not be judged.  For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye?  You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.  "Do not give what is holy to dogs, 4 or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

  This led me to think about moral relativism all afternoon.

My wife worked all day so I didn't get to go to a meeting in the evening.  I sat down and re-strung our Bethlehem Star ornament with lights and remounted it on the roof.

Thanks be to God.