Matthew 7:1, 2 Judge not, that you be not judged. Thus, at the early beginning of the new generations of the earth, did the Author of them, foreseeing their long and ever-broadening tumultuous streams, declare this among the essential conditions of a true inheritance in them, that men fear and avoid rather than rush into the seat of the judge. It is a great condition of membership in the new society. To the soundness and health of this society many an element must contribute; and to exist it must be healthy. No fencing of it from without, no careful tending of it from without, but only its innermost sound constitution can secure this. As we now survey the complex conditions of human society, we admire that prevision of the Organizer and ultimate Lord of it. And we wonder at the sanitary provision marked so clearly by the exhortation and argument contained in these two verses. Their injunction is indeed one that easily courts superficial lip-objection, but it is also one that does not fail to draw forth a deep "Amen!" from the "good and honest" heart, warned by the disasters, unnumbered and innumerable, consequent on the neglect of it, informed by careful observation of life, and matured by experience. When we ask what it really is that is contained in it, we may at once without hesitation reply that its purport is certainly not to affront reason and common sense; it does not bid us blind our eyes, either by disuse of them, or worse, by blank contradiction of their testimony; it does not forbid or put some dread ban on our sober use of our faculty of judgment. But, plainly, it is a great direction of life, essentially practical in its significance, and not better for others and the peace of the life of the community than safe for self. Just as those most emphatic and repeated directions of Scripture to guard the use of tongue and lips with all diligence do not ban the use of them, so the words of perfect wisdom now before us guard a dangerous power, and restrain a disposition ever too willing to assert itself against the fatal abuse of it. For - I. To UNDERTAKE TO JUDGE IS TO USURP A POSITION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, NOT ONLY UNAUTHORIZED, BUT BOTH ELSEWHERE AND HERE IN THE MOST IMPORTANT CONNECTION ESPECIALLY FENCED OFF. II. AMONG A THRONG OF NECESSARY AND INEVITABLE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITIES, IT IS TO COURT AND EVEN CHALLENGE A GRATUITOUS AND VERY DANGEROUS ADDITIONAL ONE. III. IT HAS IT IN ITS VERY GENIUS, AND ALSO AS A NOTORIOUS FACT TO ENGENDER AN INSTINCTIVE RESENTMENT ON THE PART OF THOSE WHO ARE THE OBJECTS OF IT, AND TO PROVOKE RETORT. IV. IT BREEDS INTRINSIC DANGER TO THE DISPOSITION OF THOSE WHO EXERCISE IT, AND OFFERS INCENTIVE, WHERE DISCOURAGEMENT IS WHAT IS SPECIALLY NEEDED. V. IT DARES CONSEQUENTIAL VERY PRACTICAL RISKS, FOR THOSE WHO INTRUDE, STIRRING FOR THEM JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE THAT MIGHT SLEEP, AND DANGEROUSLY SUGGESTING THE SELF-ASSIGNED MEASURE OF IT. If anything might be expected to operate as a deterrent upon the habit that has proved itself to have so strong a hold on men, it might well be this dread thought. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: Judge not, that ye be not judged. |
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