Do Unto Others

Pastor Ken's sermon last Sunday, "Do Unto Others", struck a chord with me.

The first half of Matthew chapter 7, which continues the Sermon on the Mount, focuses on our relationships with each other and the world. And in this chapter is one of the most misused verses in the Bible:

"Judge not, that you be not judged..."

God is not calling us to not judge and discern—we do need to be able to discern what is good and holy—but to be careful as the rest of the verse cautions, because we will be judged with the judgement that we pronounce. It has been aptly observed that by this point in the Sermon on the Mount, no one listening to Jesus's words seriously would feel like judging anyone else, anyway.

With so much chaos, sin, and vitriol in the country today in the wake of the election and divisive rhetoric surrounding other crucial issues, it's easy to get sucked into going beyond judging what is good and holy and starting to judge people, to the neglect of observing my own interior life. There is enough work for me to remove the planks in my eye, that I am at no risk of becoming bored enough to need to find specks in my brothers' and sisters' eyes.

So let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.