Trained to See

Luke 6:37 – 42

 

I’m a natural born minimizer. Problems don’t seem all that big to me, unless it’s the night before a deadline. But also, risks don’t always seem that big to me. I mean as I’ve been married, have had and continue to have children, and I’ve gotten older yes, I’ve become much more aware of risks.

 

But I’ve certainly made more than my share of boneheaded decisions by ignoring risks, especially risks I’ve been warned about. One such example comes from my metal fabrication class during my senior year of high school. For my metal fab project I built a service/utility trailer for our farm.

 

The angle iron frame needed to be laid out on the floor in its final shape, tack welded together so it didn’t get bumped lose, and then fully welded together. I bet most of y’all didn’t know I knew how to weld.

 

Anyway, rule number one about welding, or even being around someone who is welding is to protect your eyes by not looking directly at the arc. Tack welding is tedious, and I did not own a fancy auto darkening welding helmet. I knew the risks, but I decided to quickly tack the frame of my trailer together without my welding helmet because I didn’t want to deal with lifting it up and down.

 

Those of you who know about welding can guess what I ended up dealing with. Arc flash is a condition you get in your eyes after being exposed to the really high UV welding arc. Your eyes basically develop little blisters all over them that ends up feeling you have sandpaper for eyelids every time you blink.

 

I had metal fab for first period. By lunch time my eyes were irritated and burning. By the time I got home from school it hurt to blink. By bedtime that night it hurt to keep my eyes closed. I ignored the risk, and learned my lesson.

 

Naturally, eyesight is important, and by the grace of God I’ve managed to maintain my 20/15 vision. But even with perfect outward vision, we often fail to look inward, blind to our own spiritual condition.

Last week, Jesus called believers to radically reverse how they respond to those who hate them, those who hurt them. Jesus taught us to love our enemies and be merciful because our Father is merciful.

 

Today as we continue in Jesus’ sermon in Luke 6, Jesus turns the spotlight inward. Before we can show mercy to others, both friend and foe, we must confront something that often prevents mercy. One of the greatest obstacles to mercy isn’t what others have done to us, rather it’s our own tendency to see their sin more clearly than our own. Read Luke 6 with me, beginning with verse 37.

 

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned;” This immediately presents a problem. The world, and truly many professing Christians today, read this and immediately say, “Don’t judge people.” More often than that, they ask, “Who are you to judge me?”

 

You can hardly find a time in human history when exercising “judgement” toward someone else’s behavior was more loudly and violently criticized than it is today. To the world, and many worldly Christians, having their sinful behavior called out is the most awful thing a genuine Christian could do to another.

 

But before we can begin to understand what Jesus is truly teaching here, we have to first determine what He’s not teaching here. Jesus is NOT forbidding all moral evaluation, discernment, church discipline, or calling sin what it is. Scripture elsewhere commands believers to exercise judgement in certain situations and settings.

 

Because God does not contradict himself, Jesus cannot mean here that Christians are never to evaluate behavior, are never to confront sin, or are never to exercise discernment. Rather, Jesus is prohibiting the human tendency to criticize, condemn, and elevate oneself by finding fault with others.

 

The issue here is making yourself look better by criticizing others as worse. What Jesus is tackling here is not discernment, but rather the serious heart issue of self-righteous judgement. A self-righteousness that attempts to knock God off of His judgement seat and elevate us to His place. We see this in the second half of this command, where Jesus says, “do not condemn.”

These two commands are parallel to each other, and we’re able to understand what He means by judging because He connects it to condemnation, something that only belongs to God. To condemn someone is to deem them less than; to decide on where they belong or will end up at in the end.

 

And Jesus isn’t giving a future tense command either. The way the Greek verbs are used in these commands are in the present tense, meaning this is a continual, ongoing action. He’s telling His disciples to quit passing judgement and condemnation on people, brothers and enemies alike, and to continually not judge and condemn.

 

The human heart naturally assumes the worst in others, it keeps records, often long records, of wrongs, and it becomes prosecutor, judge, and jury. We often find fault in others more quickly than we extend grace, even after we’ve undeservingly received God’s grace.

 

The problem is not about assessing the behavior of others, it’s not about calling out sin, but it is about assuming the role of ultimate moral judge over another person. God is judge and we are not. Unlike us, God never judges without the whole picture. God always judges rightly.

 

The issue isn’t moral clarity; it’s moral superiority with a lack of humility and self-awareness. If condemnation is wrong, how should we relate to others, especially when they’ve wronged us?

 

In keeping with the Great Reversal He ushered in, Jesus says, “Judge not,” “condemn not,” but “forgive.” Jesus contrasts judgement and condemnation with forgiveness.

 

The context remains grace, love, and mercy as we saw last week. The world judges, condemns, and withholds forgiveness, but Christ’s disciples are called to be different than the world and forgive and show mercy because the Father has forgiven them and shown them mercy.

 

And when Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you…” it’s not about material giving and reward, it’s not the prosperity-gospel. This is about being generous in giving mercy. Jesus’ command to give is a command to give mercy because He parallels the command to forgive with the command to give.

 

And Jesus isn’t calling us to begrudgingly extend mercy and forgiveness. No, as disciples we are to give forgiveness and mercy abundantly.

 

Jesus uses an everyday analogy from the marketplace in their day to explain that. “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over…” Jesus is talking about grain being measured out by a merchant and poured out into a customer’s lap pouch.

 

Years ago, my wife taught me how to help her bake cookies. Today, Jacob has become our resident baker, but he learned it from his momma much like I learned it from his momma. There was always this distinction when measuring brown sugar vs. white sugar.

 

You couldn’t just scoop out brown sugar with a measuring cup because its consistency would lead to there being gaps around the bottom edges of the cup, or throughout the middle. Instead, unlike the other dry ingredients, you have to press down the brown sugar to even get an accurate measurement.

 

With grain in the marketplace, many times the merchant would just scoop out the grain and pour it out in the customer’s lap. There might be gaps in the measuring jar, empty space throughout the middle, and certainly not even be an accurate measurement.

 

Instead Jesus is describing a merchant who fills the container, then presses it down to pack it in, adds more, shakes the jar to settle out the grain and make room still, and adds more so that it is so heaping full that it is spilling over.

 

You can see it; you can see just how far God’s mercy overflows when you look at Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. You see it in the good news, the gospel, because that’s how much God loves you, even when you were His enemy, He poured out abundant love, mercy, and grace.

 

The world says only give back what you get, if you give out condemnation and withhold mercy like the world you live in, instead of pouring it out like God did for you, at best you’re minimizing, and at worst you’re trashing the abundant gift of grace and mercy that God has already given you.

 

Kingdom reciprocity is fundamentally different from worldly reciprocity. Jesus is teaching us to give mercy, extend grace, and forgive generously when our instinct tells us to condemn. Because the measure you use with others matters. “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” It matters because it reveals where your heart is.

 

Jesus doesn’t condemn discernment and judging the behavior of others; He’s calling us to a radical change in how we respond to others behavior. But how do you know if you’re measuring others rightly?

 

Jesus tells His disciples a parable in the form of a couple of questions, “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” The answers are clearly no, he can’t and yes, they will. This feels disconnected, but it’s not.

 

You see, the blindness here is not physical, but spiritual. Physical blindness becomes a metaphor for the inability of humanity, even disciples, to discern, to judge rightly. The blind guide becomes someone attempting to correct others while lacking spiritual clarity themselves, and blind leaders create blind followers.

 

The problem is worse than first thought. We’re not just prone to judging poorly, we often see poorly. We are all too often prone to self-righteousness, pride, and distorted perceptions. The greatest threat to judging rightly, to biblical conviction, is not conviction itself, but conviction divorced from humility.

 

Jesus is calling out hypocrisy. We often don’t see clearly, especially when looking inward. A Christian’s greatest danger is believing that he or she sees clearly when they do not. Too often we’re blinded to our own spiritual condition while trying to judge others.

 

The problem is that we don’t see perfectly enough to exercise the kind of judgement that we often assume for ourselves, but God does. Spiritually blind people make poor judges, but God sees perfectly.

 

Jesus says in v.40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” The answer is not to develop greater confidence in ourselves. The answer is not continuing to try harder to be better qualified to sit in the place of God in judgement. No, the answer is to continually become more like Christ.

You must grow in Christlikeness through humility and forgiveness rather than condemnation.

 

If we’re blind, where do we learn to see clearly? We learn from the One who sees perfectly, we learn from the one who restores sight. We learn from the Good Teacher, we learn from Jesus Christ, God the Son, and we must learn to see through His eyes.

 

Jesus is the true Teacher. Unlike blind guides He sees perfectly, He judges rightly, and He restores mercifully. You see, restoration is the purpose for judging the behavior of others. But before we can rightly judge anyone and attempt to restore a brother or sister in Christ, we have to humbly look at ourselves and repent of our own sins.

 

Let’s look at how Jesus explains this in vv.41 – 42. That’s quite the amusing picture, isn’t it? Big ole log sticking of your eye. That’s what we call hyperbole, and it drives the point across really well.

 

How can we presume to be able to identify and remove something as small as a speck in our brother’s or sister’s eye, while having a log in our own? That sounds rather arrogant and self-righteous.

 

Ironically many see this as a condemnation of Christians who call out sin. Many use this passage as support for a “stay in your own lane” kind of Christianity. A don’t try and point out someone else’s speck in their eye because you’ve got a log of sin in your own eye mentality.

 

The issue is not that our fellow Christian has no speck, or that their sin should be ignored. We’re supposed to help our brothers and sisters deal with their sin. Ignoring struggles with sin in fellow Christians is a very unloving way to be a part of the body. The issue is hypocrisy.

 

The order of operations matters. First take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see clearly. Then you can judge behavior rightly and help your brother.

 

You have to get right with God first, before trying to help others do the same. The goal is not condemnation and superiority; the goal is restoration and mercy. The disciple who has been humbled by grace becomes useful to God in helping others, because God mercifully restores His people.

And Jesus isn’t just teaching this, He embodies it. He sees all our sin perfectly. And He judges rightly. Yet, instead of casting away His people, He restores them. He is the One who gives sight to the blind.

 

Here’s the truth of our passage today, God sees perfectly, judges rightly, and restores mercifully. You must grow in Christlikeness through humility and forgiveness rather than condemnation.

 

It begins with humility. So this week, before you presume to address someone else’s sin, ask God to show you your own sin first. Before you go and have a difficult conversation, send a critical text message, post a social media comment, or before discussing someone else’s failure pause and pray, asking God, “Lord, what am I failing to see in myself?”

 

The closing words of Psalm 139 are a great prayer to pray when asking God to reveal your sin to you, ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! ²⁴ And see if there be any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

 

The humble disciple recognizes that there likely is a log in their own before pointing out a speck. Truly, it’s easier for us to recognize specks in the eyes of others because often they’re made of the same wood as the log in our own. So look in the mirror before you go looking through the microscope.

 

Second, choose forgiveness when condemnation seems easier. Most of you won’t verbally condemn anyone this week. But many of us will replay offenses in our minds, rehearse arguments in our heads, keep score, assume motives, and hold grudges.

 

That’s functional condemnation and Jesus calls us to forgive instead. And when you’re tempted to condemn, remember how much you’ve been forgiven. So this week, think of a specific person in your life that you might still be holding in the courtroom of your heart. And then release them to God’s judgement and extend forgiveness.

 

Lastly, seek to restore people, not beat them down. So many hard conversation are motivated by proving a point, winning an argument, exposing a fault, or even defending ourselves. Jesus calls you to do better.

The question isn’t “How can I prove I’m right?” Instead, the question that we should asking ourselves is, “How can I help my brother?” So the next time you need to confront someone (and you will), ask: “Am I trying to restore this person or defeat this person?”

 

The goal of correction is restoration, not vindication. Christians should not confront to win; they should confront to restore.

 

The truth is none of us naturally do this on our own. We naturally condemn, we naturally defend ourselves, we naturally magnify specks and minimize logs.

 

You cannot learn from the Christ unless you actually listen to what His Word teaches. You cannot see like Christ unless you stay close to Him. You cannot be like Christ unless Christ lives in you.

 

Our dependence on Christ is absolute. We need Christ to train our eyes. We need Christ to humble our hearts. We need Christ to teach us how to see people as He sees them.