From time to time in these posts, we have addressed the problem of taking biblical verses and/or passages out of context.
A common example involves Jesus' exhortation to "Judge not that you be not judged" (Matt. 7:1). We recall, for example, having been rather pointedly advised by one of our congregational leaders that in having very briefly touched upon the subject of moral perversion in a preceding sermon, we had violated Jesus' prohibition of judging. (It might be added that when the denominational leadership began promoting such viewpoint we found it expedient to resign our personal affiliation.)
What did Jesus really say in his Sermon on the Mount regarding "judging?" In Luke's account, Jesus is quoted thusly: "Judge not, and you shall not be judged; condemn not and you shall not be condemned; forgive and you shall be forgiven; give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and skaken together, and running over shall MEN give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38 KJV). In other words, "you will get what you give."
Simply stated, it is a matter of social relationship. The quality of spirit we manifest toward others will be that which they, in return, manifest to us. "Therefore," Jesus continues, "all things whatsoever you would that MEN should do to you, do even so to THEM." In its negative aspect, Christ's words thus apply to "judging" within the context of a destructive, vindictive, faultfinding spirit. It will come back to us.
That Jesus is not advocating an unconditional acceptance of unconstrained behavior is observable in his ensuing injunction: "Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn again and rend you."
Even metaphorically, one's assessment of others in terms of dogs and swine is, in a sense, "judgmental." As such, however, Christ's exhortation is not that one adopt a hateful, spiteful response toward the abusive, unpleasant and/or disagreeable (cf. 5:44-45), but rather that in a sense of the practical and objective such persons, the nature of their conduct and its outworking in terms of others not become lost to one's awareness.
Simply put, we live in a real world - for which reason Jesus addresses the realities and relationships of the present as well as those of a day to come.
Burl Ratzsch
