Mercy Triumphs over Judgment

Sermon Transcript

Today it’s common for cognitive behavioral therapists to talk about cognitive distortions. Some common ones include emotional reasoning, where one assumes that because they feel a certain way, things are a certain way, overgeneralizing, where you take one instance as representative of a whole, all-or-nothing thinking, in which you view events or people as either all good or all bad, mind-reading, when you start to think you know what people are thinking, discounting positives, when you refuse to see positive things others do as legitimate. Many of these, especially the ones I’ve just mentioned, are seen to negatively impact relationships, and especially our perception of others. If you reason emotionally, overgeneralize someone’s flaws, view them as either all good or all bad, assume you can read their mind, and discount any positives, you can pretty easily form a very negative, even dangerous perception of someone else that has little, if any, correspondence to reality.

 

As we come to this passage in the Gospel of Luke today, we aren’t going to read about cognitive distortions. Jesus was not a cognitive behavior therapist. But Jesus is concerned with how we treat, and especially how we judge, one another. Jesus was, and is, Lord, the king in the kingdom of God, and in this sermon of his that we’ve been looking at for a couple weeks now, Jesus is teaching us what the people of his kingdom are like. Jesus knows how prone we are to form harsh judgments of others. He saw it being done in his own day by the Pharisees, who were already beginning to form a harsh judgment of him. But in this passage he commands us: Treat others with the mercy you need from God. First he tells us why to do so, and then he tells us how to do so: Why? Because God will treat you the way you treat others. How? By repenting of the sins for which you need mercy.

 

Because God will treat you the way you treat others

 

Our passage begins with four brief commands, each of which is accompanied by a promise. The first two commands are prohibitions: Judge not, and condemn not. The next two are positive duties: Forgive, and give. The promises match the commands: Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Then with the giving we get a description: Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. At that time people would sell grain this way. You’d pay for a certain amount, and then it would be on the seller to measure it out with a good measure, press it down and shake it up so you aren’t paying for empty space in the container, and Jesus is saying to you there will even be given an overflowing amount if you give. He then gives the reason at the end of verse 38, the reason that undergirds all the promises corresponding to the commands in verses 37 and 38: With the measure you use it will be measured back to you. In other words, God will treat you the way you treat others. That’s just, isn’t it? If you do not judge others, God will not judge you. If you do not condemn others, God will not condemn you. If you forgive others, God will forgive you. If you give to others, God will give to you.

 

Let’s zoom in on each of these, then. First, judge not, and you will not be judged. Jesus is not saying by this that we should never make a moral evaluation of another’s actions. The third command of these four is the command to forgive, and you can’t forgive someone if you can’t first assess that they have committed a wrong. Furthermore, later in Luke Jesus explicitly tells his disciples: “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3). There we see that forgiveness works in conjunction with rebuking, and rebuking can only happen if you make a judgement that your brother has sinned. Later in Luke Jesus tells his disciples that they will sit on thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:30). Then in the letter to the Corinthians the Spirit of Jesus tells us that it is those inside the church whom we are to judge (1 Cor 5:12-13), thus indicating that not only is some form of judgment ok, but some form of judgment is required of churches. Jesus is not against all forms of judgment.

 

But Jesus is against a certain kind of judgment. He says “Judge not” for a reason, and we can understand the reason more clearly by learning from the next prohibition that is paired with it: Condemn not. You know how sometimes when you’re trying to convey an idea you use multiple different words to get at it? A mother might tell her child to be kind and share. The command to share helps us understand the specific kindness for which the mother is calling. So here Jesus’ prohibition against condemnation helps us understand the specific kind of judgment he is prohibiting: It’s a condemning judgment, a harsh judgment, a judgment, as James puts it in James 2:13, that is “without mercy.” It’s a judgment that condemns.

 

If someone asks you, “Will those who reject Jesus go to hell?” you should not hesitate to say yes, because the Bible says that (2 Thess 1:8-9). We must tell people the standards God himself communicates by which God condemns, but we don’t ourselves do the condemning. Even when we look at the most hardened opponent of Christ, we know the Lord is patient, we know Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and so we should hold out hope that the Lord might still grant that person repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth rather than pronouncing our own verdict of condemnation against them.

 

When the church must judge those inside the church by removing them from the membership of the church as an act of church discipline and barring them from taking the Lord’s Supper, we do so in hope of their repentance, in hope that they truly are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and this act of discipline will serve as an instrument in the Lord’s hands to lead them to repentance. Scripture explicitly tells us that in the exercise of church discipline we are not to regard those under discipline as enemies, but to warn them as brothers (2 Thess 3:15). And we make these judgments Jesus requires us to make in recognition that we are not Jesus, and therefore we are not the final judge. We recognize that only the Lord sees the heart, and therefore it is right and good that only the Lord will make the final judgment on anyone’s eternal state.

 

So we never consign someone to hell in our minds or with our words. What are some other ways that we might be tempted to judge others without mercy, though? One way is when we accuse someone else of a sinful action, motive, or character, and refuse to let go of that assessment, no matter what evidence follows. Someone says something, posts something, or texts something, often something that causes personal offense or pain to you, and you start to accuse them of sin, assume a certain motive, or render a verdict on their character. Once thoughts like that occur to your mind, your antennae need to go up.

 

Because you can’t necessarily dismiss the accusation. Maybe the person was sinning, and God wants to use you as an instrument in his hands to rescue them from the destruction of their sin. If the evidence is compelling, Jesus gives you a process to follow: Confront them individually, then if they still don’t repent, take 1 or 2 others, and if the 1 or 2 others agree with your evaluation of the evidence, confront the person, and they still don’t repent, tell it to the church, and if the whole church agrees with your evaluation of the evidence and the person still won’t repent, then the church does its job and judges those inside it by rendering a provisional verdict of excommunication (Matt 18:15-20). So again, moral evaluation isn’t the problem. 

 

But the problem comes when, far from dismissing the accusation, you render a guilty verdict on the person in your heart when you haven’t even soberly evaluated the evidence or followed the steps for doing so that Jesus laid out. You’re just so hurt and mad that you don’t even stop to ask, “Now wait a second. Might there be another explanation? Might they have intended something else by that text message? Am I assuming I know what they’re thinking, or dealing with observable evidence? Is the way I’m feeling toward this person now really fair given everything I know about them, or am I isolating this one incident and making it representative of their character in general?” That can be especially hard when you’re hearing an accusation from someone else. Proverbs 18:17 tells us the one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him, but it is really hard when you have someone in front of you who’s hurt and angry telling you it’s someone else’s fault, to stop and think, “Well now maybe that’s true, but maybe it isn’t. I’ve only heard one side of this story. Let me take what this person is saying seriously, but let me suspend judgment until I hear both sides of the story.” 

 

Whether the accusation springs up inside us or comes to us from someone else, judging not and condemning not entails fighting the temptation to rush to a hasty verdict in the absence of sufficient evidence. If you don’t fight that temptation, what happens next is even when the person starts to act in ways that are contrary to your assessment, you refuse to admit the evidence! You’ve already condemned them in your heart, and so you just read any new evidence as further confirmation of your predetermined verdict. The person you already condemned as a liar tells the truth, and you think, “Well that must be a way of throwing us off their scent. Even liars can’t lie all the time. A broken clock is right twice a day.” The person you already condemned as an abuser does something kind, and you think, “Abusers have to be kind sometimes to maintain power over their victims. That must be what they’re doing here.” The one or two others you invite in or the church don’t see the evidence the same way you do, and so you conclude they’ve been manipulated too! And you see what has happened? There’s now no path forward for the accused. There is no hope of forgiveness, no hope of reconciliation. You’ve condemned them without mercy. 

 

And I just want you to see from this text that Jesus forbids you from doing that. He does not want you to do that to people. He commands you not to do that to people. And he clearly implies that if you do that to people, God will do that to you. With the measure you use it will be measured back to you. So here’s a simple tool you can use when you find yourself judging another: “If God judged me by his same standard, how would that go for me? If God put the worst possible spin on my words, how would that go for me? If God judged me by my worst movies, how would that go for me? If God looked at my whole life, isolated my worst moments, and judged me on the basis of them, how would that go for me? If God looked at all the words I’ve ever spoken and judged me on the ten most erroneous of them, how would that go for me?” Treat others with the mercy you need from God because God will treat you the way you treat others.

 

Before I move on to talk about forgiveness and giving let me just briefly mention three more ways we can judge and condemn in ways Jesus forbids because a harsh, judgmental spirit is so cancerous to the person who has it and to the others with whom they are in relationship, and it’s so easy to miss when we’re doing it, especially in a culture in which judging and condemning others is so celebrated. One way we judge and condemn that Jesus forbids is when we exaggerate the faults of others. Think about some of the morally loaded words our world just throws around: Abuse, wokeness, oppression. The Bible also has its fair share of morally weighty words: Oppression, lying, murder. University of Melbourne Psychology professor Nick Haslam coined the term “concept creep” in 2016 to refer to the phenomenon when words that previously referred to something very specific get applied to many more things. Because these words carry significant moral weight, it’s tempting to apply them to anything that hurts or offends us, like using a sledge hammer to swat a fly. To do that to others without sufficient evidence is to judge without mercy. Generally it’s more loving if you do think someone might be guilty of something, to start with a less severe charge, and only escalate if you find more evidence that necessitates it, rather than starting with a severe charge and forcing them to talk you down to a lesser charge. 

 

Another way we judge in a way Jesus forbids is when we take it upon ourselves to render a judgment on cases we have no responsibility from God to judge. This happens most obviously today when we render a judgment on someone else’s guilt based solely on the news headlines. Did you know it’s not actually your job to render a verdict on every news story? But if you take it upon yourself to do that, and then you join in spreading a bad report on another image of God, say a politician you don’t like, think again about how that would go for you if God judged you according to that standard. What if you had people paid to write stories about you, half of whom already don’t like you, and God made a judgment on you based solely on what they wrote about you? There’s a reason stemming from our country’s Judeo-Christian foundations that our court system gives defendants a presumption of innocence and doesn’t render judgments on them based on news headlines. We have something called due process by which actual evidence can be evaluated according to wise standards, similar to the due process Jesus gives us in Matthew 18 for church discipline. If you aren’t involved in that due process and called on to make a judgment as a judge or juror, you don’t really have any business rendering a verdict.

 

Finally, one more way we judge in a way Jesus forbids is when we judge one another in the church according to standards that go beyond God’s Word. I mentioned earlier that churches are required to judge those in their midst, but we judge in a way Jesus forbids when we condemn one another for things on which the Bible gives freedom. Where you draw the line on which movies or TV shows you’ll watch, how you educate your kids, how much or little a mother works outside the home, whether you drink alcohol or not, which candidate you vote for in an election, the best approach to poverty alleviation or immigration, how you spend your money, and the list could get a lot longer. In the Bible the issues that explicitly fall into this category are what foods you eat, and whether you observe certain days as religiously significant. On these issues Romans 14:3-4 says, “Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” The less clear the line is from scripture to the issue at hand, the slower we should be to pass judgment. A man’s committing adultery? Scripture says judge him (1 Cor 5). That’s a clear violation of scripture. Someone eats different foods from you? Scripture says let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats. Maybe you’ve got a good, God-glorifying reason based on scripture that you won’t eat that food; praise God if you do. But don’t judge others by that standard. If God judged you on the basis of these less biblically clear issues, do you really think he wouldn’t find places to condemn you?

 

Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. What’s the alternative? Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Of course, forgiveness is only necessary when an actual sin has been committed, and often our problem comes before that. Often our problem when we are judging and condemning is when we are charging people with sin who haven’t even committed sin. In that case, we don’t need to forgive; we need to repent of our harsh, judgmental spirit. But here Jesus says that even if you have been genuinely sinned against, then even in those cases, forgive, and you will be forgiven.

 

Notice that forgiveness is a choice. It’s commanded; it’s something you can do. Sometimes people wonder if they should forgive someone else if they still feel angry toward them in their hearts. That’s exactly when you should forgive someone. Forgiveness is a choice, or more specifically, it’s a commitment, a resolution to love the person who didn’t love you when they sinned against you, rather than taking revenge on them. It’s a commitment that when the angry feelings come, you aren’t going to feed them with thoughts of, “How could they?” Instead, you’re going to cultivate a heart of mercy by reflecting on the immense mercy you need, and have received, from God. Then you’re going to act toward them in whatever way is most loving to God and to them. That won’t always mean a total restoration of the relationship. If the person is refusing to repent, restoring the relationship in such a way that it enables their ongoing sin isn’t the most loving thing. But the point is when you forgive someone, “What is the most loving thing?” is the question you are asking, not how to execute justice, how to make them feel pain for the pain they caused you, or how to ensure this never happens again.

 

And we see this loving impulse in the command to give. Forgiveness doesn’t just mean, “Well I didn’t actively hurt them; I just don’t talk to them anymore.” Forgiveness means I’m now doing active good to those who have sinned against me. I am giving to them, even though they took from me. Gareth showed us last week how Jesus says if someone slaps you on one cheek, you give him the other as well, and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well (Matt 5:39-40). I’ve seen this recently in one brother here whose neighbor has been something of a terror to him. He’s confessed the temptation to get angry and even with her, and he’s not just letting her walk all over him and his wife; he confronts her and even has appealed to higher authorities when necessary–that’s loving of him. But he still prays for her good, greets her kindly when he sees her, and some ways he’s given to her are bringing her trash can back in after it’s collected and shoveling her sidewalk when it snowed. I don’t recommend the book The Five Love Languages, but the basic categories can help us consider ways to give to those who have wronged us: Words of affirmation, deeds of service, physical touch, quality time, and giving gifts. 

 

Consider someone who has wronged you, or maybe even someone you recognize you are wrongly tempted to judge. Are there true words you could speak to them that build them up and encourage them? What if you took time this week to hand write them a note of encouragement, in which all you do is tell them ways you see God at work in their lives? Is there a deed of service you could do toward them? What if you brought them a meal, babysat their kids, or gave them a ride somewhere they needed to go? What if next time you saw them, you greeted them with a sincere smile and hug? What if you invited them over for dinner and just spent quality time with them, talking about things of interest to them? Is there a gift you know they’d appreciate with which you could surprise them?

 

Now what are we tempted to think? “This all seems so unfair. They take from me, and I give to them? They don’t love me, and I love them?” And this is why Jesus’ promise that he gives with this command is so essential: Give, and it will be given to you. God’s promise is that he will give to the one who gives in this way, and he will not give sparingly, but good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. This is not karma, or a quid pro quo with God–“God I hope you see me buying a 50$ gift for this person who wronged me; I expect to see at least that much more in my bank account next month.” This is a personal God, a just God, and a merciful God, who delights in his children when we treat others with the same mercy we need from him. If you really forgive and give like this, you will often feel like you’re losing in the world, but you will never be able to out-forgive and out-give God himself. Running over, he will give mercy to you, both in this life, and in the life to come. Forgiving and giving like this are acts of faith–when you do it, you’re saying, “God I don’t know exactly how you will, but I trust that as I forgive and give to this person, you will richly supply me with all the mercy I need for fullness of life with you.” You will never be moving in the direction of less blessing in your life if you forgive and give; you will be moving in the direction of more. Can you imagine the freedom of living like this? When you know your heavenly Father is abundant in mercy toward you, and so you don’t have to hold grudges, exact revenge, and execute justice to make sure you never lose in this world? Instead, you can just forgive and give love freely, whatever that love looks like in your situation, with confidence that the Lord will forgive and give to you above and beyond what you even need.

 

Treat others with the mercy you need from God because he will treat you the way you treat others. And next, treat others with the mercy you need from God by repenting of the sins for which you need mercy.

 

By repenting of the sins for which you need mercy

 

Luke transitions us in verse 39 to a parable Jesus told about two blind men: Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Jesus just talked to us about how not to judge, but now he wants to talk to us about how to judge rightly, or how to see rightly, and the first step is not to follow blind men. Disciples aren’t above their teachers, and so if you follow a teacher, you tend to become like that teacher. The blind teachers he probably has in mind here are the Pharisees, and now that he has his disciples and this crowd gathered to hear him preach, he warns them against the danger of following such teachers. The Pharisees were happy to judge, but they judged without mercy, and according to standards beyond God’s Word. They were quick to condemn, and slow to forgive.

 

Let this be a warning to you to be careful who you follow. Just because someone is quick to denounce others online does not mean they’re in the right. In fact, if someone’s primary posture is criticism of others rather than a positive proclamation of Christ, that’s generally not someone you want to be listening to regularly or following. Jesus is the teacher who sees rightly; he’s who we ultimately want to follow, and Jesus has given leaders to his church that the Bible calls elders who meet the qualifications listed in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3. You have no way of knowing if someone with a YouTube channel or an academic degree meets those qualifications, so don’t let yourself be too influenced by them. Get to know the real Jesus, and follow him. Listen to his words written down for us in scripture, then get to know a real church, and follow leaders in it who you can affirm meet the biblical qualifications for church leadership. Kids, don’t assume the coolest kid in your class is a safe guide. He or she may just be blind, and lead you into a ditch.

 

If we would see rightly, then, we first need to follow a leader who sees rightly. Jesus is that leader, and here’s how he tells us to see rightly at the end of this parable in verse 42: First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. It’s interesting that in this address to his apostles, disciples, and other hearers, he assumes that everyone has a log in their own eye, whereas there is only a speck in your brother’s eye. And as long as that log remains in your eye, you will remain blind, and unable to helpfully take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 

 

Now why would he assume we each have a log in our own eyes, while there are only specks in our brothers’ eyes? If we all have logs in our own eyes, doesn’t that mean all our brothers have logs in their eyes too? From Jesus’ perspective, yes, but the point is that if we are seeing rightly, from our perspective, when we look at our brother, we should see a log in our own eye, and only a speck in our brother’s eye. Because here’s the reality: You don’t have as much access to anyone’s sins as you have to your own. You see some of the actions of others, even then you only see some of them, and you only see them from your limited perspective. But you see all of your own actions, and you see them from the perspective of the perpetrator! You can’t see anyone else’s thoughts or motives, but you do see your own thoughts and motives! You don’t know anyone else’s sins as well as you know your own, because you don’t know anyone else as well as you know you. So even the apostle Paul could say that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, “of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim 1:15).

 

In medicine there are certain vital signs that let doctors know there’s a medical emergency. If a doctor takes your blood pressure and you’re 190/130, they’re sending you to the ER. So we should also be alert to indicators of spiritual emergency, and here’s one: You start relating to your spouse like there’s only one sinner in the marriage, and it ain’t you. You move into your church, and all you can see is the ways it falls short. You start feeling like your role is simply to extend mercy to other sinners, and not to receive mercy for your own sin. When you notice that, it’s time to call the spiritual ambulance. Jesus says, “How can you do that?” “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

 

Romans 12:3 exhorts us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Isn’t that what we’re doing when we’re judging others without mercy? We think we know more than we actually do, we think we’d have done better if we were in their shoes, we think we have a speck in our eye, when they have a log in theirs, but the one who sees clearly says it’s just the opposite: I’ve got the log in my eye; they’ve got a speck in theirs. So, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to judge the speck that is in your brother’s eye. 

 

How can you remove the log from your own eye? First and most obviously, you have to admit that it’s there. This is just basic to being a Christian. Basic to being a Christian is the recognition that I am a sinner, and that’s why I need a savior. If you’re a basically good person, Christianity really has nothing to offer you. Jesus said he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So if you are truly following Jesus, it can only be because the Lord enabled you to see that there really is a big log in your eye. You should move into your marriage, your apartment, your family, your church, your workplace, anywhere, knowing that you bring the sin that remains in you with you, and therefore you should remain very open to the possibility that it’s coming out in ways of which you aren’t even aware. You should even take time regularly to discover it. When you read scripture, when you listen to sermons, don’t think first of how it applies to someone else. Think first of how God wants to use it to expose the log in your own eye. 

 

When you do start to think you’re seeing a speck in your brother or sister’s eye, before you talk to them about it, it’s often a good idea to first locate that same sin in your own life. Maybe you haven’t literally committed the same action, but the same seeds of sin are present in all of us, and in some way you have acted on it. Admit to them. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t just tell us to recognize the log that is in our own eye; he tells us to remove it. This is the difference between confession and repentance. Confession is an essential part of repentance, but repentance means not only admitting to our sin; it means we actively resolve, in humble dependence on the Spirit of Jesus, to walk in the opposite direction. Then and only then can we see clearly to take out the speck that is in our brother’s eye.

 

And Jesus does want us to take out the speck that is in our brother’s eye! But when we’ve first removed the log from our own, then we can confront our brother as a fellow sinner in need of grace, rather than as the moral superior who’s got this all figured out. Speaking of indicators of spiritual emergency, if you find yourself thinking, “How could they?” that’s at least a bad sign, if not an emergency. If we’re seeing our own sin accurately, we should always be able to see how they could. I have to watch this in myself when I hear of another pastor disqualifying himself. I’m tempted to think, “How could they?” but the reality is I know how they could, and that’s why I need the mercy of Jesus all the more to keep me faithful. Treat others with the mercy you need from God by first repenting of the sins for which you need mercy.

 

And next Jesus tells us why we must do that, starting in verse 43: No good tree bears good fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. You don’t gather figs from thornbushes, nor do you get grapes from a bramble bush. So also with people: The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. If you don’t remove the log from your own eye, if you leave your heart evil in other words, you aren’t going to bring out good fruit that actually helps your brother with the speck in his own eye. From the overflow of your heart will not come words that build up, fit the occasion, and give grace to those who hear them, so that they are actually encouraged to repent. Instead, from the overflow of your heart will come words that tear down, embitter, and lead those who hear them to either despair or anger. If you want to correct your brother in a way that actually helps him, first repent, so that from the overflow of your heart, your mouth can speak words that are genuinely helpful. 

 

We see here what Jesus was after in his kingdom. The Pharisees had fasting and Sabbath laws down pat, but produced evil from evil hearts. Those who follow Jesus, though, bring forth good fruit from good hearts, because Jesus is the one with the power to change the heart. Who actually has the right to judge, after all? Only one who sees all the facts with utter clarity. Only one who has no ulterior motives of his own. Only the one who gave the law, who has the authority to interpret the law, and only the one against whom the sins were ultimately committed. Only God, in other words, and Jesus is that God, one in being with the Father. And Jesus is the Son of Man, the man to whom God has given all authority and dominion, and what does he do with it? We already saw in Luke a paralytic man to whom Jesus said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you” (Luke 5:20). He’s the only one with no log or speck in his eye, and yet we, blinded by the logs in our eyes, charged him with blasphemy, convicted him, and sentenced him to death on a cross. Even then, as the one person entirely in the right, and with us entirely in the wrong, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Do you see the mercy in his judgment? Look at how he’s advocating for us: They know not what they do Father! Forgive them, please! Charge their sins to my account! Put their sins on me!

 

Thus God did, and then when he rose from the dead, Jesus commissioned his disciples, not to go take revenge on those who crucified him, but to proclaim to them repentance for the forgiveness of their sins, to them and to all nations (Luke 24:47). He sent his Holy Spirit upon them to do just that, and he has sent his Spirit now to us, to grant us repentance, forgiveness of sins, and new hearts, that produce good fruit. Do you see, then, what God has already given us? Talk about good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. God has given us his own son, and he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? He’s given us his Spirit, to transform our hearts, and he is committed to finishing the good work he began in us.

 

If you’ve received this kind of mercy, how could you withhold it from others? If you do withhold it, if you insist on judging others harshly, do you see what Jesus is saying? He’s saying that reveals that your heart hasn’t actually been changed. If you insist on judging others, you shouldn’t expect to escape the judgment of God. If you insist on condemning others, you shouldn’t expect to escape God’s condemnation. But there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). So let’s be quick to overlook offenses. Let’s be eager to forgive as we have been forgiven. Let’s remove the log from our own eye, so that we can then see clearly to take out the speck that is in our brother’s eyes. Let’s treat others with the same mercy we have received from God, and that we still need from God.