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Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.
The verb "judge" (krino) has a number of different nuances, depending on the context—ranging from ordinary discernment or evaluation (cf. Luke 7:43), to judicial litigation (Matt. 5:40), to bestowal of reward (19:28), to pronouncement of guilt (John 7:51), and to absolute determination of a person's fate (5:22; 8:16). The latter two senses are in view here: Jesus warns his disciples against setting themselves over others and making a pronouncement of their guilt before God.
NIV Application Commentary: Matthew . Zondervan
although indeed 'God is love', yet we have to remember that his love is 'holy love', love which yearns over sinners while at the same time refusing to condone their sin.The Cross of Christ (88)
The verb krinō ("judge") has a wide semantic range: "judge" (judicially), "condemn," "discern." It cannot here refer to the law courts, any more than 5:33–37 forbids judicial oaths. Still less does this verse forbid all judging of any kind, for the moral distinctions drawn in the Sermon on the Mount require that decisive judgments be made. Jesus himself goes on to speak of some people as dogs and pigs (Mt 7:6) and to warn against false prophets (vv. 15–20). Elsewhere he demands that people "make a right judgment"
Jesus' demand here is for his disciples not to be judgmental and censorious. The verb krinō has the same force in Romans 14:10–13 (cf. James 4:11–12). The rigor of the disciples' commitment to God's kingdom and the righteousness demanded of them do not authorize them to adopt a judgmental attitude. Those who "judge" like this will in turn be "judged," not by men (which would be of little consequence), but by God (which fits the solemn tone of the discourse). The disciple who takes it on himself to be the judge of what another does usurps the place of God (Rom 14:10) and therefore becomes answerable to him. The hina mē ("in order that … not"; NIV, "or") should therefore be given full telic force: "Do not assume the place of God by deciding you have the right to stand in judgment over all—do not do it, I say, in order to avoid being called to account by the God whose place you usurp"
“Matthew,” Expositor’s Bible Commentary, 183.
Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection.
We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.
Christian righteousness far surpasses pharisaic righteousness in kind rather than in degree. It is not so much, shall we say, that Christians succeed in keeping some 240 commandments when the best Pharisees may only have scored 230. No. Christian righteousness is greater than pharisaic righteousness because it is deeper, being a righteousness of the heartThe message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (p. 75). Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
He does more than obey them himself; he explains what obedience will involve for his disciples. He rejects the superficial interpretation of the law given by the scribes; he himself supplies the true interpretation. His purpose is not to change the law, still less to annul it, but 'to reveal the full depth of meaning that it was intended to hold'.
The message of the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian counter-culture (p. 72). Leicester; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
What is unhealthy is every wallowing in guilt which does not lead to confession, repentance, faith in Jesus Christ and so forgiveness.The Cross of Christ (101)
when he says, Judge not. It is not necessary that believers should become blind, and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue eagerness to judge: for otherwise the proper bounds of rigor will be exceeded by every man who desires to pass sentence on his brethren.
Commentary on Matthew
we must carefully note the exact meaning of "judge" (κρίνετε); in this context it does not mean a court trial or admonition. It cannot refer to discerning or evaluating right and wrong. All such are valid for believers (e.g., 1 Cor 5:5; Phil 3:2; Gal 6:1; Heb 3:13; 1 John 4:1). So what does this judgmental attitude connote? It means looking down on a person with a superior attitude, criticizing or condemning them without a loving concern (the opposite of the second we-petition on forgiveness, 6:12).
The key component is the absence of love. Admonition has a humility that says, "I love you enough to want to help you, and tomorrow you will need to correct me." There is no sense of superiority, no desire to make yourself look good at the expense of another. Bruner says this prohibition is the flip side of the fifth beatitude (5:5, "God blesses those who are merciful") as well as of the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer (6:12, "forgive us our sins") and recapitulates the commands in ch. 5 against anger, revenge, and hate
Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 257–258.
Self-denial is not denying to ourselves luxuries such as chocolates, cakes, cigarettes and cocktails (although it might include this); it is actually denying or disowning ourselves, renouncing our supposed right to go our own way.
The Bible isn't about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us.
Jesus Christ is indeed a crutch for the lame, to help us walk upright, just as he is also medicine for the spiritually sick, bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty. We do not deny this; it is perfectly true. But then all human beings are lame, sick, hungry and thirsty. The only difference between us is not that some are needy, while others are not. It is rather that some know and acknowledge their need, while others either don't through ignorance or won't through pride.
Envy! Envy is the reverse side of a coin called vanity. Nobody is ever envious of others who is not first proud of himself.
Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him.
We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.
Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.
Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.
Pride is without doubt the chief occupational hazard of the preacher.
The proper activity of professing Christians who disagree with one another is neither to ignore, nor to conceal, nor even to minimize their differences, but to debate them. We are 'to maintain the truth in love,' being neither truthless in our love, nor loveless in our truth, but holding the two in balance.Christ the Controversialist (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1970), pp. 22, 19.
I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the Cross.' In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.
Jesus calls his disciples to exert a double influence on the secular community, a negative influence by arresting its decay and a positive influence by bringing light into its darkness.. For it is one thing to stop the spread of evil; it is another to promote the spread of truth.Message of the Sermon on the Mount (64-65)
If the church is central to God's purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives. How can we take lightly what God takes so seriously? How dare we push to the circumference what God has placed at the centre?The Message of the Ephesians (129)
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