Locations & Times

1. Why did princess get sent to the principal’s office? (She cheated on her test and blamed other people.)
2. Princess was cheating but she also blamed other people. What did Mrs. Molecule have to say about judging someone else? (She said that the Bible says to look at ourselves and what we did wrong before judging others.)
3. Princess shouldn’t have been cheating, but how could she have handled the situation better? (Admitted her mistake and not blamed other people. Tell the truth.)
4. What did Jesus mean when he said, “first, take the wood out of your own eye?” (We have to worry about our own problems first before we call out anybody else.)
5. When Jesus is in our hearts what will he help us do? (He can make our hearts pure, so good stuff can come out.)

Read: Matthew 7:1-5

Even people who don’t follow Jesus would agree that telling the truth is important. However, Jesus pushed into this idea further in his teaching in Matthew 7. He talked about judging others and hypocrisy. Thinking about these two ideas in the context of truth is good, because in a way they’re both extensions of dishonesty.

Take hypocrisy—it’s the ultimate lie. It’s a disconnection between what you say and what you do. And judging others, without admitting our own faults and working on them first, is a misstep in following Jesus. Admitting our own mistakes is pivotal to the sort of life change that Jesus promises for us when we are intentionally and authentically following him.

When we judge others, specifically others who aren’t even trying to follow Jesus, we are automatically hypocrites, since we are focused on someone else’s stuff and seemingly saying we are above blame. Often it’s our own insecurity that tempts us to shift the focus onto another person’s problems so that ours can remain well-hidden.

This judgmental behavior deflates the power of God’s grace—as though it is enough for us but not for that other person who is doing something really wrong. What a silly thing it must be for God to look down and see us comparing our faults with one another—ranking this or that one above another. We are like children who have been caught in a mistake and instead of admitting our wrong, we blame the next child who did something else.

That’s why the truth is so important. Because the truth is that all of us fall short, and without Jesus, none of us are qualified. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we find that we are nowhere near godly perfection. But we also find something else. We find his grace to be all-sufficient for us. From that perspective, we can see others in the way God sees us – perfect, because we are forgiven.

Where in your life are you saying or believing one thing but doing or feeling something else? 

What are some steps you can take to own your judgements of others and instead see them the way God sees you?