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Christchurch Miami

5 daily readings · Kent Keller

What Jesus Really Meant About Judging - Matthew 7:1-6

Matthew 7:1-6

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Monday · Monday, February 23, 2026

I Don't Need the Guilt

"“Judge not, that you be not judged."

Matthew 7:1 · ESV

Kent told the story of a student he had known since high school — call him Sam — a committed young Christian who went off to study film at SMU. There were not many other committed Christians in the film department, so before long he was at lunch with a fellow film student and began to share how he came to faith in Christ. He barely got started. She cut him off: "Look, I don't need the rules, I don't need the guilt, so just leave me alone." And she got up abruptly and left. Kent's reaction was not anger. It was grief. How sad that the greatest message of freedom and release this world has ever heard was experienced by her as a message of repression and guilt. How did that happen? How have we let the best news in the world land on so many people as bad news? That question is the doorway into this passage. "Judge not, that you be not judged." Jesus is not being sentimental. He is protecting the reputation of the gospel — and it is often his own people who put it at risk.

Reflect

Has anyone ever experienced your faith as rules and guilt rather than freedom? What did you contribute to that impression?

Pray

Lord, the best news in the world has too often sounded like bad news coming out of my mouth. Forgive me. Let the people around me encounter freedom in me, not a verdict. Amen.

Tuesday · Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Leave the Judging to God

"For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you."

Matthew 7:2 · ESV

Kent said this passage is emancipating, and then reached for an image nobody expected in a Presbyterian church in Miami: it is like the first time you went skinny-dipping in a lake as a kid. That freeing. His point was serious. It is not my responsibility to declare who is in and who is out. God will be the judge. People ask him all the time — do you think so-and-so is a Christian? His usual answer: God knows. I don't. I may have an opinion based on how he or she lives, but God knows and I don't. Do you think that person who died is in heaven? God knows. I don't. That is not evasion. It is a job description. You were never given the office, so you can put down the gavel. And Jesus attaches a warning to picking it up anyway: the measure you use will be measured to you. Whatever standard you impose on other people, they will impose right back on you. Strict is a hard way to live when it comes back around.

Reflect

Who have you quietly rendered a verdict on? What would it feel like to hand that judgment back to God this week?

Pray

Father, you are the judge and I am not, and I am relieved. Take the gavel out of my hand. Where I have decided about someone, let me leave it with you and love them instead. Amen.

Wednesday · Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Jesus on Ophthalmology

"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"

Matthew 7:3 · ESV

Kent joked that in these six verses Jesus gives his views on judicial philosophy, ophthalmology, and animal husbandry. Verse 3 is the ophthalmology. "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" The comedy is deliberate. A speck of sawdust and a construction beam. Jesus is not describing a slight imbalance of perspective; he is describing a man walking around with a plank sticking out of his skull, squinting at somebody else's eyelash. And notice the verbs. You *see* the speck — you are looking hard at it, examining it closely. You do not *notice* the log. The thing that is objectively larger is the thing you are least aware of. That is how it works. Our own faults do not feel like faults from the inside. They feel like context, reasons, personality, circumstances. It is other people's faults that look like faults. The log is not hidden. It is just yours.

Reflect

What fault do you find genuinely irritating in other people? What are the odds it is a smaller version of something in you?

Pray

Lord, I see other people's specks with great clarity and my own log not at all. Show me what I have been calling context and reasons. I would rather see clearly than be right. Amen.

Thursday · Thursday, February 26, 2026

First Take the Log Out

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye."

Matthew 7:5 · ESV

Here is what this passage does not say: mind your own business. Jesus says, "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." First and then. He fully expects there to be a *then*. The goal was never that you would stop caring what happens to your brother's eye. What he forbids is the order. Correction that comes from someone who has not dealt with themselves is not correction; it is superiority wearing a helpful face. That is why he uses the word hypocrite. But correction that comes from someone who has been honest about their own log — that lands completely differently. You can always tell. Somebody who knows what they are like themselves can say a hard thing to you and it does not crush you. The log has to come out first, and not so you feel worse. So you can see. So that when you do help, you are not stabbing around blind with a plank in your face.

Reflect

Is there a conversation you need to have with someone — and what work do you need to do on yourself before you have it?

Pray

Father, deal with me before you use me. Take the log out, and then give me the humility and clear sight to help someone else without wounding them. Amen.

Friday · Friday, February 27, 2026

Pearls and Pigs

"“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you."

Matthew 7:6 · ESV

And here is the animal husbandry — the verse that stops "judge not" from collapsing into having no discernment at all. "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs." If verse 1 were the whole story, the Christian life would mean never making any assessment of anybody, ever. Verse 6 makes that impossible. Jesus assumes you can tell the difference between someone who is genuinely asking and someone who only wants something sacred to trample. That is discernment, not judgment, and the difference matters enormously. Judgment declares a verdict on a person's standing before God — not your call, ever. Discernment reads a situation wisely and responds accordingly — required of you constantly. So hold both. Refuse to render verdicts about who is in and who is out. And do not be naive about where you scatter what is precious. Remember Sam's classmate. Sometimes the most loving thing is not another argument. It is patience, and a life she can watch.

Reflect

Where do you need more discernment, and where have you been confusing discernment with judgment?

Pray

Lord, give me both: the humility to leave verdicts to you and the wisdom to know how and when to speak. Keep me from being harsh and from being naive. Amen.

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