Jesus now turns again to the all to familiar human tendency to manage and correct others. It’s essentially a universal human practice no matter what culture on earth you may be considering. If we have been learning from the master’s sermon we have already laid aside anger and contempt, cultivation of lusting, verbal manipulation and several other anxieties associated with looking good and accumulating wealth. If we have not learned to curb such sins, what Jesus says now will be incomprehensible. The blessed life is knowing the king of the kingdom and learning his ways. Here in, lies the truly happy life.

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Verses one to six of chapter seven illustrate the outworking of the inner life of the kingdom with family and friends and co-workers and neighbours. It is an outworking of agape love which is how Jesus summarised the whole section down in verse twelve with “love your neighbour as yourself.”

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Jesus is dealing with the perennial human problem of condemnation. It might seem like he is simply dealing with matters of correction, but it’s really the human propensity to condemn others. Of course being condemned by others never feels great, and this is the issue Jesus wants to address. It is not that people will not from time to time require correction, it is an issue of how it is done and whether it is done in love. The apostle Paul says it well in Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well. (The amplified version)

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From Paul’s instruction we can see that we are not to correct unless we are absolutely sure of the sin. Remember love always believes and hopes in all things. Second, not just anyone is to correct. This is reserved for those who are wise and truly spiritual. Third, the correction is to be with the aim of restoration should the person be open to conviction of sin. Fourth, the correctors must assume that they too are vulnerable to the very same sin. Here, all self righteousness is removed with the aim being, love and blessedness.

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It is prudent of us to observe that the Lord Jesus reserved condemnation for a very select few human beings. They were always the self righteous and those who were quick to condemn others themselves. It is wise to leave certain matters of correction to the Lord himself.

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One of the biggest issues we have with correction of others stems from the fact that many of us have not successfully dealt with the issues of anger and contempt which hang around matters of correction or condemnation. Contempt is a major component in condemnation and therefore when it has been largely dealt with, gives much space for godly correction to occur.

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When Jesus says judge not so that you will not be judged, he is stating fact. How often do we condemn others and not receive the same condemnation straight back at us? “Eye for an eye” is a law of the unredeemed cosmos. Jesus uses the quite humorous illustration of the plank in the eye to describe unhelpful correction. One might wonder, how does Jesus know that such a person has a plank in their eye? How does he know that their readiness to condemn others reveals the hidden secrets of their own heart? Because it just does. The plank is the condemnation. The readiness to condemn is itself the plank, there is no hiding it, there is no fancy prophetic understanding. If you are willing to condemn others, you do not realise your own fundamental dependency on the unmerited grace of God.

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Does this mean that we live in communities without correction? Not at all. But we do need standards that are expressed which we can be held accountable to without judgement or condemnation. Often, the biggest issue is discerning whether a person is ready to learn what God wants to teach them. This is what Jesus means when he says not to feed pigs pearls. They can’t digest pearls. Sometimes we try to shove good stuff down peoples throats before they are ready to receive the truth. No wonder they try to eat us, because we can be eaten, whilst pearls cannot!

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There is much to be learned over a life time about how to bring correction to others in community. May we find the grace to do so.