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My MAGA Friends Tell Me Not to Judge Them · The Reading Instruction Show

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  Welcome to the Church of Biblical Sanity. I'm
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  your host, Dr. Andy Johnson. Today's verse, Matthew
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  7, 1 and 2. Judge not that you be not judged,
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  for with the judgment you pronounce, you will
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  be judged. And with the measure you use, it will
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  be measured to you. New international version.
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  Here's the King James version. Judge not that
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  ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
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  ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye
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  met, it shall be measured to you again." Now,
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  people say this to me quite a bit, people, a
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  few people on the internet. You're a hypocrite
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  for saying you can't be Maga and Christian at
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  the same time, because the Bible says, judge
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  not lest ye be judged. Whenever I call out the
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  cruelty, the self -centeredness, the hatred,
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  and the greed of Trump policies. And as MAGA
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  supporters, I get that. Judge not, lest ye be
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  judged, they say. And perhaps that's the only
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  Bible verse that has stuck in the heads of my
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  MAGA Christian friends. But it's used as a get
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  -out -of -jail card to do whatever the hell they
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  want to do. Judge not, lest ye be judged. A bit
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  of context. In the book of Matthew, these two
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  verses come after the Beatitudes. Here Jesus
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  asked us to be meek in order to hear the word.
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  We're to be merciful and pure in heart. We're
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  to be peacemakers. These two verses are followed
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  right after with the admonition not to throw
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  our pearls to pigs. And a little later we're
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  told that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
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  So what kind of fruit are you bearing, brothers
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  and sisters? Does your tree bear mercy, love,
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  compassion, understanding, and charity? Or do
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  we see anger, hatred, greed, self -centeredness,
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  killing, throwing people in detention centers?
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  Oh, the words they call me on Facebook when I
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  point out that you can't be MAGA and Christian
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  at the same time. You can't serve two masters,
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  Jesus and Trump. I get some really rotten fruit
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  thrown at me. Biblical smorgasbord is where you
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  go through the line and you pick and choose those
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  verses you want to put on your plate. But that's
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  not the living word. Biblical drive -thru is
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  where you order up what you want to get. and
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  you get a few words slapped on your head and
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  then you drive off. That's not the living word.
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  The living word becomes the living word when
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  you dwell on it, using the conditions of the
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  heart expressed in the beatitudes, and then you
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  let it fester inside of you. Meekness, willing
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  to listen and let it speak to you. Pure of heart,
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  like the love of a child, compassion, understanding.
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  When you use those conditions of the heart, consciousness,
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  dispositions, it becomes the living word, like
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  a brain worm. Judge not, lest ye be judged! I
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  use the analogy. that if a person is hitting
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  another with a hammer, do you tell them to stop?
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  Am I judging if I tell them to stop? If a parent
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  spends their money on drinking, gambling, and
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  pleasure while their children go hungry and don't
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  receive medical care, am I judging if I tell
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  them to stop? Stop hitting your neighbors with
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  hammers. feed our children, provide the medical
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  care they need. And if I were doing these things,
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  hitting with hammers and such, I would hope someone
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  would judge me and look at my behaviors and tell
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  me to cut it out. Making a judgment out of mercy
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  and compassion is not the kind of judgment that
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  Jesus was talking about here. Judge not, least
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  ye be judged. That's Matthew 7 verse 1. Verse
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  2 says, for in the same way you judge others,
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  you'll be judged. If you judge with love, understanding,
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  and compassion, you will be judged that way.
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  Excellent. But if you judge with hatred, envy,
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  anger, and deficiency, so too will you be judged.
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  The magic of this passage is that it's about
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  consciousness, disposition, or conditions of
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  the heart. That's where the magic is. If you
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  walk around and in your mind you're judging others,
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  you're always seeing their faults, you tend to
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  judge yourself that way. If in your mind you
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  are constantly comparing and criticizing and
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  condemning others, that's a disposition, seeing
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  them through a deficit lens, you are less forgiving
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  of yourself. Angry people see an angry world.
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  Loving people see a loving world. Those who constantly
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  see the faults in others seem to dwell on their
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  own. But when we see the good in others, we see
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  the good within. When we are understanding and
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  forgiving of others, we tend to be understanding
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  and forgiving of ourselves, and others tend to
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  be understanding and forgiving of us as well.
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  That's where the magic lies. This passage is
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  not meant to excuse bad behaviors. Taking away
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  food and medicine from people who need it is
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  bad behavior. Bombing another country, killing
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  school children for no reason is bad behavior.
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  Raping and sexually trafficking girls, that's
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  bad behavior. This verse is about compassion
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  and understanding. It's a condition of the heart.
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  It is not! a get out of jail free card.