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“From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice; and from all want of charity, Good Lord, deliver us.”
Matthew 7: 1 – 7 (Judging Others): “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Matthew 7: 15 – 20 (A Tree and Its Fruit): 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.
From Rodger:
We have here two small parts of what is essentially the same speech. Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount begins with the beatitudes, that he’s sharing with his disciples (interesting, isn’t it – this isn’t a speech to everyone like it’s so often depicted.) These two parts of chapter 7 are confusing, hard to understand and seem to almost contradict one another. We are called not to judge others, less we be judged. OK… But isn’t that almost the same thing that Jesus is telling us to do in verses 15 – 20? How do we conclude that anyone’s “fruit” isn’t good, unless we “judge” them?
I’ve struggled with this for almost my entire life of faith. Don’t judge, but at the same time, it’s sometime obvious that we look at someone and see – clearly see – “BAD” fruit. That’s exactly what we saw at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that Phil wrote about a couple of days ago. It’s simply impossible to claim to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and at the same time, evidence behavior that belies almost every commandment he calls his (serious) disciples to obey. While I know that this very subject makes some people furious, elicits cries of “politics instead of religion!” and leads some to shout for me to “STAY IN YOUR LANE!” along with all kinds of other, usually crass, invective… BUT…
At some point it needs to be said: When we see people claiming to be Christians showing by their behavior as well as their speech what seems to be a complete negation of the gospel, do we not look honestly for the “fruit” Jesus said would be seen – either good or bad?
When we see the draconian and hard-hearted (see Phil’s words of March 13th) firings, program cuts like USAID, and the V.A. and so many other parts of our government that have been callously slashed by an unelected, unconfirmed billionaire who should have NO authority at all, and are clearly aware that these “clean up the swamp” measures will cause havoc in peoples’ lives, up to and including causing people to die, how can we NOT evaluate the “fruit” in the lives of those who claim that their behavior is an outgrowth of their Christian faith?
How do we judge – in the right understanding of that world – those who claim that their faith in Jesus is the reason they want our nation to go back to something condemned and (we thought) settled by the Civil War, or even by the creation of the Constitution they claim to uphold?
Phyllis Tickle – someone I’ve mentioned before – gave a lecture I was present for some years back and she outlined her belief that there are Two Christianities being practiced here in America. It’s worth your time to listen to:
Is the reality that we truly do have two Christianities (at least two) being practiced today here in America? Has it come to this? Something I wish I didn’t even have to think about, much less put into written words. But the evidence seems too vast to ignore anymore. I can’t listen to someone call upon the name of Jesus and then almost in the same sentence seem to oppose every single idea that Matthew chapter 25 illustrates. How can we claim to love one another as Christ has loved us when our thoughts and actions belie practically every part of the Sermon on the Mount? Or is there a Christianity being practiced that is simply something different and distinct from the discipleship I gave my life to back in 1975? (Ask Phil what he thinks of the “Witch of Endor” of 1st Samuel 28 advising the most powerful person in our world.)
If any of this is true – and not simply the rambling nonsense of someone who’s lost his mind – then perhaps part of our Lenten journey should include a clear wake up call… to see things as they really are, not as we’d like them to be. To perhaps dive into the Book of Amos in the Old Testament and see the uncanny resemblance to our own world. And maybe to understand that we are in deeper trouble than perhaps many of us realize. And in the words of the one and only “Dalton” (of Road House fame)… It’s gonna get worse before it gets better.