The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 313

Christ is the way, and the one only way, to build that holy" house" called a holy nature, a Chris Lian lire, the enduring character. Anything less than "doing" the things Christ says may make show; may rise, a very vision, it may be; and may have some sort of foundation; but it will not be the foundation called a rock, and least of all that called tlie Rock, which is Christ Jesus.-B. Vera. 1-12.-Bermon on tlie mount: 6. Against judging others. This "Judge not, that ye be not judged," comes in unexpectedly, and seems out of its place. But the superficial, ostentatious righteousness which our Lord has been exposing betrays itself in nothing more certainly than in censoriousness, To sigh and shake the head over a sinful world is one of the easiest roads to a reputation for sanctity. The reasons our Lord gives for refraining from judging others are two. 1. If we judge harshly and unmercifully, we shall ourselves receive similar judgment. The person who uses false weights cannot complain if, in buying as well as in selling, false weights are used. If we judge without knowing all the circumstances, if we have no patience to give weight to explanations, no sympathy to put ourselves in the offender's place, we shall receive the same summary treatment. And this, not by the action of a mere arbitrary retribution, but by a law deeply laid in the nature of things. For at the root of such judging lies hatred of our neighbour; and if not hatred, indifference to righteousness; and where these exist in the heart, the very foundations of a godly character are yet to be laid. The man who is sincerely grieved at the sin of men has no heart to expose it unless this is clearly for the benefit of all concerned. In fact, this is a department of conduct in which the great law laid down by our Lord is our best guide: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." We continually see that in judging our conduct men are entirely at fault, imputing motives, perhaps no worse than, but certainly different from, our actual motives, so that it is the part of wisdom, no less than of charity, to be slow to judge. 2. The second reason our Lord assigns is that our own faults so disturb our moral perception that we are not fit to eradicate those of our neighbour. It is proposing to pick a mote from our brother's eye while a beam is in our own. How can we understand the methods by which a man can be delivered from sin if we have made no practical acquaintance with these methods by seeking deliverance from our own sin? Two things are suggested by our Lord's words. I. To BID A MAN OF A FAULT 18 AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT OPERATION. It requires the same absolute accuracy of vision and delicacy of touch which an operation on the eye requires. The blemishes you would remove are so closely connected with virtues or qualities essential to the character, that the vision must be purged by integrity and humility, and the hand steadied by sincere affection. II. AGAIN, TO OUB LoBD, BEFORE WHOM THE M0BAL WOBLD ALL LAY as glaringly visible as the natural world lies to us, it seemed grotesque that a censorious, fault- findin:i; person should try to rid men of their faults. In his judgment the uncharitable- ness which lies at the root of so many of the apparently pious criticisms we hear and make is a beam rar more damnatory than the mote we find fault with. Yet judgment of a kind we must pass on those who come under our observation. If we are not to cast what is holy to the dogs, we must, of course, determine who the dogs are. There are vile, fierce, snarling people in the world; and if we are not to give them the chance of showing their contempt for sacred things, we must distinguish between man and man. And in other cases of daily occurrence we are compelled both to form and to pronounce our judgment. The law, therefore, is levelled against all uncalled-for malicious judgments. It is not enough that our judgments be true, we must not utter them until compelled. 'l'he law of the land recognizes the distinction, and punishes uncalled-for defamation. ']_'his sermon on the mount is a sermon describing righteousness, and distinguishing it from current imitations rather than telling us how we may attain it. That it is a true fulfilment of the Law and the prophets which our Lord has described no one can doubt, and yet the very copiousness of illustration dazzles and _confuses. It is tru~ we have the Law of God marking out for us the great hnes on which human conduct 111 to move and we have the prophets-a series of supernaturally enlightened spiritual teach~ra who havtl indicated how it is to be applied, and enforced it by stirring appeals.  BOS THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MAT'l'HEW. [011, vn. 1-29.