“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
- Matthew 7:1-5
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse.
- Proverbs 9:7
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
- 2 Timothy 4:2
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
- Deuteronomy 19:15
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
- Matthew 18:15-17
Boilerplate
I’m Harold Dykstra. I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story. My time is well spent. A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel. I did not know she was an angel at the time. The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone. And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy. She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others. She changed my life. Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs. After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.
This Week’s Question
In the last episode, Babs asked about bribes. She even thought I was bribing her by taking her to a fancy restaurant and ordering surf and turf, but I was celebrating in advance. I was about to make my third ten-million-dollar sale. We were going to have to do a lot of driving instead of celebrating after the sales call on Monday, but it would be worth it. The company would have to hire a few people, but no one would get laid off. That was good news. And I would get a really nice bonus, my best year ever.
But that left us at the hotel where we had been all week. Babs talked to the staff and chose a nice church to attend. We went to the service and a Sunday school class, and Babs engaged in conversation with everyone in the Sunday school class. I was keeping my mouth shut, listening to the people in class, finding out where they were coming from and feeling my way through the possible odd things in their doctrine. They seemed sound, very biblical. They were very friendly, but I noticed every church we attended was friendly with Babs and the guy that brought her to church. Not putting myself down or an exaggeration. All the time they remembered her name after the service, and over half the time they asked me what my name was again. Babs would say, “You need to talk more, Harold!”
Afterwards, Babs became animated when we drove past a Chinese restaurant. In all the conversations at church, she learned that this Chinese restaurant was the best in the area, and Babs had never had Chinese food. I turned around and we went there for lunch. Why not?
When we got back to the hotel and changed clothes, Babs was sitting on the bed wearing her T-shirt and boxers. Honestly, I bought her some pajamas and she preferred the T-shirt and boxers.
She said, “Harold, I have a pain in my mouth.”
I asked, “Do you? I thought ‘other living’ beings did not have pain.”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. I have never had pain before. Maybe it’s an ache. Maybe it’s just discomfort. I brush my teeth after every meal. Please, Harold, will you take a look?”
I suggested we go to the bathroom for better light. She told me to not get all goofy about us both being in the bathroom at the same time, and I promised that I wouldn’t.
I had never really looked inside her mouth before. Everything looked normal except…
“Babs, you have a log stuck in your teeth!”
“A Wog?! Ish ‘at sherious?!”
“Babs, don’t talk until I get my hands out of your mouth! You could have bitten me. But no, it is not serious. But it is a log.”
Babs repeated without my hands in her mouth, “A log?! In my teeth?! Those are big pieces of wood. I have not been eating any trees lately. … No, wait. … Nope, no trees. So, how did I get a log stuck in my teeth? I thought logs were supposed to get stuck in your eyes.”
I sighed, “First, it is a tiny bamboo shoot. An old engineer at our company once went to China. When he returned, he bragged about having a dog, a frog, and a log all in the same meal. He had eaten dog meat, frog legs, and bamboo shoots. If those shoots grew to full size, you could consider them a log. So, everyone at the company called bamboo shoots logs for years. And Second, thank you for giving the notion that you have eaten trees lately a serious thought, a full fifteen seconds. And third, Jesus may have used that illustration in the Sermon on the Mount, but the point is to not have a log in our teeth or our eyes. So, we will talk about that after I remove the log. Okay?”
Babs made her pouty face, “Okay.”
I sighed, “But for me to do this, I need some floss. When I bought you your toothbrush, I also got you some floss. Have you not used it?”
Babs shrugged, “I don’t know how to use that waxed string. You can teach me.” Then she opened really wide for me.
I said, “You get enough on two fingers, one on either hand, enough so the floss does not slip. Then you saw between your teeth until the floss is at the gum. Then you work it to either side to remove food particles and such. And that cuts down on the build-up of tartar. If you cannot get the hang of it, I will buy you a thing that squirts water between the teeth. That works too.”
Babs said, “Schang oo. I oss echs ti.”
I yelped, “Ow! You bit me.”
Babs cried, “I’m sorry. Did you get the log?”
I laughed, “No more log! And a little nibble among friends is allowed. Just next time, don’t bite down as hard.”
Babs said, “Okay. No more log, but I am worried that if I get one in my teeth, could my eye be next?”
Instead of sitting in our individual beds, I suggested the little table. I let her sit in the comfy chair and I pulled up the desk chair and opened my Bible. We read the passage about not judging at the beginning of Matthew 7.
I said, “Okay. We have been over metaphors. You should know that Jesus is not talking about a real log in your eye, not even a bamboo shoot.” She smiled and nodded. “But a speck of dust in your eye can be very painful. Everyone that heard the Sermon on the Mount could probably relate to that. Jesus was using the metaphor of a speck of dust, or sawdust to make the log fit, to be like the sin in our life, maybe one little sin. Jesus knew all about sawdust, growing up in a carpenter’s house. Joseph may have been a builder more than a carpenter, but I am sure he worked some with wood and there was sawdust. So then Jesus exaggerates the little sin of the speck into a log. We all have sin in our lives…”
Babs said in her singsong voice, “I don’t. I’m ‘other living,’ but you humans? Wow, do you have a sin problem. Why does God put up with you?”
I tapped my Bible with my fingers, “And that is the point. Someone without sin can point out the sin in another person. Jesus says that we need to remove the log so that we can even see the speck. Again, if you have had anything in your eye, you do not focus very well. Again, everyone could relate, even though the log was an exaggeration, but it pointed to the multitude of sins that we have.”
Babs scrunched her nose. I was getting to like that. “So, we should never judge anybody about anything? Proverbs 9:7 talks about correcting a mocker. So, now you have the Old Testament and the New Testament saying not to judge.”
I put up a hand, “Timeout. Proverbs 1, near the end of the chapter, likens mockers to fools, those that do not believe in God. If you walk up to an atheist and tell them they are going to Hell, they might just punch you in the nose instead of mocking you. But after they knock you to the ground, there will be a lot of mocking. You have to ease into that part of the evangelism mantra. And Jesus is talking about your brother. Maybe your church brother, like all the friends you made this morning at church. So, what did Paul tell Timothy in the second letter near the end of chapter three and the beginning of chapter four?”
I was surprised. She paraphrased, “Scripture is useful in teaching, rebuking, and correcting, and a preacher should preach to not just do that, but to encourage.”
I smiled, “Excellent! So, don’t you think that the rebuking and correcting gets into the realm of judging?”
Babs scrunched her nose again, “But Harold, Timothy is a preacher, and we are just people in the church.”
I then asked, “What happens if you witness someone doing something that is against God’s law. You know that it can harm them. What do you? Do you confront them?”
Babs said, “1. 2. 3.” Then we both sang, “I don’t know.” Then she giggled.
I smiled, “Deuteronomy 19:15 says that one witness is not enough. You need two or three witnesses before you can bring it up to the church.”
Babs smiled, “Oh, like Jesus says in Matthew 18! So, all that ties together. Right?”
I nodded, “Yes, we should never feel better than someone else. All humans have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.” Babs said, “Romans 3:23.” And then I continued, “But if we see a fellow Christian harming themselves or others around them, then it is our duty to correct them and then encourage them in the right direction. But we should never do so with gossip. For until there are two or three witnesses, what we saw them do would simply be gossip.”
Babs smiled. She leaned over the little round table and kissed me on the cheek. For a moment, I thought I felt warmth in her kiss. “Harold, you are such a good teacher. Can I go to the bathroom now and practice flossing?”
I shrugged, “You know what they say about Chinese food. Wait an hour and you’re hungry again. Do you want to go out for a snack and then you can floss for real?”
Babs jumped up and started running for the bathroom. “Great, I’ll get dressed first.”
Credits
All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife. We would talk about anything and everything. And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.
My wife and I talked a lot about judging or not judging and the lack of church discipline. This lesson of not judging seems to be a widespread problem within the church. I have been judged for judging at the church, usually by some of the worst gossipers in the church. Oh, sorry, please forgive me. I know there are more than two or three witnesses to their gossip, but I do not have them here while writing this. But it is funny that many churches only judge the person that is trying to help and encourage someone who has stumbled, rather than providing the second and third witness to help their friend up.
But the story of the dog, frog, and log is a story, told as a true story by a boss of mine. Funny, I never had frog legs in China, abut I have no idea what the meat was. Fish was easy to spot. Pork rump was a delicious, fantastic delicacy, but they said the rest was “chicken” or “duck.”
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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