Monday Quote - V.

This week you get a double-helping of Monday Quote. Our second is from James Morison's 'Commentary on Matthew'. Commenting on Matthew 7.1 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.'

"'What then?' asks Chrysostom, 'Ought we not to blame them that sin?' 'If this were so,' he adds, 'all would be lost; whether in churches,or in states, or in homes. For except the master judge the servant, and the mistress the maid, and the father the son, and friends one another, there will be an increase in the things of wickedness.' It is right to judge sin to be sin and to blame it. It is right to judge whether or not men around us sin; and to blame them when we cannot avoid the judgement that they have sinned. It is right to sit in judgement on ourselves, and to condemn our own sins. In fact, the judicial element of our nature is the judicious. If we were without judgement, we should be things, not persons. If we were to live without the exercise of our judgement, we should be at the mercy, not only of every wind of doctrine, but also every wave of passion. What means then Our Lord? His language is epigrammatic, and derives its point from the prevalence of censorious judging among the scribes and Pharisees and others. It is in antithesis to this censorious judging, that He demands from His disciples, in this sphere of things as in others, a higher righteousness (chap. v.20). And hence the connection of this passage with what goes before. Judge not, that is, Judge not others in a censorious and uncharitable spirit, as the scribes and Pharisees are too much accustomed to do (Luke xviii. 11, 12). In such censorious judging there is always malevolence. This malevolence manifests itself in a secret eagerness to find fault, and in a secret gladness to find a neighbour in a fault. The censorious person is always moreover self conceited, imagining that he himself is above being the legitimate object of all similar judgement. He is positive too that he has penetrated the true motives of the person whom he judges. He mounts the throne of judgement as a matter of course, in his peculiar circle or circuit, and, looking down upon his auditors, passes judgement with such self elevation, assurance, and infallibility, as implies it would be folly, if not a crime, to dissent from his judgement. THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED: That is, in order that you might not be retributively judged in like manner by others."

'Commentary on Matthew' (Repr. Klock & Klock, 1981) Pp. 103-4