As Kingdom People we Care for Others by Not Judging them or Pointing out their Faults

As kingdom people we need to care for others according to the spirit by not judging them or pointing out their faults.

In dealing with others and caring for people according to the spirit in the kingdom of God, we need to live in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom and always judge ourselves, not others; we shouldn’t judge others or condemn them.

This week in our deeper study of the development of the kingdom of God in the church life and our Christian life we come to the matter of, Living the Kingdom Life by Taking Care of Others according to the Spirit and by Realising God’s Forgiveness.

These are two important matters – taking care of others according to the spirit and realising God’s forgiveness; both are serious and weighty matters.

In Matt. 7:1-12 the Lord Jesus speaks of the principle of the kingdom people in dealing with others, which is taking care of others according to the spirit.

Then the matter of God’s forgiveness is based on Matt. 18, and we need to see what God’s forgiveness is, and how many kinds of forgiveness there are in the Bible.

Matt. 7:1-12 concerns the principles of the kingdom people in dealing with others; it reveals that the heavenly ruling over the kingdom people requires that they take care of others according to the spirit (see Judges 9:8-9).

In these verses there are a few great principles in dealing with others and caring for others.

The first one is that we do not judge others, for we are not the judge; if we judge others, we also will be judged, and the measure with which we judge others, we will also be judged in the same way.

The second principle is that we shouldn’t look at the splinter in another’s eye and ignore the beam in our own eye; we should not think of ourselves more highly than others. If someone has a splinter in his eye, we have something bigger than a splinter in our own eye; we need to have such a realisation for us to live together and have a proper relationship in the kingdom of God.

Another principle is that we should not give that which is holy to the dogs and we should not cast pearls before the hogs.

Then, as we contact people, we should pray by asking, seeking, and knocking; many times this verse is taken out of context, but in Matt. 7 asking, seeking, and knocking are related to caring for others and dealing with others. When we speak to others and shepherd them, we have to exercise a very particular kind of prayer; then through this prayer we will be able to render the life supply to those we care for.

Finally, the Lord concludes this section by saying that we should do to others what we wish that they do to us also. May we prayerfully consider this portion in Matt. 7:1-12 and pray over the big over-arching principles of how to live with one another in the kingdom of God.

Forgetting about Ourselves and Caring for others by Not Judging Others but Ourselves

In Matt. 7:1-12 the Lord’s intention is not only to encourage us to be nice to others but rather, He desires that we forget ourselves and care for others according to the spirit.

In Matt. 5-6 the Lord Jesus exposed our temper, our lusts, our inner being, our self, our flesh, and our anxiety; now He wants to speak to us concerning learning to care for others.

For example, as we care for others and deal with others in the kingdom of God, we should not judge them but rather, deal with them the way we want to be dealt with ourselves. When we judge others, we must judge them according to how we want them to judge us; in this way, we take care of others.

The Lord was clear in Matt. 7:1 when He said, Do not judge, that you be not judged. Who are we to judge? Did God make us a judge that we may judge others?

As kingdom people, we need to live in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, and we need to never judge others but always judge ourselves. In caring for others, we should not judge them but rather judge ourselves before the Lord.

Whatever judgement we judge others with, we will be judged, and the measure we measure others with, we will also be measured (Matt. 7:2). This shows us that the way we treat others today determines the way that the Lord will treat us in His kingdom.

If we judge others with righteousness (even though we are not the judge and God did not give us the function or position of judging others), we will be judged by the Lord with righteousness.

If we judge others with mercy, we will also judged by the Lord with mercy, and mercy triumphs over judgement (James 2:13).

May the Lord save us from judging others, and may we be delivered from a criticizing and judging spirit in the church life and in our daily life. We shouldn’t judge others so much, for we ourselves will be judged in the same degree that we judge others.

If we care for other people according to the spirit, we will not be judged by them, and we will not judge them. In dealing with others we must consider them and not ourselves, and we must symphatize with them and be merciful toward them.

Just as the Lord is merciful toward us and He doesn’t judge us, so we should be merciful toward others and not judge them.

The main reason we judge others and criticize them is because we think of ourselves too much; we have a high view of ourselves and what we are and can do, and we care for our feeling, so we criticize others.

For us to be kept from judging others, we must take care of them by forgetting about ourselves, putting ourselves aside, and taking care of others’ feelings in our dealings with them.

We should put aside our own feelings and even ourselves, and learn to care for others, not judging them nor criticizing them, for whatever negative thing they may have in their character or deeds, we also have and we may even be worse.

May the Lord shine on us, may He deliver us from a critical spirit, and may we learn to judge ourselves and not judge others; toward others we should have a caring spirit, caring for them according to the spirit.

Lord Jesus, may we as kingdom people live in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom so that we may always judge ourselves and never judge others. Oh Lord, save us from judging others. May we learn to care for others according to the spirit, and may we put ourselves aside and even ignore ourselves in dealing with others. May our judgement of others be with mercy so that we may also be judge by the Lord with mercy. May we learn to reject ourselves and consider others, symphatise with them, and be merciful toward them as we live the kingdom life in the church life today.

Learning to Care for Others by Not Pointing out their Faults but Realising our own faults

May the Lord deliver us from having a critical or judgmental spirit toward others.

In Matt. 7:3 the Lord asks, And why do you look at the splinter which is in your brother’s eye, but the beam in your eye you do not consider?

We may think that our brother has a little splinter in his eye, and we may want to help him remove it, but actually we have a beam, a large log, in our own eye.

This is what it means to judge others; when we judge others, we think that they have a particular fault, and we want to point it out and help them deal with it; what we don’t realise, however, is that we have many more faults, even greater faults than him, and we cannot condemn, criticize, or judge him.

As the kingdom people living in a humble spirit and under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, we must first consider the log, the beam, in our own eye, whenever we notice a splinter in our brother’s eye.

The splinter we see in our brother’s eye must remind us that we have a beam in our own eye.

When we come together and fellowship and pray, and we consider a particular troublesome person, our prayer should not be judgmental or criticizing toward him, but we should realise that we all are sick of the same disease, so we need to ask for the Lord’s mercy.

How can we say to our brother, Let me remove the splinter from your eye, and behold, the beam is in our own eye?

In caring for others, we may notice that they have faults, and we may want to tell them about it so that they may deal with them; as we speak to others, we may be judging or criticizing them because of their faults.

However, in the kingdom of God we should not point others’ faults but rather, realise our own faults, and care for others according to the spirit, realising that we ourselves are flawed.

May we not be like the hypocrites who want to remove the splinter from other’s eye while we have a giant log, a beam, in our own eye. As long as the beam remains in our eye, our sight is blurred, and we can’t see clearly to help others with the splinter in their own eye. Our brother’s fault is like a splinter, but our fault is like a beam.

As we learn to care for others in the kingdom of God, we need to realise that, whenever we are about to point someone’s fault, we may care for the fault and not the person; we may judge the person, but we ourselves have the same faults and even greater faults.

If we care for a brother, we will care not only for his fault but for his person. We will know whether we should point out the fault to him, whether he can take it, and whether we have a proper spirit and the Lord’s leading to first have dealt with this problem in ourselves, and then to speak something to our brother by being one with the Lord.

We will realise that our brother’s fault is like a splinter, while our fault is like a huge beam. We can’t help anyone until we understand that we all have the same issues and problems.

Dear Lord Jesus, save us from having a judging or criticizing spirit toward others; save us from pointing out others’ faults. May we realise in our care for others that we ourselves have greater faults than the fault we see in others. Oh Lord, may we be merciful toward others even as You are merciful toward us. May the faults of others remind us of our own greater faults, and may we not judge others but learn to care for them according to the spirit. Oh Lord Jesus, may we learn to care for other’s person and not point out their faults.

This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Ca oameni ai împărăției, avem grijă de alții fără a-i judeca sau a le arăta defectele.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 23 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 4, Living the Kingdom Life by Taking Care of Others according to the Spirit and by Realizing God’s Forgiveness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart; / When, free from envy, scorn and pride, / Our wishes all above, / Each can his brother’s failings hide, / And show a brother’s love. (Hymns #857)
  # With a life strict to self we must righteousness hold, / Kind to others in peace, and with God joyful, bold; / In the Kingdom’s reality e’er to remain, / For its manifestation prepared thus to reign. (Hymns #947)
  # Here I behold Thy radiant face, / Its light upon my heart doth shine / With healing rays consuming all / The weaknesses and faults of mine. (Hymns #813)