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Understanding a word or Biblical turn of phrase can sometimes be difficult. The meaning of a particular text isn’t always apparent until we discover the potentially ill consequences of applying an unintended meaning. When we were young, married, and preparing to go somewhere, Joy might look at me and say, “You’re not wearing that, are you?” Now, that might sound like a question requiring a yes or no answer, but really, there is always only one correct answer. In this context, I discovered it wasn’t a question but rather a statement. “You’re not wearing that.” In my youthful inexperience, it may have sounded like a question, but no, not really. Communication can be fraught with landmine misunderstandings that need to be skillfully navigated.

Words have a range of meanings. For example, even the word we just used, “range,” has a complete spectrum of uses and meanings. It might be an open prairie (Home, home on the range…), a stove with a built-in oven, a series of mountains in sort of a row, and more.¹See Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary under “Range” The problem can be compounded when we add figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, etc. We find such a wide range of usages in the Scriptures, though thankfully, many can be easily sussed out. In John 10:7, Jesus said He is the “door to the sheep,” but of course, He didn’t mean He was a piece of wood with hinges hanging in an opening. Shepherds in that day would lay in the opening of the sheep pen at night to protect the sheep from wolves, bandits, and even from wandering off into danger.

Two of the most abused passages of Scripture in the New Testament occur in the book of Matthew, in a fairly lengthy section beginning in Matthew 5 and ending in Matthew 7. In context, the speaker is Jesus, Who was a Jewish rabbi – and the Messiah – speaking to a Jewish audience – who likely had pretty good knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. In Matthew 7:1a we read:

Judge not, that you be not judged.

This seems to be a favorite verse of people who know the least about the Bible. We often hear that verse quoted by those who have no idea about reading God’s Word in its historical-grammatical context and perhaps know nothing of Scripture period, but use that verse in pseudo justification of certain behaviors they may engage in. “You’re judging me,” they judgmentally assert. As we read on in the text, we find quite a different meaning altogether:

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

Jesus is telling them not to judge hypocritically or unfairly. We’d have a hard time living very long if we did not judge at all. Is it safe to cross the street now? Might that scary dog bite me? Is my mother-in-law within earshot? No, the point is to refrain from using a double standard in our judgment, to condemn another too harshly for some practice we might even engage in ourselves, which we must admit is frightfully easy to do. Obviously, it is far better to have good judgment than no judgment at all! It is a good thing we generally don’t personally enjoy the power to punish other people for their misdeeds or even perceived slights – and an even better thing, from our perspective, is that most do not have that power over us. How many people would wake up tomorrow? Better to personally leave consequences to the Lord. And why it is vitally important for earthly government to be good and fair also. Yet, of course, we must judge good from bad, safe from unsafe, and right from wrong in our personal lives. It is foolish to think otherwise.

The Lord makes an interesting statement in verse 6 that seems to be missed by many:

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. (Matthew 7:6)

Leon Morris helps us here in The Pillar New Testament Commentary:

This little section is peculiar to Matthew. It is perhaps put here as the opposite extreme to what has occupied us in the preceding verses: there Jesus dealt with the error of being too harsh in judging those who ought not to be judged, here with that of being too lax in giving what is holy to dogs.²Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 167

This is fairly simple. Be fair in your judgments, applying the same standards to yourself and others. In addition, don’t go to the opposite extreme and ignore or even encourage sinful behavior. The Lord reiterates and encapsulates these concepts just a few verses later in Matthew 7:12. You know, the Golden Rule passage:

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

The Law and the Prophets were the standard by which all will be judged. More importantly, as J. Gresham Machen pointed out in Christianity and Liberalism, Jesus wasn’t handing down ethical standards:

The Golden Rule becomes a powerful obstacle in the way of moral advance. But the trouble does not lie in the rule itself; it lies in the modern interpretation of the rule. The error consists in supposing that the Golden Rule, with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, is addressed to the whole world. As a matter of fact the whole discourse is expressly addressed to Jesus’ disciples; and from them the great world outside is distinguished in the plainest possible way. The persons to whom the Golden Rule is addressed are persons in whom a great change has been wrought, a change which fits them for entrance into the Kingdom of God. Such persons will have pure desires; they, and they only, can safely do unto others as they would have others do unto them, for the things that they would have others do unto them are high and pure.³Machen, J. Gresham. Christianity and Liberalism (p. 58). E4 Group. Kindle Edition

This section is about judging rightly, living holy, and closely guarding what the Lord has given to His people. Jesus then gives yet another warning on, of all things, the subject of judging:

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

The text of Matthew 7:15-27 was a warning to the Messiah’s followers to be on guard for false prophets. Obviously, it requires judging whether said prophet is a true or false prophet. Being Jewish, His followers all had commonly understood definitions for the term “false prophet,” which are contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 13:1-5 a false prophet was one who may have even made true predictions concerning the future – but led their followers to false gods and practices. In Deuteronomy 18:20-22, a false prophet was one who made even one false prophecy. In the Old Testament, living in a Theocracy (ruled directly by God), false prophets were to be stoned to death! It was a necessarily harsh sentence to protect God’s people from turning from the true God and to false gods and false teachings and practices. In the New Testament era, we no longer live in a Theocracy, yet false prophets are to still be publicly exposed and avoided.

Still referring to false prophets, the Lord continues:

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? (Matthew 7:16)

A key word in this passage is the metaphor “fruits.” Quite often, we find folks going to Galatians 5:22-23 and confusing the fruits here in Matthew 7 with the fruits of the Spirit. At the time Jesus spoke the words in Matthew, not a single page of the New Testament had been penned – much less used as a test for discerning if someone is a false prophet. In fact, Jesus pointedly stressed that outward appearance is not the test. False prophets would be dressed in “sheep’s clothing,” looking for all the world as a man of God would be expected to look. The false teachers would look like true believers and seemingly fit right in, which is why it was essential to hold their teachings up to the test of truth. The “fruit” referred to in Matthew 7:16-20 are the prophetic utterances and core teachings on the nature of God. Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that Jesus was created as Michael the Archangel, ceased to exist, and was recreated as Jesus.  Mormons teach that Jesus was born on another planet and was a man who became a god. In Matthew 7:21-23, He goes on to point out that simply because they use His name and even do seemingly miraculous stuff, they are still false prophets and must be “outed” and avoided. The Lord tells His people what the end of all such false prophets will be:

And then I will declare to them, ‘”I never knew you; depart from Me, You who practice lawlessness.”

We have written on this before, but the misapplication of these verses is so widespread these days we don’t feel it overkill to point it out again today. We are not to judge people based upon whether they look like believers, or use similar language, or seem “nice” since false prophets can easily mimic those things. We must, however, identify and call out false prophets and false teachers by carefully examining the teachings of whoever comes to us “in sheep’s clothing” in light of what the scriptures teach, rightly divided. Has there ever been a time when this was more important?Ω

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