Welcome back to life and books and everything.

I want to read this short devotional piece I wrote for Ligonier.

There's a September issue of Table Talk.

If you are not signed up to get Table Talk, it is one of the great resources out there.

And I've gotten it for years from Ligonier.

It's beautifully designed.

There are daily devotions and then little articles throughout this

monthly journal so do check out and grateful to liganeer for giving the opportunity to put this

article on the podcast it's's entitled, Judge Not.

Matthew 7-1 is one of the most needed and one of the most abused statements in the Bible.

It is not uncommon to meet people who seem to know only three verses from the Bible.

Judge not, Matthew 7-1, God is love, 1 John 416, and let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone, John 8, 7,

even though scholars debate whether that John 8 story is actually in the best manuscripts.

These people, professing Christians or not, are not really interested in understanding the Bible on its own terms often. They are happy to sloganize the scriptures if it suits their purposes. It just because people can misuse a verse

does not give us a reason to throw out that verse. The fact is that Matthew 7-1 is a necessary

corrective that many Christians need to hear. If we can first clear away the false

claims, we will be in a position to let Matthew 7-1 shape us as Jesus intended. So what does this

verse not mean? First, Judge not does not mean that we suspend the rule of law. God has ordained officers in the state,

Romans 13, and in the church, Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, to exercise judgment when the members of

each institution fail to do what is right. We do not judge in the sense of exercising individual

vigilante justice because we trust that God will exercise his

justice through the proper authorities. Second, judge not does not mean that we turn off our brains.

...