WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.080 as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. Amen. So we're thinking 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:16.219 about this judgment question that we find in the first five verses of chapter 7. It comes towards 00:00:16.219 --> 00:00:23.480 the end of the Sermon on the Mount. What does the question deal with? Maybe it isn't as immediately 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:32.159 clear as we might think. Jesus is addressing the topic, how should a person behave, a Christian 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:39.740 behave towards a fellow Christian who does wrong? You see a Christian do wrong, how should I judge? 00:00:39.740 --> 00:00:49.719 How should I act? Before we get to the question, it's interesting to see that Jesus frames it within 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:57.799 sort of the wider context of what he's been teaching. So in chapter 6, he's been thinking 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:05.599 about how does God relate to us? And the emphasis has been on the truth that God relates to His people 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:15.079 as a father to His children. So you see that there in verse 4 of chapter 6 about the father 00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:22.780 rewarding giving that's done secretly with a good heart. In verse 9, the Lord's prayer, teaching 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:30.120 His people to pray our father in heaven. Or the whole section on worry and anxiety, encouraging 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:36.340 the people of God to know that God's a father who sees us as valuable and who cares for us. So chapter 00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:42.459 6, the emphasis is very much on God as father. But then there's a shift in chapter 7 to remind us that 00:01:42.459 --> 00:01:49.539 God is God is judge. All those small teaching sections all have that idea of judging and 00:01:49.539 --> 00:01:54.119 discerning. So there's the wide and there was the narrow path, the one that leads to life and one that 00:01:54.119 --> 00:02:00.119 leads to destruction. There was the good and the bad fruit. There was the true and the false disciples. 00:02:01.219 --> 00:02:08.939 All of it reminding us that God is our father and He's also our judge. And that should impact 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:15.199 how we relate to one another. And it should impact how we think about ourselves. 00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:21.099 You have to think about God both as our judge, as our father. We should pursue personal holiness. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:27.379 We should deal with our own sin. But we should also then, when we think about other people, 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:32.879 we should be merciful and gentle. Because God is merciful, gentle, and gracious with us. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:40.539 That should affect how we deal with our brothers and sisters in Christ. The judgment question, 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:47.060 of course, is a wonderful kind of comedy image, isn't it? The idea of the person walking around 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:53.340 with a great big plank in their eye, presuming that they can deal with the tiny speck in the eye of 00:02:53.340 --> 00:03:01.800 another. He uses it to convey a serious point. I brought with me Teddy's favorite dog toy, very handy. 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:06.900 But you can imagine, can't you, if you went to the eye doctor, I've got my glasses on. Imagine you go 00:03:06.900 --> 00:03:12.260 to the eye doctor, doctor, there's something in my eye. I can't see because I've not got my glasses. 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:21.600 But we lack the clarity to deal with the problem. Jesus' question functions like an eye test for us. 00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:29.920 How is our vision of ourself, of our God, and of other people? Do I have a clear vision 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:38.279 of God's holiness and of His gracious love towards me and towards all of His children? 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:46.560 Do I have a clear vision of my own sin, of my very great need of mercy and grace? 00:03:47.939 --> 00:03:53.239 Because we need to have that vision if we are to do what Jesus wants us to do, because it's really 00:03:53.240 --> 00:04:01.800 interesting that Jesus actually does want us to help one another. He does want us to help one another 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:09.120 to grow in holiness, to live out obedience. He does want us to be involved in the lives of one another, 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:12.939 but there's wrong ways to go about that, and there's a right way to go about that. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:16.519 So we're going to think about the two wrong attitudes that Jesus points out, 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:24.019 the one right attitude, and as we do that to recover the sense that we always ought to have 00:04:24.019 --> 00:04:34.199 of the need of the gospel. So let's go back. Verse 1, do not judge, or you too will be judged. 00:04:34.740 --> 00:04:45.819 So there's the issue. What does Jesus mean, and what does Jesus not mean? Because Jesus here is not 00:04:45.819 --> 00:04:54.300 saying to us, I am asking you to switch off your evaluating, discerning capabilities. 00:04:55.060 --> 00:05:00.779 We see that even in verse 6. You know when He says in verse 6, do not give dogs what is sacred, 00:05:00.899 --> 00:05:07.620 do not throw your pearls to pigs? He's inviting us to discern, to evaluate, to pass judgment. 00:05:08.779 --> 00:05:13.920 There in the sense of sharing the gospel, the implication is if somebody is stubbornly hostile, 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:19.240 resisting the gospel, there's a wisdom that says this is not the right time and it's time to move on. 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:27.120 So He's not saying we should never evaluate or discern or judge. And Jesus is not saying to 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:34.900 Christians, you should never say another person, another Christian is wrong. That we are never 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:42.319 invited to correct someone. We could go to Matthew chapter 18 and verse 15, and we hear Jesus 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:47.939 really clearly on this. We get some principles about church discipline. But just to hear verse 15, 00:05:48.800 --> 00:05:56.939 Jesus says, if your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault. So there is a judgment that 00:05:56.939 --> 00:06:02.939 is to happen. Even there, there's a principle just between the two of you. So He's not saying we should 00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:07.079 never say anything and anyone is wrong. So we shouldn't just turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:13.859 We shouldn't fail to discern the difference between good and evil. So what is Jesus saying no to when 00:06:13.859 --> 00:06:22.039 He says, do not judge? I would suggest He's saying no to a way of judging that ignores our relationship 00:06:22.039 --> 00:06:31.539 with God. That fails to remember that we always stand among those who are the judged. 00:06:31.540 --> 00:06:38.900 You know, if we have that tendency to always want to sit in the courtroom on the bench, to put on the 00:06:38.900 --> 00:06:46.280 wig, to have the hammer, and to stand above others, He says, we'll find ourselves in the dock. 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:54.460 We need to remember our place. And we need to remember that we are those who have received 00:06:54.459 --> 00:07:02.259 a Father's mercy. And so we are to be generous towards others as God has been generous towards 00:07:02.259 --> 00:07:10.899 us. So in this question about judging others and how to deal with another's behavior, 00:07:12.259 --> 00:07:17.740 we need to begin with understanding and appreciating how God relates to us. 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:25.639 Not judging and condemning us, though we sin greatly, but showing grace and mercy. 00:07:28.840 --> 00:07:34.139 So the question continues, how should we behave towards a Christian who we see doing wrong? 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:41.759 And there's two wrong attitudes in here that Jesus identifies. The first is this, 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:50.379 we are not to be a harsh judge. Verses 1 and 2. Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the 00:07:50.379 --> 00:07:55.259 same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured 00:07:55.259 --> 00:08:05.039 to you. Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of a person? Somebody asked you that, 00:08:05.099 --> 00:08:10.959 I guess most of us, we know what that means. Are we naturally, temperamentally positive or negative 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:17.039 as people? Do we tend to be optimistic or pessimistic? That colors how we see life. 00:08:18.239 --> 00:08:22.839 You know, we talk about people seeing life through rose-tinted spectacles, always able to look on the 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:30.560 bright side, while perhaps others see different shades of black. What about when we look at a fellow 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:40.460 Christian? Especially when we see them fall into sin and we see them do wrong. What is our automatic 00:08:40.460 --> 00:08:46.360 knee-jerk reaction? And this is where Jesus says we need to remember our relationship with our God 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:53.960 first. Remember God is the ultimate judge. Remember God is Father. And so there is a characteristic that 00:08:53.960 --> 00:09:05.540 is to be avoided, that harsh judgmentalism. We are to avoid harsh fault-finding. It can be all too easy 00:09:05.539 --> 00:09:15.599 to turn spotting sin into a hobby and a pastime, into an Olympic sport. We can be really adept 00:09:15.599 --> 00:09:27.279 at seeing the problems in others. We are to avoid hunting out error. Again, it's really easy to 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:39.279 function like a spiritual bloodhound. We are to avoid assuming the worst in others. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:48.399 And we're always looking around for it. We are to avoid assuming the worst in others. 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:56.679 Again, it can be easy for us to apply a double standard. When I sin, I can go really easy on 00:09:56.679 --> 00:10:01.620 myself. Well, it's because I was under pressure. I was caught off guard. That's the exception, 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:07.100 but it's certainly not the rule when it comes to how I obey. But when I see someone else sin, 00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:15.699 how could you? You've got some major issues to deal with. We can easily apply a double standard. 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:22.960 Jesus says we are to avoid a lack of generosity. Now, that kind of mindset that would always keep 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:30.860 someone on probation, that mentality would say one strike and you're out. A desire in our attitudes 00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:41.460 to apply strict justice without mercy. Maybe it can be a challenge for us as if we're mature believers. 00:10:41.460 --> 00:10:47.460 We've reached a certain level of Christian maturity. It can sometimes be hard to be patient with those 00:10:47.460 --> 00:10:54.360 who are new in the faith. You should know better. We expect more. And we can forget the struggles of 00:10:54.360 --> 00:11:03.940 our own past and indeed ignore the sins of our present. Jesus doesn't want us to act as harsh judges 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:13.260 within the family of God. Two questions to ask ourselves. Actually, one of them is in the text a 00:11:13.260 --> 00:11:19.000 bit later on. How would I like other people to judge me, to treat me when I sin, when I fail? 00:11:19.920 --> 00:11:27.060 Remember Jesus' words in verse 12, in everything do to others what you would have them do to you. 00:11:27.059 --> 00:11:34.619 Apply that principle the other way. And the second question, how does God judge me? How does God treat 00:11:34.619 --> 00:11:44.199 me when I sin? We need to understand that we are receiving mercy and forgiveness and grace from our 00:11:44.199 --> 00:11:51.199 God and Father day upon day upon day. That we would let that change how we view others. That we would let 00:11:51.200 --> 00:12:01.560 that change how we judge others. So, we are not to be harsh judges. And secondly, we are not to be 00:12:01.560 --> 00:12:11.280 hypocrites. It's there in verses 3 to 5. It's what the comedy image exposes. How can you say to your 00:12:11.280 --> 00:12:17.460 brother, let me take the speck out your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:23.720 There's a certain type of behavior that wants to deal with the minor issue that we see in someone 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:35.180 else while ignoring the major issue going on in our own hearts and lives. Presuming ourselves capable 00:12:35.180 --> 00:12:44.600 to judge and correct when actually we show ourselves blind to our own faults. And Jesus wants to expose 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:56.399 that wrong heart attitude of hypocrisy. Like an actor in a play, wearing a mask, playing a different part. 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:06.500 The two-faced person, the say one thing, do another person. Don't be a hypocrite, Jesus says. 00:13:06.500 --> 00:13:14.419 Let's take an eye test for a moment or two to discover, is there something of the hypocrite in 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:19.720 you and in me? What are some of the symptoms that we would expect to find? 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:30.480 I think the first would be connected to sensitivity. It's all too easy to be hypersensitive, super 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:38.560 sensitive to the sin that we see in others, while all at the same time being desensitized 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:47.879 to our own sin, to our own sin, to the same sin in our own life. That ability to pick up your faults 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:55.000 with 4K, HD clarity. But when it comes to addressing my own sin, my vision gets very fuzzy, 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:03.639 and everything seems so unimportant. So we'd expect to see an issue with sensitivity. 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:09.819 We'd also expect to discover some short-sightedness. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:20.159 To stand above others, to presume that we are in a position where we can judge someone else morally, 00:14:20.319 --> 00:14:28.700 to take that consistent standpoint, means we need to start acting in a certain way. We need to 00:14:28.700 --> 00:14:37.740 pretend that we are consistently above others, which leads then to hiding our sin, 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:43.460 hiding our guilt from others and from ourselves. 00:14:45.060 --> 00:14:50.300 If we are always going to put ourselves in the position to judge others, then we cannot dare to 00:14:50.300 --> 00:14:55.080 show anyone our own sin, and we cannot even deal with our own sin. And give that enough time, 00:14:55.080 --> 00:15:02.480 we will become so short-sighted that we will actually believe the lie, that we are somehow on a higher 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:13.240 moral plane than others. We can become puffed up with pride, have a heart that is hard to personal sin, 00:15:14.220 --> 00:15:20.180 and all the while presuming, I have the authority and the clarity to judge you. 00:15:20.179 --> 00:15:26.759 I took along a dog toy. I also took along a pair of binoculars. 00:15:27.859 --> 00:15:33.299 Boys and girls, we know how to use binoculars. Here's a big fat lens, and then there's a little 00:15:33.299 --> 00:15:39.219 lens. You look through the little lens, and everything gets magnified. A hypocrite will do 00:15:39.219 --> 00:15:45.359 that when it comes to other people's sin, magnifying other people's sins and faults. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.659 But do you know what happens when you turn binoculars the other way around? You look through 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:54.360 the big fat lens, everything becomes tiny. Oh, that's quite funny. Everything becomes really 00:15:54.360 --> 00:16:00.440 tiny. And that's the… A hypocrite will take that view of themselves and their own sin. 00:16:01.019 --> 00:16:06.080 So my sin seems tiny, but your sin seems enormous. And it's hypocrisy. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:17.840 And Jesus says there's no room for it. Here's another symptom that we might expect to find 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:22.879 if there's hypocrisy in our hearts. A short fuse and a short temper. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:33.740 A strong reaction to condemn the sin that we see in others. But when we do it ourselves, 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:37.379 we don't find ourselves batting an eyelid at all. 00:16:39.899 --> 00:16:48.279 One place where we see this in the Bible is with King David. After King David has been guilty of 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:54.340 adultery with Bathsheba, and after he has arranged to have Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, killed, 00:16:54.840 --> 00:17:01.960 God sends Nathan, Nathan the prophet. And Nathan tells a story. There was two men. They were neighbors. 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:06.039 There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had lots of things. The poor man had just this one 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:13.620 little lamb. One day, the rich man had a visitor. The visitor needs fed. So the rich man came and took 00:17:13.620 --> 00:17:18.740 the poor man's lamb and killed it and served it up for dinner. And David's response, 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:21.940 that man deserves to die. 00:17:21.940 --> 00:17:33.279 It's a relatively small sin to steal a sheep. It's a huge sin to steal a man's wife and then have the 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:41.420 man killed. He was furious at the sheep stealer, but at that stage, he hadn't been bothered, it seems, 00:17:41.539 --> 00:17:48.960 by his own sin. But at that point, conviction came. Maybe we've noticed something of this. 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:56.759 We can be really bothered by the sin in others, and all the while, it's one of those sins that we 00:17:56.759 --> 00:18:02.779 struggle with ourselves. It's like looking in a mirror, and we don't like what we see, and so we 00:18:02.779 --> 00:18:11.740 react because we struggle to deal with it in our own hearts. Jesus exposes these wrong attitudes that 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:19.640 we don't want to take into our relationships with one another. When we see that there are 00:18:19.640 --> 00:18:26.059 faults and there are sins, we don't want to be the harsh judge, and we don't want to be 00:18:26.059 --> 00:18:34.779 the hypocrite. So how should we act? Here's the right attitude. We should be 00:18:34.779 --> 00:18:41.960 a helpful brother or a sister. Look at verse 5. You hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye, 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:49.500 and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Okay, so 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:56.500 the image is still there. There is the person that has, well, they've got a huge eye problem because 00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:59.980 they've got the plank, and then there's the person that's got the small problem. There's the speck. 00:18:59.980 --> 00:19:07.000 But we know, don't we, if we get a speck in our own eye, it's really irritating. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.319 You know, if you get hay fever, you get pollen in there, it's horrible. Even if you get an eyelash in 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:19.640 there, it's irritating. It's a foreign body. It needs to be removed. And Jesus is saying, we need to 00:19:19.640 --> 00:19:29.960 recognize this, it is appropriate to help a fellow believer to deal with sin and to grow in obedience. 00:19:29.980 --> 00:19:38.299 But only from the right heart and only when our vision is right. So we're not to come trying to 00:19:38.299 --> 00:19:47.860 fix someone else's problem as the harsh judge. Rather, we're to examine our own hearts first and 00:19:47.860 --> 00:19:56.200 receive mercy first. And Jesus says we shouldn't try to fix someone else when we haven't dealt with that 00:19:56.200 --> 00:20:04.580 particular sin in our own lives. Counselors will often say, when it comes to helping someone, 00:20:04.680 --> 00:20:09.700 perhaps dealing with temptation, if you wrestle with that temptation yourself, you're probably not 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:18.380 the right person to be able to help. But when we do have the right attitude, when we are confessing 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:25.760 and repenting of sin, when we are receiving mercy and we want to apply it in the way we treat others, 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:32.020 when we're operating out of a knowledge that our Father loves us and He's forgiven us, 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:38.740 when we want the best for our brother or a sister in Christ, then and only then, 00:20:38.740 --> 00:20:48.000 we should come alongside. And we should speak the truth in love. And we should help a person to change. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:55.519 John Chrysostom, one of the church fathers, he put it this way. He said, 00:20:55.519 --> 00:21:07.619 correct him, but not as an enemy, nor as an adversary exacting a penalty, but as a physician, as a doctor 00:21:07.619 --> 00:21:16.720 providing medicine. There's the right attitude. To be a brother or a sister in Christ, we want to 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:25.500 bring healing. Like a doctor, we want ultimately to heal and not to harm. But we understand that 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:33.799 when a surgeon goes to work, even sometimes when we go to work dealing with the irritations in our 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:46.059 eyes, it's painful. But it's for the long-term good of a patient. Apply that to trying to correct a 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:53.240 brother or a sister when we see them with sinful patterns or behaviors. That may bring short-term 00:21:53.240 --> 00:22:01.160 pain for them because, honestly, nobody likes to be confronted with our sin. Nobody likes initially 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:07.960 to be shown that we are heading in a wrong way. But when we pursue their good, and as God would work, 00:22:08.259 --> 00:22:11.480 our aim is that long-term gain of a life of obedience. 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:25.599 The right attitude, wanting to be helpful, wanting to apply grace and mercy, it requires us to have the 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:36.480 right vision. It requires us to wear the gospel glasses. So, just as we come to a close, just to 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:44.720 think about how in this matter of judging and dealing with people's behavior and helping people 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:55.519 change, how do we see our need of the gospel? How does seeing the gospel help? As we are seeing the 00:22:55.519 --> 00:23:00.759 gospel, as we are living in light of the gospel, one thing it should always create in our hearts 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:08.299 is a proper humility. You know, when we begin with ourselves, as we should, and take an honest view 00:23:08.299 --> 00:23:15.940 of our sin, as we take it to the gospel, take it to the cross, we discover that our sin, my sin, is so bad, 00:23:16.879 --> 00:23:25.500 the Son of God had to die as the only way for sin to be forgiven. If we go to the cross of Christ, 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:30.680 it reveals to us those sins that we overlook because of our hypocrisy, because we're too busy 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:35.319 looking at others to look at our own hearts, those things that we try and minimize in ourselves and 00:23:35.319 --> 00:23:45.180 say they're no big deal. As Jesus bore those sins upon Himself, He experienced the Father's wrath. 00:23:46.859 --> 00:23:54.920 He experienced that sense of separation from His Father. He experienced death as the wages of sin. 00:23:55.500 --> 00:24:07.279 We can never look at the cross truly and take our sin lightly. It will always be a reminder of mercy 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:16.599 received. So we understand that God does not give us what we deserve. When we are trusting in Jesus, 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:25.359 what we deserve fell on His Son at Calvary. We receive mercy and forgiveness. And our Father 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:33.939 continues to be so patient and compassionate and gracious and generous with us, so that when we 00:24:33.939 --> 00:24:41.819 put those gospel glasses on, that should change how we approach a brother or a sister. We're not coming 00:24:41.819 --> 00:24:49.519 in judgment as if we are above them. We come to show mercy because we've received it and we know we need it. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:57.859 We don't come with hard hearts that are against, but soft hearts that are for, seeking their best 00:24:57.859 --> 00:25:07.720 always. Even if that involves saying hard things, sometimes it does. So seeing the gospel helps to 00:25:07.720 --> 00:25:15.200 create the necessary humility within us. But also seeing the gospel clearly creates the security 00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:23.100 that we need. And here's what I mean by that. Why is it sometimes that we find ourselves hunting out 00:25:23.100 --> 00:25:29.299 the sin in others? Why is it that we can find ourselves being really critical and harsh towards 00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:38.500 others? Sometimes at least it's because we become blind to the gospel. We're not living out of our new 00:25:38.500 --> 00:25:44.619 identity in Christ. And so we're judging others, perhaps to feel better about ourselves because 00:25:44.619 --> 00:25:54.019 we think that maybe merits God's approval. When we feel insecure, when we don't understand that all 00:25:54.019 --> 00:25:59.880 that we have rests on what Jesus has done and grace received, perhaps we're always going to tend to 00:25:59.880 --> 00:26:06.200 minimize our own sin and maximize the sin of others because then we'll feel that we're getting along better. 00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:16.759 It can be so easy to slip into play-acting at holiness by works rather than resting in holiness by the 00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:23.319 grace of God. But again, when we apply the lens of the gospel, we understand that God in heaven, 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:32.360 He sees everything, even the very worst about us. You know, we can put on a mask in the world, we can 00:26:32.359 --> 00:26:42.879 airbrush, we can apply filters, but not with God. But wonderfully, our Father still loves us as His 00:26:42.879 --> 00:26:50.740 children. In Christ, He sees us as righteous. We are as loved as Jesus is loved. And when we understand 00:26:50.740 --> 00:26:59.000 that, when we understand our identity is found in Christ, there's the security. Which means I don't 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:07.359 need to lie to others, pretending that I don't have a sin problem. I don't need to lie to myself about my sin, 00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:16.579 but rather, we can be honest. We can give up that idea of living by comparing and competing, which will 00:27:16.579 --> 00:27:26.000 always tend to make us harsh and uncharitable towards one another. So, when it comes to our relationships 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:33.119 relationships with one another and how we deal with one another when things go wrong, we need to let the 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:40.759 gospel correct our vision. We need to understand that God is our judge and He is our Father. 00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:49.619 To understand that Jesus, the judge, was judged in our place so that we might receive the Father's love 00:27:49.619 --> 00:27:57.299 and mercy. And as we understand that, as we receive that, with that right view of our Father in heaven, 00:27:57.619 --> 00:28:04.319 we can find a right view of ourselves with necessary humility and awareness of our need of mercy 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:11.099 so that we might have the right view of one another, so that we might be able to help one another 00:28:11.099 --> 00:28:13.539 to grow in faith.