Let's talk about measurements. What's the preferred measuring device you have? What's your scale? Typically, what are you measuring?
And why are you measuring? Is there even a point to it? Yeah, maybe when you're building something, you've got to measure to make a cut. Maybe when you're cooking something, you've got to measure to make sure you don't put too much of one ingredient.
But what about when it comes to relationships? When it comes to people? Matthew 7, verse 2. Whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
The direct context here is judging someone. In the way that you judge, it will be judged back to you. Whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you. What's the measurement you use against yourself?
Is it different from what you'd use against others? I'd argue that it should be. It's necessary to be different. You may raise an eyebrow to that, but hear me out.
You can't control others. At best, you have only an influence over them. So to have a strict measurement standard on someone else is pretty futile. Your measurement you should use against yourself to judge yourself or discern what you should or shouldn't do, judging, discerning what's right or wrong, that's where you should be more strict.
You should be more strict against yourself than what you are against others. Think of this scale that depicts a courtroom. The side of the scale that's on your side should be lower, tilting towards you. It should be obvious that how you measure someone else is slightly lighter, or maybe more lighter.
Now, I'm not saying that you give everybody a pass, but there are several Bible ideas that indicate this. Bearing others' burdens. Grace or mercy. Forgiveness.
Love. Patience. All these things indicate that you are to shoulder more than what you cast. Like with patience.
Being patient with someone, you must wait for something to occur. And the harsher you are, the less patience you show. Forgiveness means that whatever they may owe, it's no longer expected to be paid. You shoulder the weight of that debt.
Grace. Giving someone the opposite of what they deserve. Mercy. Hey, it's in my power to punish, but I don't.
Bearing burdens. It takes into all the things I just mentioned, but even more like taking on the tasks to help others. What about taking ownership of a problem, even when you know you're not the one to quote blame? Or maybe not all to blame, maybe a little bit.
But you take all the ownership of it. What about having expectations of responsibility for someone, rather than coming down on them? When they know they let you down, you lighten a load and work with them to figure it out. I mean, that's bearing a burden.
When you measure yourself more harshly than you measure others, it tends to keep you blameless. Now, I'm kind of being broad strokes with this. We all have our faults. We all have our failures.
We all have our crosses to bear. But in the eyes of someone else, if you are stricter, more harsh to yourself than you are to someone else, then they will not feel like that you're being hypocritical. They will not feel like that you don't practice what you preach. There's just a whole lot of perceptions that won't get cast your way if you judge yourself, if you measure yourself harsher than you measure someone else.
Philippians 2, 12 and 16. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing.
Typically, whenever you use a harsher measurement against others, they have a reason to backbite. They have a reason to complain. They have a reason to look at you and say, why are you being this way? That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
If you're measuring yourself harsher than you're measuring others, then they cannot come back at you and say, well, you do this. Well, no, I measure myself up against that and more. And then it allows you to shine as lights in the world. So you may ask yourself, what makes someone blameless?
Check out Psalm 15, 1 to 3. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, works righteousness, speaks the truth in his heart, does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend.
Also consider Romans 12, verse 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world. What is conforming to this world? Comparing yourself to others?
Judging others to make yourself feel better? Looking outward? Blaming and fault-finding? Brother against brother?
Courts overflowed with suing one another? Anger that leads to murder? Covetousness that leads to theft? Disputing and backbiting that leads to, I'm going to do it my way, church.
Think about this. You prepare a test designed to pass or fail, no in-betweens. The test you give yourself should be difficult to pass. The test you give another, you should pass it easily if you were to take it.
I'm not saying you don't have to have high standards or not to hold people accountable or just give them a pass like I said earlier. I'm saying if you took both tests, the one you fail or struggle to pass is a standard you hold yourself to. The one you pass is a standard you hold others to. This may be too much of a simplification, but my teacher brain, you know, kind of got activated, so y'all got to enjoy that.
The scales you use against yourself must outweigh the scales you use against others. Think of why the tax collectors in the Bible were so despised. They over-collected taxes, overcharged based on what they were supposed to collect, so they could line their own pockets with the excess. The greed that took over in their minds, the possibilities of what, if I just got a little more from everyone, how much could that add up to?
And would anybody even really notice how much it is if it was not that much per person? I mean, cue how school bonds are passed. It's only going to be like 15 cents more on your taxes. They used dishonest scales that made themselves feel better with the excess, and they cheated people.
Proverbs 11, verse 1, dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Micah 6, 11, should I count pure those with the wicked scales and with the bag of sequel weights? Proverbs 20, verse 23, diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord, and dishonest scales are not good. When we measure another person more harshly than we measure ourselves, we use dishonest scales.
That's hypocrisy. We feel better about ourselves in comparison to that person. That's puffing ourselves up. That's pride in something that is unstable.
We demand more of others than we demand from ourselves. That is cheating others. This type of thing that's measuring others, that you're not measuring it back against yourself, you're not meeting your own standard, or maybe you're meeting your own standard, but you're actually making the standard higher for someone else. This is self-seeking.
It's seeking your own glory at the expense of others. Think about Proverbs 25, verse 27. It's not good to eat much honey, so to seek one's own glory is not glory. This is the only reason I can see that you would use a measurement against someone else, not as strict against yourself.
It's self-seeking glory, also kind of known as self-righteousness. Proverbs 26, verse 12. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool.
Proverbs 10, verse 9, tells us to walk with integrity. He who walks with integrity, walks securely. He who reverses his way will become known. Dishonest scales become known.
As soon as you do anything that you just condemned somebody for doing, immediately your dishonest scale is known. Proverbs 10, verse 19. Keep your mouth shut. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
The more you are looking at the actions of others, the more you are talking about it, the more you are condemning it, you're basically building a case against yourself. Proverbs 10, verse 25. Dishonest scales and weights, they have no foundation. That verse reads, When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, but the righteous have an everlasting foundation.
Again, when someone has dishonest scales, when somebody judges unrighteously, as soon as one misstep happens, it's exposed and everybody knows it. How is using different measurements to judge anyone else different than being a false teacher or a false preacher? Their wells without water. Someone who doesn't use the same standard against themselves that they use against me, they're holding me to some kind of higher set of standards.
I mean, that person's opinion, that person's judgment is useless. Pointless. It's in need of repair or just to be destroyed altogether. It's only kept because it looks nice or it seems inviting.
It's empty. It's full of hot air. Wells without water. Make sure, as you look, this generation is crooked and perverse.
There's no question about that. When you look around, when you see what's going on, make sure that before you cast a stone, that you've cast stones at yourself first. First, make sure that whenever you are discerning, make sure whenever you are judging, you first discern for yourself. You first judge yourself before you throw any kind of judgment, cast any kind of judgment, do any kind of measurement, measure it back against yourself first.
And I promise you, the amount of judging you do or the amount of judgment that you feel like people do to you will start to diminish because you are judging yourself already. You are being harsher to yourself than anybody else could be to you or than what you would be to anybody else. Pray for one another, hold each other accountable, support one another, and always point one another to the foot of the cross where all things are leveled and the love of God and Christ is on full display. I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
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