Jesus here teaches against the legalistic judging that the Pharisees were practising, their self-righteous legal system of doctrine moved them to be critical of others who didn’t agree with them on every point of their theology.
The word ‘judge’ used here is the Greek word, ‘krino’ which is used in places like John 12:48 / Acts 17:31 / 2 Timothy 4:1.
The use of the word, ‘judge’ therefore is speaking about the kind of judging that speaks of someone’s salvation, or the lack of it, in others. Christians shouldn’t practice this kind of judging, after all, not even Christ did this while He was on earth.
The problem with judging someone in terms of their salvation is sinful because God is the judge and He knows people’s hearts and motives better than anyone, and He has a date set for this kind of judging, 1 Corinthians 4:4-5.
Notice that Luke tells us that we shouldn’t judge or condemn but ‘forgive’, why? Because we have been forgiven and we need forgiveness as much as the next person and who are we to withhold forgiveness from others, when we needed it so much ourselves?
Notice also that Luke tells us to ‘give’. It’s the nature of godly people to behave as God. God is a giver, and so, His people should give. Those who love their brothers and sisters in Christ don’t stand in judgment over them. The thrust of what Jesus states here is that we will be dealt with in final judgment by God in the same manner by which we treat our fellow man, James 2:12-13.
Therefore, when we measure mercy to others, God will in turn measure mercy to us. That’s the biggest problem with this kind of judging, it’s judging with condemnation attached. In other words, they become the judge, juror and jailor.
Luke also adds a parable which basically means, that those who are spiritually dead can’t lead anyone onto a spiritual life, because both are spiritually blind. No one can lead above and beyond his own spiritual stature. Those who disciple others will lead them to be like themselves. If the teacher is spiritually blind, the student will become like his teacher, spiritually blind too, John 13:16 / John 15:20.
We must always look at others with an attitude of love, otherwise, legalism moves us to be critical and unmerciful in judgment concerning another’s beliefs and life. God will severely judge those who harbour such attitudes toward our fellow man.
The plant of wood in your own eye expresses the hypocritical mistake of the legalistic judge who considers themselves righteous while judging the faults of another in comparison to their own self-righteousness.
Their system of religion moves them to be judgmental of small matters in the lives of others who don’t conform to their regimented beliefs, while at the same time there is a major flaw in their own life.
This is basically a picture of a person who ignores his own grievous sins while trying to correct the relatively minor shortcomings of another.
The speck of dust and the plank represent the inequality between that which is tiny, insignificant, almost invisible, and that which is obvious, flagrant, and obtrusive.
The legal system of judgment by which the faultfinder lives makes it impossible for them to be an objective judge of others. In order for us to correctly evaluate others, we must first recognise our own sinful state, Galatians 6:1.
We must live our life by the same standard by which we look at others.
Now don’t miss this important point here, just because someone has a speck of dust in their eye, doesn’t mean they can ignore it, Jesus says it still needs to be removed, and this is done by admitting that we have faults, and we need forgiveness.
This also implies that Christians can judge other Christians as long as it’s done humbly, lovingly, with the best interests of their brother or sister in mind but not with hypocritical condemnation.
If we really wanted to help our brother or sister, our first stop is to remove the plank from our own eye. This means that we should prepare ourselves by acknowledging our own sins and then we’re in a better position to help others come to an acknowledgement of their own sins, 1 John 1:8-10.
Now, what did Jesus mean when He said, ‘Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.’
It simply means that the most holy things ought not to be offered indiscriminately to all persons, the dogs and swine refer to people who are mean and vicious and who have no desire to apprehend spiritual things.
When the precious spiritual truths of love and mercy are extended toward the ruthless and hard-hearted, they are received with criticism and mockery. How someone receives the pearls of truth determines his true nature.
Once a vicious nature is discovered, then it’s useless to offer opportunity by continual preaching and teaching the precious truths to the one who continually rejects such.
It gives the impression that some are more ‘righteous’ than others, it gives the impression that others need ‘more’ forgiveness than others, Romans 3:10 / Romans 3:23.
How does Jesus’ teaching about ‘Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs,’ help us in our evangelism efforts? It teaches us that we shouldn’t get discouraged when people refuse to listen or accept what the Bible says, Acts 17:32.
In other words, they were saying, ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’ and we all know what this means, don’t we?