Judge Rightly
September 16, 2022
Commentary
There is a six-month gap between chapters 6 and 7. Jesus was aware of growing hostility against him. The Jews were seeking to kill him (v. 1). The multitudes who had followed Him before were no longer doing so. The feast of tabernacles was now at hand. Also called the feast of booths, this feast was held annually in Jerusalem for 8 days in early October. Families would build booths (out of tree limbs and thatched roofs) to live in for the duration of the feast. This was to remind them of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness (v. 2).
Jesus’s brothers had a difficult time believing in Him. As the feast drew near, they came to Him with some advice (vv. 3-5). They wanted Him to get out of the “sticks” (Galilee) and share his miracles with the rest of the people, especially in Jerusalem. They wanted him to be their version of the Messiah. But Jesus told them, “Now is not the time for that.” (vv. 6-8). Jesus did eventually go up to the feast, but it was not to appear publicly as the Messiah. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to teach the crowds the truth and invite them to Himself. It says that the people questioned how Jesus knew the Scriptures so well and spoke with such authority when He had never been to a seminary (v. 15). It seems that the people of Jesus’s day fell into the same trap that many people fall into today, believing that a person must graduate from a seminary and have a degree after their name before they are qualified to preach or teach. Jesus replied: I am not teaching something that I thought up (vv. 16-18). What I teach comes from the one who sent me. If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me.
The Pharisees spent their days trying to achieve holiness by keep the rules they had added to God’s laws (v. 19). They did not even fulfill a legalistic religion, for they were living far below what the law of Moses required. “Do not judge by appearance, but judge with right judgment” (vv. 20-24). This means that we are to get our values straight and look at things from God’s point of view. Only then can we make a righteous judgment.
Application
The words of Jesus come home to our generation as strongly as they did in His day; “Do not judge by appearance, but judge with right judgment.” Lord help me to be this kind of person!
John 7:1– 24 (NET)
1 After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. 2 Now the Jewish Feast of Shelters was near. 3 So Jesus’ brothers advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. 4 For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 (For not even his own brothers believed in him.)
6 So Jesus replied, “My time has not yet arrived, but you are ready at any opportunity! 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil. 8 You go up to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast because my time has not yet fully arrived.” 9 When he had said this, he remained in Galilee.
10 But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus himself also went up, not openly but in secret. 11 So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?” 12 There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man,” but others, “He deceives the common people.” 13 However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.
14 When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. 15 Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?” 16 So Jesus replied, “My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me. 17 If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. 18 The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself; the one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 19 Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?”
20 The crowd answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! Who is trying to kill you?” 21 Jesus replied, “I performed one miracle and you are all amazed. 22 However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision (not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers), you circumcise a male child on the Sabbath. 23 But if a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to external appearance, but judge with proper judgment.”
Illustration: Brown Why We Should Not Judge
It was F.B. Meyer, I believe, who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know. First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin, and second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her. We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances. (Stephen Brown, Christianity Today, April 5, 1987).