HOW TO READ THE BIBLE — a short course from Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church • Pastor Chuck Trusty • Lesson 6 of 13 • a new lesson every two weeks
Last Time
Last lesson you took Luke 9:23 home:
"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." — Luke 9:23
The heavy phrase was "take up his cross." It sounds like dying — but you had the tool: when a verse is hard, let a plain word beside it explain the deep. The plain words sat right there in the same verse — "follow me," and "daily." So the great cross is carried by following, one ordinary day at a time — a daily walk behind Him, not a hero's leap. That was your step. Now, one more tool.
The Verse
"Judge not, that ye be not judged." — Matthew 7:1
The Question
Here is a verse the whole world knows — even people who never open a Bible. It is thrown down like the end of every argument: "Judge not!" — never correct anyone, never say anything is wrong, mind your own business. Is that what the Lord meant? There is one sure way to find out: read its neighbors.
The Tool — walked together
First, ask your questions. WHO? The Lord Jesus is speaking — and this is a command, so who is it spoken to? Step back to the start of the sermon: "he opened his mouth, and taught them" (Matthew 5:2) — His disciples and the crowd, plain people, not judges in a courtroom. WHAT? A command: judge not. WHEN? and WHERE? The verse itself does not say — two empty boxes. But step back again and the neighbors fill them: on a mountain (Matthew 5:1), early in His teaching. WHY? The verse gives its own reason: "that ye be not judged" — judge, and you will be judged by the same measure.
Before we name the new tool, run the ones you already carry. Read the whole verse: short as it is, its last words give the reason — "that ye be not judged." Every command has an address: you have found who it is spoken to — plain disciples, not courtroom judges. Let the Bible define its own words: there is a sharp word here — hypocrite, one verse on — and we will draw it up below. And let the clear explain the deep? No dark phrase here needs a plain verse set beside it — that tool rests this time. What this verse needs is its neighbors. Which is exactly the new tool.
Two of our boxes were empty, and the verses around the verse filled them. That is the whole tool. TOOL #6: a verse has neighbors — read the ones just before and just after. A verse pulled out of its neighborhood can be made to say almost anything. Here is a plain case: lift three words out of Psalm 14:1 and the Bible seems to say, "There is no God." But read the neighbors — the whole verse — and it says the opposite: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The neighbors flip it clean around. Read a verse at home, among its own, and it says what God meant.
So let us do it here. Read straight on, past verse 1:
"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ... Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." — Matthew 7:3, 5
Now the verse comes clear. "Judge not" is not a rule against judging at all — it is a rule about HOW to judge. The Lord does not say, "never see your brother's fault"; He says, do not sit over it while a beam is in your own eye. That beam is what makes you unfit — you cannot see straight to help. So take the beam out first, and "then" — only then — "shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." A clear eye is a fit eye. The rest of the Book says the very same: "ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself" (Galatians 6:1). Not leave him — restore him; gently, and watching your own heart. The neighbors did not weaken the verse; they aimed it.
ONE WORD
The word the Lord uses is sharp: HYPOCRITE. In the language the New Testament was written in, a hypocrite was a stage-actor — a man who put on a mask and played a part that was not his own. That is the picture. The hypocrite judge is acting: he plays the righteous man while hiding a beam behind the mask. "Judge not" reaches up and pulls that mask off — it forbids the play-acting, looking clean while you hide your own sin. Take the mask off first, and you will see clearly enough to help.
Try It This Week
Here is your verse. Read it — then read its next-door neighbor, the very next verse:
"If ye love me, keep my commandments." — John 14:15
Bring your questions, and read the whole verse: love Him, and it shows in keeping His commandments. Now read the neighbor, verse 16:
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." — John 14:16
See what the neighbor adds? You are not left to keep His commandments on your own strength. The very next breath promises the Comforter — the Spirit of God — to abide with you for ever. Love shows in obedience — and it is not a load you carry alone.
Your Toolbox So Far
1. Start with the questions — WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY. 2. Read the whole verse — all the way to its last word. 3. Every command has an address — ask who it was spoken to. 4. Let the Bible define its own words — the Book is its own dictionary. 5. Clear explains complex — let a plain verse light up a deep one. 6. A verse has neighbors — read the ones just before and just after.
Next lesson, in two weeks: the Bible agrees with itself — when one page quotes another, and the two lock together like a key in a lock.
‹ Lesson 5 — Let the Clear Explain the Deep • The Course Index — all lessons
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