Matthew 7:2

Matthew 7:2 is the second verse of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This verse continues the discussion of judgmentalism.

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:

and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged;

and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 7:2

This verse simply states that he who judges will himself be judged. If you impose standards on others, those same standards will be applied to you.

As Schweizer notes this verse, if read literally, is a contradiction of the previous one. While the first says not to judge, this one established rules for judging.^[1] Luz advances the explanation that this verse states that if you search to find faults with others, that God will then search to find fault with you, and since all humans are infinitely flawed you would then easily be condemned. Thus even a small amount of judging by a person will bring a great punishment form God, and this verse essentially repeats the argument of the first against judging. More scholars simply believe that the condemnation of judging in Matthew 7:1 is far from absolute.^[2]

While, as in the previous verse, the wording seems to imply that God is the final judge, Fowler mentions other possibilities. This could be a teaching on healthy interpersonal relations, and the verse could be arguing that any who judges their fellows will themselves be judged by those around them. If you find fault with others, others will find fault with you. It could also refer to the danger of excessive internal criticism and self-consciousness. If you are constantly judging others, you will feel others are doing the same and will force yourself to try and meet their standards, in direct contrast to the condemnation of worry in the previous chapter. ^[3]

The phrase "measure to measure", which also appears at Mark 4:24 in a different context, may be linked to the Rabbinic belief that God has two measures for the world - mercy and justice.^[4] This phrase is most notable for being reused as the title of the Shakespeare play Measure for Measure.^[5]

References

1. Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1975
2. Luz, Ulrich. Matthew 1-7: A Commentary. trans. Wilhlem C. Linss. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortess, 1989.
3. Fowler, Harold. The Gospel of Matthew: Volume One. Joplin: College Press, 1968
4. Hill, David. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981
5. Hamlin, Hannibal. "William Shakespeare." The Blackwell companion to the Bible in English literature ed. Rebecca Lemon. John Wiley and Sons, 2009 pg. 225