Do not Judge

OBJECTIVE

To learn how to look for our sins and things we have done wrong before we look for what wrong things the others around us have. Teach the children what Jesus said and done about Judging others and apply it to them

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 5 Minutes

  • The servant will prepare ahead of time a few small gift bags (3 or 4). Try and pick one that doesn't look as nice or colorful as the others.
  • Fill smaller, clear plastic bags and put dirt in them, and fill one with candy.
  • Put the bags of dirt into the nice looking gift bags, and put the bag of candy in the other, less appealing gift bag.
  • Have the bags on a table visible to the children and tell the children there is a prize in one of the bags, and ask a volunteer to choose one of the bags.
  • Most likely they will go for the nicer ones first. Show them the inside bag as their "prize" (the dirt).
  • Pick another volunteer to choose, until they get the one with the candy.
  • Tell the children things can look nice on the outside but inside they are different
  • Our eyes made the decision and picked the one that looked nice on the outside, but ended up not being a good choice.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 10 Minutes

Memory Verse

"Judge not, that you be not judged" Matthew 7:1

References:

Matthew 7:1-6

John 8:1-12

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 10 Minutes

  • One day a large number of people came to Jesus to listen to Him, so He started to teach them many things
  • One of the things He taught was about judging. Do you know what judging means? It's when we see someone doing something bad or maybe even a sin, and say that he or she is a bad person.
  • Jesus Christ told all the people "Judge not that you be not judged". He gave them the example of the speck (which is a very tiny piece of chipped wood) that is in the other person's eye while you have a large plank (a much larger piece of wood) in your eye.
  • One day Jesus was teaching in the temple and the scribes and Pharisees (elderly Jewish people like the priests but they hated Jesus) came to Jesus and brought a sinful/adulterer woman. An adulterer is a person who pretends that someone else is their husband/wife who is not. Or an adulterer is a person who does not keep their marriage promises.
  • The scribes and Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus and put Him on the spot and embarrass Him. They told Jesus "this woman is doing bad things and according to our Jewish laws she has to be stoned. What do you say we should do with her?"
  • Jesus looked down on the ground and started writing something on the dirt and didn't pay attention to them. The scribes and Pharisees were upset and told Him, "Can't you hear us? What do you say we should do about this woman?"
  • Jesus lifted up his head and told them, "He who is without sin among you let him throw the first stone"
  • Jesus put His head and started to write down on the floor while all the other scribes and Pharisees started to feel the guilt inside them (inside each one of them have done some sins) and dropped the stones they had with them to stone this woman and all of them left without doing anything.
  • Jesus then stood up and told the woman "Where are your accusers? Did anyone judge you?" She said "No one, Lord".
  • Jesus told her "I will not also judge you, go and sin no more".

DISCUSSION/ACTIVITY (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

  • Bring wooden sticks / popsicle sticks and cut it in pieces (if the lesson is virtual) ask the children to cut a small piece of paper and put it in front of one eye. The servant should have a large piece of a wood stick and put it in front of one eye.
  • Ask your children can you see through the one eye that has the stick /paper in front of it? Even if they do see a little bit it would not be the same as without the paper
  • This is what Jesus wanted to show the people. They should not look at other people's sins and judge them if they also sin and have bad habits. They should focus on their own relationship with God.

LIFE APPLICATION - 5 Minutes

You see Jesus applied our memory verse "Judge not and you will not be judged" to this sinful woman. He told them, everyone has to look inside of them and see the bad things you are doing before you look for the sins of the others. This is exactly what we should do when we see or hear about someone doing a bad thing, we should not judge this person and say they are bad and tell the others around us.

PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK

Today we talked about not judging others. It would be great you ask them to apply this rule among the family especially if they have siblings and also with the parents.