“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matt 7:3-5 (NIV)
You always find what you are looking for.
If we want to find fault in someone, we won’t have to look far. It is so easy to discover inconsistencies in others. When it comes to examining the lives of others, we have the eyes of an eagle. Detecting defects in others has a way of boosting our self image and stroking our ego. We tend to look through the microscope to view others and then choose to view ourselves through rose colored glasses.
Jesus lobbed a major teaching on the value of proper introspection. He uncovered our human tendency to view others critically while viewing ourselves gently. Jesus even used the explosive word, hypocrite. When we critique others unfairly and then hide behind a mask that conceals our authentic current reality, Jesus exposes our hypocrisy.
What if we began viewing ourselves in light of the holiness of God? What if we began to view ourselves in light of God’s Word? Our response would be like that of Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am a man of unclean lips!” (Is. 6:5). Remember, man looks at the externals, but God looks at the heart (I Sam. 16:7).
Let’s deal with the gigantic log in our own eye and stop judging others for the speck in their eye. To help us find what God wants us to look for, consider praying daily through the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3-17) and praying daily through the fruit of the Spirit.
- “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.'” Ex 20:20 (NIV)
- “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Gal 5:22-23 (NIV)
I think God is calling me to be a logger so that the fruit of the Spirit will be evidenced in my life and through my life for His glory.
Pursuing God,
Stephen Trammell
Executive Pastor