YOU HAVE A LOG IN YOUR EYE
SCRIPTURE:
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “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? 4 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? 5 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.6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:1-6)
OBSERVATION:
Jesus taught his disciples not to judge. Many people jump at this scripture and say, see, the Jesus said, don’t judge. However, the meaning of this is explained in a few verses below. It means if you judge someone for something, make sure your life is free from that exact thing you are judging the other person. Jesus said, why do you look at the speck of SAWDUST in your brother’s eye and PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE PLANK in your own eyes?
How can we say, let me REMOVE THE SPECK from your eye WHEN ALL THE TIME THERE IS A PLANK in your own eyes? It is not that we cannot judge. We are given the right to judge something that is NOT right. We must judge between good and evil. We must consider whether an action is justifiable or not. We must think with the proper judgment. But Jesus was talking about dealing with our PLANK first. The sawdust speck in other people is nothing compared to the PLANK or a log in our life. Thus, we must take some self-judgment first. First, examine our hearts.
The same sin we commit looks terrible when someone else commits it. But if we are committing it, it doesn’t look evil. Because we can justify our reasoning and why we do it. So many times, people judge others without knowing people’s reasons and why they have taken the action they did. Jesus said, first, TAKE THE PLANK OUT OF YOUR EYE, and then YOU WILL SEE CLEARLY, to remove the SPECK from your brother’s eye.
The humor that Jesus uses here helps us see the comparison. The comparison helps us make the judgment clear. SAWDUST AND A PLANK? So therefore, our judgment must be righteous. We don’t have the right to judge somebody who is robbing a bank if we deny our family when they need us. We cannot accuse and judge someone of adultery, but we spend time with another person who is not our wife or husband. We cannot judge someone for murder, yet we are full of unforgiveness. Jesus said that whoever hates his brother is a murderer.
We must take care of the PLANK in our own eyes. I must deal with my own sins before dealing with someone else’s. Judging must be righteous, and make sure we judge rightly. Before judging someone, let us examine ourselves first, and then we will be able to help others with the things they are facing in life.
APPLICATION:
I will be the first to admit I needed this reminder. I must spend time in self-examination of my motives and intentions. I need to be honest and deal with my sins before judging someone. I want to walk in Jesus’ righteousness and allow him to work in my heart daily to become the person he wants me to be. I need Jesus every day. He is the righteous judge. I want to be able to judge rightly.
PRAYER:
I am grateful to you, Lord, for reopening my eyes to the importance of self-examination. Help me to watch my heart and remove things in my life that are unpleasing to you. Teach me the fear of you. Please teach me how to be kind and gracious to people when they struggle through things I don’t understand. Help me to be helpful and able to help others out of a clean and pure heart. Please teach me how to check my motives and intentions when I deal with the shortcoming of others. Amen!
