Don’t look for sin in someone else in an attempt to look better yourself!

Question #2 “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?” Matthew 7:3 NIV

 This verse speaks of the judgmental hypocrisy that Jesus condemned. Helping someone get a speck of sawdust out of her eye is commendable … if our motives are right. But the issue here is that we can be far more tolerant about the sin in our own lives than when we see the same sin in someone else.

Noted Pastor and author Ray Stedman said: “All of us know someone whom we consider a little bit lower on the ethical scale than we are, and what a comfort they are to our hearts!” When our own shortcomings or sins have had a light shined on them it’s nice to have someone nearby who looks or acts worse than we do so we can say to God, “Look … what about them?”

A breakdown of this question implies taking notice of something and the verb is in the present tense, meaning we can’t seem to get our eyes off the speck in the other person’s eye. You could say we’re ‘looking for trouble’ for another person! And if we don’t allow God to curb this unholy desire we become ‘fault finders’ and soon fault is all we ever find!

Before picking up a stone to throw at someone else, remember what happened in II Samuel 12 after King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan told him a story about a rich man with many sheep who fed a visitor by stealing a poor man’s family pet.

“Off with his head” snarled the guilty king. “Wait a minute,” says the prophet. “You’re fired up over a man who stole a sheep – you stole another man’s wife and had him killed!” Point made.

Let’s make sure we’ve taken care of all our stuff before we even begin looking for specks in the eyes of others.

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else,

for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself,

because you who pass judgment do the same things.” Romans 2:1 NIV

Next week: Question #3 “Do you believe I can do this?” Matthew 9:28 “Why do you doubt?” Matthew 14:31