This phenomenon applies to all of the layers of our lives. The average salary of a professional football QB is nearly $2 million but we see his mistakes very clearly from our armchairs. Little Johnny's teacher couldn't teach him how to tie his shoe, but he could certainly master that in an hour under our tutelage. If everyone had my driving skills, the roads would be much safer.
Jesus saw this happening. He addressed it like this: "why worry about a speck in your friends eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friends eye."
Some contend that Jesus was in essence saying, "Don't criticize" = "Don't judge". I don't see that. What I see is: Don't criticize an area of somebody else's life that you don't have in order in your own. Somehow, our culture has equated criticism with judgment and they try to back it up with this passage in Matthew 7. The key teaching is against hypocrisy. Jesus had a huge problem with the sin of hypocrisy.
But...there's a way to deal with all this such that everyone wins. It involves the most outstanding quality of Jesus, love. Love for others and their well-being.
I am encouraged by someone who has their family in order and they lovingly give advice from their experience on teen child-rearing practices. The desire to do better grows in me when a gifted speaker suggests that the number of times I use the word "ok" might be distracting to folks when I preach.
God said it best through the apostle Paul, "...faith, hope and LOVE--and the greatest of these is love."
No comments:
Post a Comment