“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3 (NASB). A verse so often used to bludgeon believers either by fellow Christians or unbelievers. While I’ve personally observed its use in teaching us not to judge others, I believe it can be effectively used in self-reflection as well.
In a previous blog, I rambled on about differing hues of meaning from a particular passage. The hue we observe often depends on where we are in our spiritual walk or our current circumstances in life. In that blog I relayed my thoughts on a passage about faith, hope, and love. My thoughts on this passage in Matthew follow the same path of speaking from a personal view rather than an attempt to establish any doctrine.
I pointed out in one of the leadership blog posts how supervisors' greatest criticism of underlings was typically their own biggest flaw. The example I used was tardiness. The application I was making in that case was strictly secular and not spiritual in nature. In this post, my intention is to explore a spiritual facet of Christ’s statement. Let’s take a look, shall we?
As I noted, this passage has a tremendous call for self-evaluation. On the surface, and based on the context/previous verses, it would appear that the admonishment is to stop judging others because we are also flawed. I believe this application of the verse to be true; I just don’t think it ends there. When we correct our children, we should always include, at a bare minimum, at least a hint of how they can improve their behavior in the future. To that end, I believe Christ wasn’t just telling us to stop judging others but to take a look inward. Besides, God has stated such on numerous occasions throughout the scripture where we’re told to judge ourselves not others.
In His statement, recorded in the book of Matthew, He is obviously calling us out as hypocrites when we take it upon ourselves to judge others. We also lack His ability to judge in an accurate and fair manner. Unlike God, we don’t know the complete history behind the situation involved nor do we know the thoughts and intentions behind the action. We also are not perfect righteousness and perfect justice so, rendering a correct verdict would be dicey at best.
We can however, take what we see and turn it inward. What jumps out at us as the most egregious piece of flawed character in the given situation can be reflected inward. Most often it takes a good deal of spiritual growth to actually see ourselves, our thoughts, and our actions as God sees them but… if we know enough to recognize a shortcoming in another then maybe we can use that.
I confess that there are many cases where people, who lack the propensity toward a certain category of sin, will use that strength to judge people who are weak in that particular area of sinfulness. Judging means to assign a particular sin to a perceived thought or observed deed and assign that sin to someone, as opposed to self-judgement for the purpose of confession. It’s always wrong. Discernment, on the other hand, recognizes wrong doing without sitting in judgement. Easy example might be observing someone run a stop sign. The “illegal” action was easily observed but no motive is known and any judgement of a sin is left to the Almighty.
It’s not always easy to tell the difference between casting judgement from our strengths or from our weaknesses hence the self-examination. Seeing a judgement, cast from weakness, manifest itself in someone else, as in the supervisor/underling example, is much easier but that’s not where I was headed. It is actually the times when a person’s conduct grates on our own nerves that we should sit up and take notice. Often these annoying actions aren’t derived from the intention we ascribe to it because typically, those ascribed motives are just a projection of what our motives would be. The irritating behavior, and the “evil” motives we assign to it, gives us two areas to examine within ourselves.
Appropriate Bible study will teach us about ourselves and the world around us. We get to explore the pitfalls of life and the gracious tools God provides us to live in a fallen world with a sinful nature of our own. We learn about all the areas of sin that plague mankind and how each individual possesses a unique sin nature. We learn about the various sins and categories of sins. We study the role of arrogance and evil in manipulating our behavior and leading us down two contradictory paths, degeneration and self righteousness. Correct application of this information means growth, misapplication means discipline.
I believe one of the correct applications is discovering the log in our eye that is of the same composition as the speck in our brother’s eye. The first step might be, discovering our “misapplication” of noticing the speck in the first place and giving it a name. Once we’ve recognized what we’ve done and confessing our sin of judgement, we can look internally. Keep in mind, as we look for that flaw within us, our arrogance will likely send up a hail of excuses as to why we’re allowed to do the very thing we observed in another. For example, he’s late to work because he’s irresponsible but if I’m late for work it’s because: I have family obligations, traffic was bad, my alarm failed to go off, my car battery died, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Examples abound but rarely have I found them to be as straightforward as the one I just brought up. Many are buried under a less obvious mound of excuses and utilize a more nuanced list of rational and reasoned obfuscations to hide true intent. Let’s try out “holding a grudge.” I feel as though holding a grudge is wrong, unforgiving, unloving, and something I would never do. In fact, let me add that to the list of things that you do that are mean to me and that I don’t do to you. I’ll log it on my list right under your impolite attitude toward me. I always say “hi” to you and you just ignore me. My list keeps getting longer but at least I’m not holding a grudge like you. Again, mine isn’t a grudge but simply a list of reasons you can’t be trusted to treat me like a Christian should treat another Christian… Get my drift?
Another example of the idea that the wrong we are prone to notice in others is possibly one of our biggest weaknesses is the idea of “fairness.” Please don’t misconstrue that I consider being fair as a weakness but rather the demand for fairness from others. More to the point, it’s the charge that another is being unfair. I see this flagrantly exercised among children at play but have also watched it happen at a church potluck. A child that appears prone to hoarding the “fun” toys or dominating the video game console, will be the first to charge others, the minute they go beyond their allotted time, by screaming “it’s not fair, they’re hogging the toy.” As to the potluck, watching adults hurry through their first helping of the most popular dish and run up for seconds. Only to discover the dish is empty and decry how rude others are in taking it all.
Personally, I highly recommend you keep this self examination between you and the Almighty. Rarely are we able to properly handle external criticism of such a personal nature, not to mention we’d be setting someone up to be a speck examiner. It also reeks of other more malevolent motives.
For a final thought on this topic, I want to emphasize the role Bible teaching/learning plays in our self-examination. God uses bible doctrine stored in us to bring to light all forms of truth in our life. In Hebrews 4:12 we’re told “The word of God is living and active…and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart”(NASB). Studying His word will ultimately be the best method to not only removing the plank but also, graciously overlooking the specks.
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