Helpful Help
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
Matthew 7:3-5
Last week we examined the first two verses of this passage, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Jesus was not condemning all types of judgments. We noted last week, “The type of judgment Jesus is speaking against is the arrogant, condescending, graceless, holier than thou attitude that looks down on others while thinking too highly of himself. Judgmentalism is a haughty, looking down your nose at another person’s sin without recognizing the moral offensiveness of your own sin.” We are to discern right from wrong or good from bad. He cautions believers to not act as if they are better than others.
How do we do that? The passage before us gives us a path to proper judgment and how we can best serve those around us. Notice Jesus does not say that we should not try to help others. We could easily rationalize what Jesus says to excuse ourselves from stepping into the messiness of others struggles. “Well, we are all sinners. Who am I to judge?” As we have seen previously, some sins are worse than others. There are some sins that are highly offensive to God and incredibly destructive to the person sinning and those around him. Somebody being angry at me and someone murdering me are both wrong but murdering me is the worse sin. This is part of the proper judgment and discernment that God calls us to have.
We still haven’t directly answered the question, how do we do that? Jesus tells us to first look at our own hearts and notice the depths of our own depravity. Consider all the things for which God has forgiven and cleansed you. Remember the things you did before you were a believer and now are ashamed to admit. Further, consider how many temptations you still face and how many times daily you fall short of God’s standard and give in to temptation. In addition to that, we have bad memories and don’t even remember many of the sins we have committed against God and others! If we are honest with ourselves, “we are far worse than we think we are.” (Jack Miller)
This is the key to all relationships, especially ones that have been fractured by sin. It is also the posture of the heart that is most disarming when addressing sin in another person’s life. Jesus wants us to notice the sin in our own lives and how much we need grace. None of us deserves grace and, if we were to demand justice, we would be rightfully condemned along with everyone else. It is only by the grace of God we are who we are. Apart from God’s goodness and mercy we are capable of committing all kinds of heinous sins. When we see our own sins and temptations, we are in a much humbler place to reach across to someone else who is struggling with temptation and sin. Rather than being looked down upon, the person senses that you know and understand the common battle we all face.
This is not getting “soft on sin.” Quite the opposite in fact. Because you not only recognize the sins of others around you but you see the depths of your own sin and that causes you to receive God’s grace and enables you to give God’s grace to others so that they may be saved.
