Specks and Logs

As the Righteous Judge--the only one who is qualified to judge others--Jesus didn't mince words when he spoke about us judging others. In Matthew 7, he warns us not to judge others and that we will be judged on the measurement that we judge others (v.1-2). Now listen to the salvo he fires in verse 3: 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? Really hits home, doesn't it?

Just as there is a big disparity between a speck and a log, there is a wide gap in where we should be focusing in on sinfulness. Even though it is much easier to focus on other people's shortcomings, Scripture reminds us that the log in our eye keeps us from seeing things as our Righteous Judge sees them. We probably can see the specks in others because of our own familiarity with sin in our lives. Either way, our Savior goes on to tell us that we must deal with our own sin issues and we are actually hypocrites if we focus first on another person's sin: 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 (v.5). Pastor Greg Laurie says it best, "Forgiven people should be forgiving people."

Our Lord doesn't want us to have unresolved sin in our lives; nor does He want our brothers to continue to stumble and fall. We need to take care of first things first. We need to deal with the log--the spiritual blindness that is caused by our own unconfessed sin--and then allow our unclouded spiritual awareness to deal with the specks and help restore others.