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"Excuse me, but you have something in your eye..."

" 'Stop judging others, and you will not be judged.' For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about the speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, '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 from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." Matthew 7:1-5

We're all hypocrites on some level, aren't we? None of us have it all together; we all have something we want to hide. But imperfection, our fallen nature, sin-- these are the things that unite us in our humanity. So why are we too proud to admit our weakness? Why are we so quick to point out the inadequacies of others but fail to allow our shared failings to bring us together? We are united in imperfection, yes, but greater still this sheds light on our collective need for a Savior.

Paul tells us in Romans that all of us are separated from God because of sin; personal sins as well as the sin nature that we are born with that gives us the inclination towards disobedience and selfish living and further distances us from the fellowship with God we were created for.

The greatest example of hypocritical judgment in Scripture were the Pharisees. These teachers of the law had a knack for touting their "superior spirituality" and imposing ridiculous laws and rules on the Jewish communities they were in charge of. Ironically, Jesus never called judgment on the traditional sinners he mingled with-- tax collecters, adulterers, prostitutes, etc.-- but the Pharisees he proclaimed were "white washed tombs" who appeared clean on the outside, but inside they were dead and rotting. Matthew 23 records Jesus as referring to the Pharisees as "Sons of vipers" and "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness". The very individuals responsible for upholding and promoting the law, Christ declared as abusing and twisting it!

I can't help but wonder how Jesus would approach the Church today. Would he call those who declare themselves Christ-followers as "white-washed tombs", "hypocrites", and "lawless"? Are we pointing out the "specks" in our neighbors eye but ignoring the "log" in our own? Are we living "a life worthy of [our] calling"? Or are we marring the name of Christ that we bear? Does the world see us as truly different in our love and life? Or do they see us as judgmental, hypocritical, and unloving?

What image of Christ are we painting for the world?

May we not forget that Christ's grace is all we need; in our weakness, His power is strong! (2 Corinthians 12: 9)

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 23, 2010 at 10:39 AM

    Perhaps it would be beneficial to readers to do a study and commentary on what it means to discern verse judge. A friend once said, we are not to judge people, but we are to judge their fruit. We can know people's real inner quality by the fruit they produce. Fruit will display what a tree realy is. What is missing today in the church is authenticity. We say we have it all together, act religious, do good works, but does our fruit remain? There is planty of room for personal introspection of course, but Jesus said to use fruit as a way to inspect others as well. It is good to remember that in the context of Jesus saying not to judge, he also states to know people by their fruit. (Matt. 7:20)

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