"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
Matthew 7:3
This is a good question about something we do a lot... deflect an ideal and apply it to others rather than ourselves. This is a pattern we like because it means we can turn our critical focus on others rather than doing the hard work of correcting ourselves, and making changes in our own lives. It's counterproductive though, since it isn't our job to change others. :) It is our job to change ourselves.
In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ phrases it like this probably because that is how we justify it to ourselves... we're helping them see their faults or change. :) However, he notes that when we do that, we are usually deflecting ourselves away from a larger issue within.
If we really want to help others, then we need to make sure that we are free from fault first... kind of like when Jesus told the men that if they were without sin, they could stone the woman taken in adultery. None of them condemned her, because they needed to go home and clean up their own lives before presuming to judge.
Today, let's work with God on our beams rather than commenting on the motes. Let's make it a general practice to consider and apply commandments to ourselves rather than to others, which will hopefully help clear up our vision overall, and be a little bit more humble, and a little bit less critical. :)
Matthew 7:3
This is a good question about something we do a lot... deflect an ideal and apply it to others rather than ourselves. This is a pattern we like because it means we can turn our critical focus on others rather than doing the hard work of correcting ourselves, and making changes in our own lives. It's counterproductive though, since it isn't our job to change others. :) It is our job to change ourselves.
In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ phrases it like this probably because that is how we justify it to ourselves... we're helping them see their faults or change. :) However, he notes that when we do that, we are usually deflecting ourselves away from a larger issue within.
If we really want to help others, then we need to make sure that we are free from fault first... kind of like when Jesus told the men that if they were without sin, they could stone the woman taken in adultery. None of them condemned her, because they needed to go home and clean up their own lives before presuming to judge.
Today, let's work with God on our beams rather than commenting on the motes. Let's make it a general practice to consider and apply commandments to ourselves rather than to others, which will hopefully help clear up our vision overall, and be a little bit more humble, and a little bit less critical. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment