This is amazing piece of scripture and I want to encourage you to read this whole chapter it's definitely life changing. But today I want to reflect on verse 37-45 in chapter 6. I think this section of scripture teaches us some important lessons about ministry. As disciples of Christ we must be sure that we see clearly enough to guide others in their spiritual walk. Jesus in this passage was referring to the Pharisees who were leading the people astray (MAtt. 15:14, 23:16). If we see ourselves as excellent guides, but do not realize our blindness, we will only lead people into the ditch (Rom. 2:17-22).
The Pharisees were excellent at judging other people to make themselves look and feel better about themselves. After reflecting over these verses A question comes to mind. Is it ever okay to judge somebody? If you look at scripture there are several verses that say judging is okay (I'm not going to list all of them heres a couple (John 7:24, 1 Corinthians 6:1-5) In fact there is a whole book called Judges found in the Old Testament. The question isn't is it okay to judge somebody else the real question is what is your intent of your judging? Difference between Righteous judgement and condemning judgement: when you condemn your giving no hope. It’s to late. You can't ever atone for your sins. Righteous judgement is to help restore that person. Matthew 18:15-17 is a perfect example of two brothers in Christ one judging another on his fruit. Today we use the word accountability and if you think about it when your accountable to somebody else your really judging them. Your saying there's a standard that I'm suppose to hold you to and if you live contrary to that standard it's my responsibility in love to approach you and confront you.
Again Jesus in this passage is speaking to the Pharisees people who new the law. People that should have known better!! The Pharisees were always judging the gentiles, people who didn't know the law. The pharisees should have been showing people grace not condemnation. And this is where the application lies as man and women of God we need to show the love grace and compassion of our savior to those who our outside the family of God. Is there sin in the world absolutely but we can't hold people to a Christian standard if they don't know who Jesus is. Another key point of this passage is before you go around judging other peoples lives judge yourself first. Verse 40 reminds us that we cannot lead others where we have not been ourselves, nor can we be all that our Master is. In fact the more we strive to be like Him, the more we realize how far short we fall. This is a warning against pride, for nothing blinds a person like pride. It certainly is not wrong to help a brother get a painful speck of dirt out of his eye, provided we can see what we are doing. If you think about it, it's kind of humorous to see an eye doctor with a plank in his eye preforming surgery on somebody that has a spec in his eye. The emphasis here is on being honest with ourselves and not becoming hypocrites. It is easy to try to help a brother with his faults just so we can cover up our own sins! Here's a thought to reflect on people who are constantly criticizing others are usually guilty of something worse in their own lives. So lets remove the planks in our eyes before we remove specs from others.
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