How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,” when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye. Luke 6:42 NABRE
Jesus has gathered a crowd and teaches a long sermon that touches on many subjects. One subject is on judging others. We might think Jesus is against judging others but that is not completely true. Jesus is against followers being critical of others, particularly when we have many faults of our own. Jesus uses the idea of removing a splinter from another person, something that may obscure their pure vision of the kingdom of God. Jesus indicates if someone we judge has a splinter in their eye and we think we are being helpful mentioning it to them, we should first know we have a wooden beam in our own eyes. Unless we remove our own beam we are not going to be helpful with another’s splitter. In other words we have many faults of our own, work on these and once we are pure we might be helpful to others.
Jesus does expect us to challenge and correct others, but from a place of love. If a fellow follower of Jesus is doing harm to themselves or the message of Jesus we are called to bring it to their attention and help them change. We may think of this as judging, but in fact we are just being a good friend in challenging others to be accountable in front of God. God sees all, so we can be helpful when we remind them of a fault harming themselves or the community. But we must always challenge from love. Just as we should expect and welcome others who loving challenge us to be accountable before God. Never be critical, always be a friend who loves others and desires their best.
What beams do you have in your eye? Are you able to support others in love?
We must always challenge from love. Just as we should expect and welcome others who loving challenge us to be accountable before God. Never be critical, always be a friend who loves others and desires their best. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #beam #judge #Luke #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #cross #last #gospels #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways