Key Passage: Matthew 7:1-6

Topic: Christian Living

"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:4, ESV)

It's so easy, sometimes, to look at others and pick out their faults, isn't it? "That guy's a jerk," "That girl's a liar," "I hate the way she talks about other people"...on and on and on.

But how do you measure up under the very standards you use to judge others? How often do you act like a jerk to somebody, talk bad about or lie to someone?

In today's reading, we find a familiar and somewhat ridiculous illustration of this. Imagine you're trying to help someone with a speck of dust in their eye. You'd need to be able to see clearly and act precisely and delicately. But what if, while you're trying to help, you have a 2x4 stuck in your own eye, and it's smashing them in the face and getting in the way?

Ridiculous? Yes.

Yet that's exactly how we act sometimes. We try to help people with the little things we see wrong in their life, while at the same time there are even bigger problems in our own lives.

Romans 2:1 says, "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things" (ESV). The very things we point out in other people are often things that we've overlooked in ourselves.

The Bible says that you need to "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" (Matthew 7:5, ESV). The only way to do that is to have Jesus perform "eye surgery" on you. Ask Him to reveal the areas in your life that need work and to help you make those changes.

So the next time you're getting ready to pass judgment on someone else, take a look at your own life first...if you can see past the log.