Description
Specks and Planks
This meditation reflects on Matthew 7:3, where Jesus asks why we notice the speck in a brother’s eye … (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
What did Jesus mean when he was talking about specks and planks in our eye? That’s what we’re going to meditate on today as we look at Matthew chapter seven, verse three, where Jesus is speaking and he says this: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
To help us meditate on this passage, we’re gonna look at three questions. The first question is, what is the main theme? Now I wonder what strikes you in particular about this sentence. To me, the main theme here is hypocrisy. We shouldn’t be trying to wrestle with other people’s problems when we’ve got far bigger problems of our own, particularly in the area of sin. It looks bad, doesn’t it?
It also speaks to us about mindfulness of our own situation. God wants us to consider ourselves with sober judgment, as Paul says. We should be aware of the challenges we face, our own shortcomings so that we can stand in openness and humility before God.
Question two, what do I need to confess?
Well. It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? That there may be problems, there may be sin in our life that we need to come before God and confess to him. It could be things that we are thinking, things that we’re doing big or little. We need not to singe our own consciences and keep that conscience useful to us because God asks for a holy people, doesn’t he? He says, “Be holy for I am holy.”
So we need to make sure that we stand clean before God in regular confession, receiving his daily sanctification, making us clean again and again and again. This isn’t connected to our salvation, which is secure from the moment that we accept Jesus. But even as Christians, as saved people, we can live pure lives or we can live unrighteous lives. We should confess so that we are ensuring we are living as holy people.
And so question three, how can I apply this?
My first thought is that we apply this prayerfully; that we say to God, “God, please show me this log in my eye.” I don’t want to be a hypocrite, and I don’t want to be causing others to stumble by blundering about, by trying to fix other people when I’m not even fixed myself.
Let’s pray for God to open our eyes to our own condition, not so that we feel dreadful, but just so that we’re honest with our God who sees all of this anyway. And then seeing and knowing and acknowledging our brokenness, we can lift it up to him and say, “God, please fix me. Please use me. Even in this state, I am yours and I accept that you will work through me because you are gracious and merciful.”
And then finally, let’s say to the Holy Spirit, “Please show me how to walk the way you want me to walk. I want to keep in step with you. If you call me to notice a speck in someone else’s eye, please first show me if there’s a log that I need to deal with. And then once that’s dealt with, please help me to approach that other person as a brother, as a sister, as an equal, as a friend, so that we can work through these things in humility and love together.”
Thank you, God, for the reminder that you care about our state. You care about our hearts, our minds. You care about us. Please help us to walk with one another in humility and love in accordance with the example that Jesus set. Amen.
