Got A Mote?

So often we have a favorite verse we’ve used to beat down someone’s actions, or even inaction. Matthew 7 is an excellent example. Christian or atheist can quote:

Judge not, that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1 KJV)

Sort of gives free reign for any individual to do as they please without judgment from another. Except that the train of thought continues:

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (Matthew 7:2 KJV)

So, if we judge fairly (which is very hard for people to do) we may do so, and we will be fairly judged by others. Ooops. Perhaps we need to look further – the lesson continues:

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 KJV)

That’s the hardest lesson of all. Look to ourselves first.

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? (Matthew 7:4 KJV)

Not only do we see the speck of dust that is causing our brother’s eye to blink, but we think we’re capable of fixing that for him, don’t we?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matthew 7:5 KJV)

There is so much tied up in that final sentence of this lesson. We have a log big enough to support a roof in our own eye, and we’re worried about a speck in another’s? That’s hypocrisy at it’s finest, isn’t it? We see past our own sins while trying to fix someone else’s.

The answer to both problems is also in that final sentence. Get the log out of your own eye, then get the speck of dust out of your brother’s.

Do not ignore either one. Do not allow the beam, that log, to remain. It will cause damage. However, do not allow that mote, that tiny speck of dust to remain, either. It may be just as damaging.

The guilty will say "Do not judge me!" The caring will say "Let us help each other."