Specks

             “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3-5)

 

            Continuing on the subject of finding fault, Jesus asked His listeners, and us, why we focus on a tiny sin in someone else’s life while ignoring the big one in our own. Does it surprise you that we don’t hear people scolding us with this passage as much as with “Do not judge”? It probably shouldn’t, because if they used this one, they’d have to admit that the possibility that they have a speck.

            What’s worse, if they used this passage as their weapon, they leave open the possibility of someone having dealt with the plank in their own eye, and therefore being not only able but granted permission to deal with the speck in someone else’s. It’s much more comfortable to assume that the planks are there permanently so that they can be used to beat those who don’t find us perfect.

            However, Jesus told us that once we have dealt with the plank in our own eyes, we can address the speck in someone else’s. The point here is that there is a speck in the other person’s eye. It doesn’t do any good to say, “Don’t judge,” because when it comes down to it, there is something deserving of judgment. One might not be right to judge, but that doesn’t mean one is wrong in one’s judgment. It just means that once one has dealt with one’s own sin, one is better able to deal with someone else’s.