(by Braden Gogel)
As I prepare for marriage (woohoo!), a number of people have encouraged me to carefully examine the way that I address sin – including sin that isn’t mine. When you’re married, it seems, your spouse is sure to become, after yourself, the biggest sinner you know. Now that doesn’t mean that they are any more sinful than the other people around you. When you know someone that intimately and spend all your free time with them, you are going to encounter their sin.
This post isn’t about marriage or romantic relationships. I’m not going to share tips for first dates or first arguments. I’m going to talk about sin and how we need to address it when we see it in other people.
Matthew 7:1-5 says: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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? 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? You hypocrite, 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.”
We live in an “open minded” culture that is accepting of everyone and everything – so long as you do not offend anyone. But since Christianity, in calling sinners to repent (and thus condemning sin), tends to be offensive, Christians often find themselves looking for ways to fit more closely with the culture. We see the first verse in this passage, then, and think, “Aha! I don’t have to call people out when I see them sinning!” Wrong. Sorry folks, there are no excuses to be found here.
When we see a speck in our brother’s eye, we should want to remove it. Everyone knows that having a speck in your eye is unpleasant. First your eye waters, then it gets irritated, which makes it water more, which blurs your vision, which causes you to rub your eye, making it more irritated, making it water more until finally, the blasted thing is removed. Now the speck in this passage represents sin. Sin causes pain and damage (separation from God), just as a stubborn speck can cause pain and damage to our eye. Additionally, it’s often easier for a friend to see a speck in your eye than it is for you to see it, just as can be the case with sin. We often feel the effects of our speck without recognizing the speck. If we could see it, we would remove it!
So let’s revisit that first verse: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” We can’t use this as an excuse to ignore sin in the lives of others. If that were Jesus’ intention the meaning of the verse would be, “Don’t take the painful speck out of your brother’s eye or he might remove yours and you will all be better off.” That would be ridiculous! It would contradict God’s character and His will for us as He reveals it throughout the Bible.
What this passage is actually addressing is the manner in which we go about removing the painful speck from our brother’s eye. We all have specks, and many of us carry a greater burden – a log. That log is self-righteousness, and it makes us completely unable to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. Instead of delicately removing his hindrance, we blinding poke at eye and knock him silly with our own sin. It’s not only unhelpful, but can often be harmful.
Take some time today and think about how you address sin when you see it in other’s lives. Do you point it out gently and with grace, recognizing that they may not see it themselves? Or are you annoyed that they don’t see their sin; sin that you, in your superior holiness, put to death long ago? Do you pity them in their pain? Or parade your freedom before them so they “know” what they are missing?
God has dealt graciously with us, sending Christ to bear our sin on the cross before we even recognized our sin. Let us, in the same way, deal graciously with our brother. The next time you set out to help someone see their sin, be sure to cut your timber first.
