Devotion #4: Speck-Removal
People love to judge. Just look at how many shows on TV are all about judging. Whether it is judging someone’s cooking, dancing, singing, talents, athletic performance, beauty, or even relationships, our culture seems fascinated by the idea of judging others. Our family will often watch the show “America’s Got Talent,” and the one judge that every contestant wants to impress is Simon Cowell. Simon tends to be the harshest judge and has his own standard by which he determines if a person has what it takes to win. His comments often come with complete disregard for the contestant’s feelings. Yet, when it comes to how we live our lives, no one wants a harsh, Simon Cowell-type of judgment telling them that they are in the wrong. In the same way, our culture craves the entertainment of judging others; they also cry out, “You cannot judge me - only God can judge me.”
Jesus addresses this kind of judgment in His Sermon on the Mount, saying, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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 7:1-5, NIV).
These verses are often misused and pulled out of the context of Jesus’ teachings. He is not telling us not to judge right from wrong or not to discern truth from false teachings; however, He is telling us not to judge others by our own standards. There are no justice scales that are built to the “Jeannie Yates standard” by which I can expect others to live. James 4:12 tells us, “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.” There is only one true standard of judgment, and that belongs to God Himself. We all come up short when “measured” against God’s standard (Romans 3:23).
So, if we are all held to the same standard, then I have no choice but to evaluate my own life. We have to take an honest look at our lives and allow God to show us all of the 2x4s (“planks”) that we need to remove. What is keeping us from living rightly? What keeps us from knowing Jesus more? In one of my favorite Psalms, David prays, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23-24, NLT).
After we have allowed the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and remove the logs that hinder our vision, we will be more equipped to help the believers around us do the same. It is necessary in the body of Christ that we “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). In his commentary on the book of Matthew, Douglas Sean O’Donnell writes, “Our Lord Jesus is not teaching us not to judge (period), but rather how to make true, wise, and (most importantly) loving judgments. He will teach us the loving art of speck-removal…It is unloving to judge your brother when you have a log in your own eye. But it is also unloving to leave a speck in your brother’s eye.”
When we fail to consider our sins and seek the forgiveness and redemption of Christ, we open up the door to the hypocrisy that Jesus warns us about. He shows us three important action steps that we can apply instead of getting caught in the judgment zone:
- Remember that God alone is the judge (not you, not me).
- Repent and remove your 2x4s.
- Lovingly help your brothers and sisters with speck-removal.
The Apostle Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Ephesians when he reminds them, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear…Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:29, 31-32, NLT).