Specks and Planks

Specks and Planks

Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Matthew 7:5

Recommended Reading
Luke 6:37-42

Early in the film version of the near-disastrous Apollo 13 space flight, astronaut Jim Lovell is in his backyard, looking up at the moon that hangs small in the night sky. He holds up his thumb and it blocks out the entire moon from his sight. How could something so large be obscured from view by something so small?

It's all a matter of perspective. Things aren't often as they seem; sometimes a small thing can obscure something larger and more important. For instance, we may see a sin in the life of another person but fail to see our own giant, judgmental attitude. The small sin of another has blocked our view of our own larger problem. Jesus put it this way: Don't worry about the speck in another's eye until you've removed the plank from your own eye. Until our own eye is clear from a judgmental spirit, we are unqualified to judge the sins of another. Yes, the other person may have sinned, but God has not appointed us the judge of him.

Of all the sins in the world, God calls us to be concerned about only one before any other: our own. Once we have removed our plank, we can help our brother remove his speck.

No man's conscience is to be a judge for another.
C. H. Spurgeon