Specks and Planks

 Specks, Motes and Planks

Matthew 7:2 “For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Matthew 7:4 “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”

Jesus taught so many things, but He came back to this topic of hypocrisy quite a lot. I think He was talking as much to the Pharisees as to anyone, but the point He makes is quite clear for everybody, and the warning He gives with it is fairly blunt, too. I suspect that the Pharisees were ticked off enough with John calling them a “brood of vipers”, but when Jesus called them “Whitewashed sepulchres” it almost certainly sealed their hatred of Him.

I wonder how many of us are versions of the whitewashed sepulchres of old. How many of us tell everyone else their faults whilst ignoring or even oblivious to our own faults. How many of us say with the Pharisees of old, “Do as I say not as I do.”? Or “Do this” when we have no intention of doing it ourselves? How many of us judge others harshly whilst telling themselves that they are doing no wrong?

Hypocrisy is the worlds most accurate weapon for use against the Church in general and Christians in particular. “Hypocrite” is the single most commonly used word against Christianity. Sadly, hypocrisy is probably the most common fault of Christians – mostly because of their totally unwarranted “holier than thou” attitude and general air of moral superiority over the rest of the world.

Yet in Romans 12:3, Paul urges us all,  “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” Now why should Paul warn us to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought? Surely he is calling us to humility and modesty of spirit. After all “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” – including us – and all of us still do sin and still do fall short of the glory of God.

Should we not, as Paul says, “eagerly seek” the gifts of the Spirit including “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 

Hypocrisy cannot live alongside this. Planks and motes in our eyes and others eyes become irrelevant when we are healed of our hypocrisy.