Hey, What’s That In Your Eye?

For thousands of years people have been studying the life of Christ. Many different kinds of approaches have been used in looking at Christ; some want to prove that He wasn’t perfect, some want to prove that He was, some want to find some way that He contradicts Himself, some want to find out what He has to say about their current struggle. The approaches go on and on, but the point is that we look at every facet of Jesus’ life, and we focus on every detail of every situation He was ever in, and how He dealt with it. We examine Jesus as though He were on a slide under a microscope. What is truly amazing is that even under such close scrutiny, Jesus is seen to be perfect in every situation every time.

We know how to look closely at a person to see if they are really what they say they are. We don’t just look at Jesus, but we look at others as well. But in all this scrutiny that goes on, we must remember to look at ourselves. We need to ask ourselves the hard questions, and look at every situation we have a part in and think about whether we behaved in a Godly way or not, and whether or not we were a good representation of what it means to “be a Christian” to those looking on.

It’s easy to overlook our own shortcomings in order to point out a fault in someone else, and so we need to be careful not to do that. True Christians examine themselves first, then turn their eyes outward to see how to help others in their walk with God. Jesus points this out to us in Matthew 7:3-5 when He says:

“Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is 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.”

What an embarrassing situation to be in, right? The picture painted is the equivalent of a man who is so drunk he can barely stand on his feet reprimanding the man next to him for having a drinking problem! Not only is it embarrassing, but any instruction we would give loses its weight and meaning when we fail to apply it in our own lives. Self-examination is of the utmost importance in the life of a Christian. Let’s be sure and be honest with ourselves so that we can be of the greatest help to others.