Toothpicks and Telephone Poles
Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye? Matthew 7:3 (Amplified Bible Classic Edition, AMPC)
How quick we are to judge other people. We judge them for the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the way they speak, and a million other things. We pick at them until we have found every last flaw we can find. And while we do so, we ignore the huge flaws in our own lives and personalities. As it says in Matthew 7, we focus on the tiny little speck in our brother or sister’s eye and ignore the huge log in our own. It is the perfect definition of hypocrisy.
Most of what we criticize we know nothing about. We speak against people on TV, in government, and tons of people we have never met nor know anything about. We base our judgements on external appearances, which can be deceiving. And we carelessly speak words over people and situations that are none of our business.
You can be sure of this: when the day of judgment comes, everyone will be held accountable for every careless word he has spoken. Matthew 12:36 (The Passion Translation, TPT)
Jesus said that we will have to give an account to God for every word we have spoken , especially careless, idle, useless words. If we kept that in mind, we would be much more hesitant to find fault with others. As we go about our daily lives, let’s be concious of the fact that our words are being recorded in heaven, and we will have to answer for each one. And as we do, we will find that our focus will be less on the toothpick in our brother’s eye and more on the telephone pole in our own.
