July 19, 2021 – Matthew 7

Be careful how you judge others. Oh my, it is so easy to spot the speck in the eye of another while completely missing the log in my own eye! Jesus rightly shines the spotlight, here, not on others but on ourselves. How quickly we can find ways to justify or excuse our own great sins while condemning lesser failures in others. In relationships, in families, and in our churches, how helpful it would be for us constantly to be looking into the mirror, not to admire ourselves, but to examine ourselves, to spot our own failures, and to repent of sin.

Job prayed, “How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin” (Job 13:23). David prayed, “Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind” (Psalm 26:2) & “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23,24) If I find myself striving, today, with a friend, a brother, or a spouse, I suspect that turmoil has more to do with myself than with the other.

It is so important that we hear and act upon Paul’s counsel to the Ephesians: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

Oh, let us love our brothers

With the zeal of Christian love,

Thus to keep this holy precept

That is given from above,—

Let brotherly love continue,

Brotherly love, brotherly love,

Let brotherly love continue

Evermore. –E. A. Barnes (1892)