Fingerpointing

The world is delighted to inform Christians, "Jesus said, 'Judge not!'" as if that's the end of it. It's clearly not because in the next few lines He says, "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." (Matt 7:5). If "judge not" meant, in effect, "Don't take any notice of the speck in your brother's eye," then Jesus was entirely confused. No, "judge not" was never intended to suggest "take no notice of sin."

So we blithely move ahead, confident that even if they don't like us pointing it out, Jesus was in favor of it. Except we've immediately skipped what Jesus said. "Why do you see 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,' when there is the log in your own eye?" (Matt 7:3-4). Did you see the step? Yes, we're supposed to care enough about those around us to help them out with a problem -- sin. Jesus's point was not "ignore sin" or "pounce on sin." Jesus's point was that we needed to look first to ourselves -- our sin.

We're pretty good at this "recognizing sin" thing. I encountered a sobering process reading through Romans. Paul wrote, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables." (Rom 14:1-2) Now, you see the point there, right? Welcome them. That was the point. Don't quarrel over opinions. Don't see yourself as the wise one. Just, accept them. But in the process of reading the text, the response in my head was embarrassing. "See? I knew those vegetarians were weak in faith!" And in the midst of a "welcome them" instruction I did just the opposite. I actually encountered this same problem earlier in Romans. In the first chapter, Paul introduces his main message, the gospel, and then launches into the main problem -- God's wrath against the human suppression of truth about Him (Rom 1:18-19). From there Paul charts the descent from insanity ("futile in their thinking" (Rom 1:21)) and foolishness (Rom 1:22) to depravity (Rom 1:28) to an entire list of evil (Rom 1:29-31) all the way to "Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." (Rom 1:32). That is the end of the chapter, and we tend to sit their thinking, "Yes! You can see this all around us! Paul is describing our world today!" Then you read the next verse. "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." (Rom 2:1). Ouch! Here we are, looking at "all of them," and Paul's point is "all of us."

We're good at fingerpointing. We can see how those murderers and adulterers are sinners while we ignore our own murder (Matt 5:21-22) and adultery (Matt 5:27-28). We can see the greed of the wealthy and ignore our own "I deserve more!!" We can read God's Word sent to us and see so many others in it, even from a caring and pious position, but don't reflect that light to our own souls. "Is that me? Do I do that?" It's said that we most easily see the sins of others with which we ourselves struggle, like the preacher who bemoans the sin of lust while he has secret affairs. Or like you and me, pointing out all their sins without ... looking at the logs in our own eyes. The point is not "Stop looking at their sin." The point is "Judge yourself first." Oh, and, by the way, it is highly likely that the answer to the question, "Is that me? Do I do that?", is "Yes." Before I pull out stones to stone others, I'd better be putting my own flesh to death first (Rom 8:13).