Matthew 7:3-4 –LOG-EYED OR CROSS-EYED?

Matthew 7:3-4 –LOG-EYED OR CROSS-EYED?

Cross-eyed

How amazing is the technology that implants a microchip in the eye, enabling a blind person to see. One man sees his girlfriend’s smile for the first time, while another is able to read his own name. The Bionic eye is an incredible breakthrough… But what if the specialist was blind?

Jesus says we are blind eye specialists when we judge others. In Matthew 7:5 (NLT) He says “Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”

Enabling someone to see is important. Jesus is not giving an invitation to TURN A BLIND EYE to someone with a speck. 1 Corinthians 5:12 (NLT) says “It ISN’T your responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to judge (with discernment and love, not petty criticism) those inside the church who are sinning”. I am to help with the speck in my brothers eye, but Jesus is telling me not to blunder in to do delicate eye surgery, scalpel in hand, when I am LOG-EYED! Brown eyed, blue eyed, green eyed, one eyed, glass eyed presents no problem, but I can do a lot of damage, stumbling around, log-eyed, battering my friends who only have specks.

Deuteronomy 12:8 (NASB) speaks of “every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.”), but I can choose the alternative. I can choose to do whatever is right in God’s eyes, and live my life from the basis of an objective, non-negotiable, consistent, verifiable set of ABSOLUTE TRUTHS that I find in God’s Word. It will be ONE-EYED in the sense that it is God’s truth, and not based on my own opinions or on public consensus. Proverbs 3:5-7 (NLT) says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding…”

My motivation for making a judgment concerning others, however, will not simply to be based on a set of laws and some conceited self-righteous attitude! As a follower of Christ, God invites me to get rid of that critical, arrogant log in my own eye and be an instrument of His discerning, forgiving love. 1 John 1:8- (NLT) says “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we CONFESS our sins to Him (ie open our eyes to our sins as God sees them), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”

When Jesus speaks of logs and specks He is not saying that there are some SMALL SINS and some LARGE SINS? He is trying to tell us that although ALL SINS ARE BIG, some sins have larger CONSEQUENCES than others. Critical, judgmental attitudes and words always have BIG consequences. James 1:26 (NLT) says “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.”

Galatians 6:1-2 (NLT) which says “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”

Extracting specks is delicate business. I will lose the log in my own eye first and seek to apply the tweasers of God’s Word to alleviate the irritation and harm that is happening in my friend’s life. It might hurt a little but Proverbs 27:6 (NLT) says “Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.”

Christ paid an expensive price for the lumber in my eyes. It was the lumber of critical, callous, cold judgments that formed the beams of a rough-hewn cross upon which my Saviour died. I am reminded that it is the logs in my own eyes that can crucify others.

Am I LOG-EYED OR CROSS EYED? Do I see the beams of the Cross this Easter, where Jesus was judged for my sin, and where, as I bow before Him, my perspective is irrevocably changed by His mercy and grace. When I don’t see eye to eye with others, the invitation He gives me is to see them through the eyes of the Cross.

Pastor Ross

Matthew 7:1 – NEGATIVITY VULTURES!

Matthew 7:1 – NEGATIVITY VULTURES!

Negativity Vultures

FAULTFINDING is the “VENOM OF THE SOUL” (Ray Pritchard). It verbalises defeat. It destroys joy, and vulture-like rips away at our hope and potential.

The PHARISEES are the religious leaders and they continually gather, like vultures, to communicate negativity to Jesus. NEGATIVITY VULTURES are scavenging people of prey, Condors of criticism, feeding on the carcasses of the wrongs of others. These sad individuals thrive on all that is negative, on what they see as the mistakes and sins of their victims. They hover over the social environment, keeping a close eye out for the dead, rotting flesh of the failures of others. They are SCAVENGERS OF SCANDAL. These RUTHLESS RAPTORS can smell defilement from a mile away and with their derisive cries they gather to the hunt in ever diminishing circles of flight until they land to tear the flesh off anyone with a flaw.

A group of Pharisees are very much like a WAKE of vultures. A WAKE is a ceremony associated with death and they speak WORDS OF DEATH. The only friends of a negative person are other negativity vultures who gather for nit-picking the rotting flesh of lost potential.

And by the way, not all of them are bald-headed old world vultures. They are found in every generation. The faultfinder feeds on the flaws of others and then, as vultures do, they vomit it up for their young so that the next generation learns their negativity. Unfortunately they are not an endangered species.  

My Pastor, Brian Houston, says negativity magnifies anxiety and distorts truth. It makes harsh judgments and sweeping, unfair statements. It sabotages potential. It turns molehills into mountains.

No wonder that Jesus says “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. (Matthew 7:1 NLT). He’s not speaking against their discernment, but against their UNCONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, and their inability to discern their own shortcomings. He is warning them that JUDGMENT BITES BACK.

Tom Attridge shot his own plane down in 1956 when the velocity and trajectory of the rounds he fired decayed, and ultimately crossed paths with the plane’s shallow dive forcing Attridge to crash-land the aircraft. Destructive Negativity inevitably catches up with us and we SHOOT OURSELVES DOWN.

What is the spirit behind and the motivation of my judgments? Jesus commands me not to be hypercritical and negative and faultfinding towards others. He is saying stop being so annoying, petty and trivial! Stop being so objectionable, obnoxious and critical! Stop being so disapproving and disparaging! Stop being so scathing and severe! There is a spiritual gift of encouragement but there is no such gift as the gift of negativity.

What disturbs me is that I hear this verse used as if it is advocating that I ACCEPT any kind of lifestyle and teaching no matter what God’s Word has to say about it, and if I don’t then I am “not being very Christian”. Our culture cries out with insistent declarations against followers of Christ – “Do not judge! Do not make moral evaluations! Do not condemn anything!” Wrong! That is not what Jesus is commanding. He is not trying to water down evil in the world. He is not trying to excuse our sin. That’s NOT the emphasis of this passage at all. In fact to read it that way misses the whole point of what Jesus is trying to say. UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR OTHERS DOESN’T MEAN UNCONDITIONAL APPROVAL OF OTHERS! You know the saying “Jesus loves me as a sinner but He doesn’t love my sin. He loves me too much to have me stay the way I am.” John 16:8 (NLT) says that the Holy Spirit comes to “…convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”

Without Christ we are already condemned. The fact is that Jesus Christ is the only One who has come to save us from certain judgment. Conviction of sin, confession of our inability to save ourselves, commitment to Christ alone as Saviour = no condemnation. Jesus paid the price for me when He died for my sin. John 3:17-18 (NLT) says “God sent His Son into the world NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD, but to SAVE the world through Him. There is NO JUDGMENT against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son…”

The invitation for us before diving in for the kill with our negative judgments of others is to ask “Am I being a NEGATIVITY VULTURE feeding on the faults of others or an INSTRUMENT OF GOD’S MERCY revealing God’s grace and patience? Is my aim to condemn or to express the love of Christ? Is my aim TO JUDGE OR TO SAVE.”

Pastor Ross