A Splinter In My Heart

Matthew 7: 1“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. ³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?⁵ 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.

As I shared yesterday, there is a result to our becoming more self-righteous, and the result is missing the problem I have by looking at the problems of others. Of course, Jesus spoke to this so well, knowing our human nature, He spoke some specific truth about who is able to judge and who is not able to judge. Judging in itself can be beneficial if we judge in such a way as to discern something as good or bad. It moves into a bad area when we are judging, not from our head, but from our heart. Our heart, or will, needs to be surrendered to God, and if we do, we will not get in His position of judging the heart. Only God knows what a man thinks, but we try to do that ourselves, don't we? I do sometimes, and it is wrong. 1 Corinthians 2:¹¹ No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.

I sometimes look at others so it takes my thinking off my own problems and satan feeds my pride to keep me looking outward and not looking inward. To look inward first and see the splinter I have in my heart is actually a log, keeps me growing in my faith walk, and God will show me more and more as i open up my heart to Him. The writer of Proverbs hit this nail on the head in Proverbs 24:12 ¹² Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.” For God understands all hearts, and he sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve. God sees the intent of the heart, and if we don't live introspectively first, we might miss what He is trying to show us that we need to change. We first deal with the problem in our heart, and then we see others from that heart in line with God's heart.

Jesus called those of us who judge others as "hypocrites," and that hits hard, but it is helpful when we are living in "full disclosure." Walking in the power of the Holy Spirit is nothing but a life of full disclosure, because then we can truly say, "Jesus, I'm an open book." When we get to that point, the lies that drive me to judge others fade, and the real truth helps me deal with myself first, and then I will see life itself much differently. For me, the log in my heart is really not a log at all, but it is a splinter that has festered into a log-sized problem because I didn't deal with it honestly. In Matthew 7 Jesus tells us what to do first when having this judging problem. Matthew 7: 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. First things first!!

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren