The mote and the beam
Matthew 7:1, 3-5 “Judge not, that ye be not judged.
And why beholdeth thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considered not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me putll out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
In scripture, we are never called to “judge” anything or anyone…..except ourselves before the Lord (1 Corinthians11:31)……but we are told to “prove” them.
To judge, we must be above others……and only God can do that.
But to prove, we must just wait, and see whether what they say, is what they do.
A “mote” is a splinter…..a “beam” is a two-by-four!
The difference is huge.
Both hinder the vision….and both can blind us to what we should be seeing….but the illustration is concerning judging and the “measure we mete”….or what we do about our judgement.
Jesus does not say we should not help our brother…..nor even help him with his vision of things…..but that we should first see to ourselves before God….then we can really help our brother.
We should remove the “beam” in our own eyes.
That “beam” can be our own opinion about what is going on….
….it can be our own experience concerning people or things that have happened like this….
….it can be sin in our life that hinders us from God’s viewpoint…
(My grandmother used to have a saying….”When you point your finger at someone else to accuse…..several fingers are pointing back at you!)
We should remove all hinderances from our own vision….before God….then we can help our brother.
Matthew 7:5 “…first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out thy brother’s eye.”
The eye is the organ of sight…..and how we “see” is important.
As Christians, we are to see by faith….
2 Corinthians 5:7 “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”…
….faith sees God….and when we see God first, our eyes see everything else as it affects Him….not how it affects us….or others.
We are putting Him and His Word first, and letting that light shine on both us, and others.
Jesus said the light of the body is the eye:
Matthew 6:22-23 “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, they whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
When we “look” at things in the single vision of God’s will and glory…..then our eyes are enlightened to see aright.
(The dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, is said to only see one thing at a time. The Holy Spirit ever points us to Christ and His character, His Word, and His Will.)
When we “look” at things from an evil eye….
…..one which seeks to influence,….in any way but God’s….
….and thereby hurting others by that influence……then we spread darkness not light.
(“Evil” here, in the Greek, is “hurtful, it is the influence or effect”…..not describing the character of someone.)
If we are honest before God, we can see, by faith, the beam in our own eye. We can see that there are many things within ourselves that need tending to….and when we have dealt with them….
….we can help others….not by pointing out their splinter….but by pointing out God’s help to us….
…and that He can do the same for all.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 