Today’s passage: Matthew 7:1-6
Helpful thoughts:
- The focus of these verses is a self-righteous, judgmental spirit.
- When you have a speck (a splinter or a twig…This is NOT a piece of dust), you definitely know it. You don’t really need someone else to point it out to you.
- So, this comparison of a speck and log does not refer to a small sin and a big sin. It is not like the speck is fighting and the log is murder. The log is self-righteousness, believing you have arrived and need no correction-that you are superior.
- The dogs and pigs Jesus refers to in verse 6 aren’t the cute kind. They were scavengers; wild, dirty and often diseased.
Questions to consider:
- What would it take to literally have a log jammed into your eye and not notice it? What would that look like spiritually? How is that possible?
- Whose sin should we be most concerned with in a spirit of humility?
- Does verse 1 mean that we are NEVER to point out sin in others, to rebuke them? What is it saying?
- How would humility and love change the way we help a brother or sister with the speck that is in their eye?
- How would the humility required for the previous question help us to respond appropriately to people who act like wild dogs and/or swine when we attempt to reach out and help them? Should we point the finger and proclaim our superiority or be grieved at their rejection of the truth?