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? You hypocrite, 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. – Matthew 7:3-5.
This whole segment of Matthew 7:1-6 speaks to the danger of unforgiveness. The premise is this is Jesus’ commentary on Matthew 6:12. These verses are his commentary on the danger of unforgiveness. The first indication of an unforgiving spirit is judging others (Matt. 7:1-2). Justice may be the instinctive cry of victims of someone else’s bad behavior. True justice is understandable, taking matters into our own hands by judging others is not. The danger of unforgiveness is that left unchecked, it continues to infect other relationships.
The second evidence of unforgiveness is developing a critical spirit towards others (Matt. 7:3-5). The tone of the narrative shifts in verse three from a direct attack on the person who attacked them to a broader audience of people who are “innocent bystanders” caught in the wake of a toxic, unforgiving heart.
A person who keeps on carrying unforgiveness eventually develops a critical and complaining attitude towards everyone. The nature of “finding the speck in the eye of others” is a person who starts exercising their “spiritual gift” of fault-finding. The specs may be imperfections, but they are minor in nature compared to the “log in one’s own eye.” This person starts to become an expert of finding everything that is wrong in everyone else’s life. A heart that has been infected by unforgiveness becomes bolder about finding things wrong in others, consistently.
The “log in their own eye” is not any kind of sin, it was specifically the sin of unforgiveness. Jesus was not giving His men permission to start comparing their own sin with the sins of others in order to give oneself permission to point out their problems. The danger of judgmentalism is that it quickly becomes a normal condition of fault-finding in others.
The “log of unforgiveness” will always trump the imperfections in others. Since Jesus quickly condemned this behavior as hypocritical, there is no way to justify pointing out the faults and failures in others for any reason. Fault-finding, especially driven by unforgiveness, is especially offensive to our heavenly Father.
Pastor Brad
