Of bugs and beams

Last night, I was running one of my favorite trails when WHAM, a gnat flew right into my eye (ok it wasn’t quite that dramatic, and more likely than not I ran into the gnat).  At any rate, I’ve been a runner for enough years that this is not entirely unusual. And generally, the offending little bug will just make its way out in a couple seconds.

Not this time.

No, this little creature decided to lodge in the bottom of my eyeball and didn’t want to budge. My attempts to free it as I drove home (I don’t recommend this) and once I arrived home were to no avail. So I ended up at a local urgent care clinic where the little bug finally dislodged and was aided to extraction by a blessed pair of tweezers. Ah, freedom! 

For the hour-and-a-half or so that my eye socket provided shelter to the insect—dead though it was by this time—I could think of little else. While I could still see, it was very difficult to truly concentrate on anything beyond the bug—merely a speck—in my eye. 

And as I was driving, the verse came to mind: “Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3, Amplified translation) 

This verse asks “why,” but the next verse asks what I’m really thinking, “Or how can you say to your brother. Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?” (Emphasis mine)

I mean seriously, with that bug bothering my eye, how could I have concentrated enough to get something tiny out of someone else’s eye? Perhaps it would have been possible, but difficult. And the bug in my eye was simply a speck. What if it had been a beam? 

The world often points to Matthew 7, which begins with the well-known “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” to argue against calling out sin. Of course, this is absurd as Jesus regularly called out sin and calls us to follow Him.

But what Matthew 7 is quite clear about is that as we judge others, so will we be judged (verse 2). And we are in no position to criticize others until we first acknowledge and repent of our own sin. Verse 5 states, “You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye.” 

Jesus calls us to judge—but correctly, not hypocritically (John 7:24: “Be honest in your judgement and do not decide at a glance (superficially and by appearances); but judge fairly and righteously.” 

Last night, I was in no position to truly help others and be useful to them until I dealt with the distraction in my own eye. Of course, sin is far greater than a mere “distraction.” It is death. 

And the best way I can truly help others become free from the bonds of sin is if I first allow Jesus to free me.