Reading 9
The log in your own eye
The reading
Matthew 7:1-5
Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but don’t consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother’s eye.
The companions
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
The note
The famous half is the first sentence, and it is usually quoted to end an argument. Read to the end and it does not say what people want it to say. The speck still comes out. Somebody still removes it.
What changes is the order, and who goes first.
Underneath is a symmetry rule. The standard you apply is the standard applied to you, at the same setting. Whatever threshold you set for other people’s failures is now your own threshold.
Most of us quietly run two: strict for others, generous for ourselves. We do not notice, because we never see them side by side.
The beam is the joke and the point. It is not a hidden fault. It is enormous, obvious to everybody but you, and it is blocking the exact organ you are using to inspect other people. Bad instrument, confident readings.
This week
The next time you are about to say what is wrong with somebody, in a review, a thread, or a message to a third party, write the same sentence about yourself first. Same words, your name in place of theirs. Send the first one only if the second is not also true.
When it is also true, that is not a reason to go quiet. It is a reason to fix your own version first, which takes longer.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the prophet reading.
This page is made for paper too: print it and the reading prints clean, ready for the table.