Our Unloving Reactions

   "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" (Mt. 7:3).

    A mote means in the Greek a little splinter, whereas a beam means a rafter. And the Lord Jesus by this comparison seeks to tell us that our unloving reaction to the other’s wrong is what a great rafter is to a little splinter! God have mercy on us, when in our hypocrisy we have tried to deal with the other person’s fault, when God saw there was this thing far worse in our own hearts.

    But let us not think that a beam is of necessity some violent reaction on our part. The first beginning of a resentment is a beam, as is also the first flicker of an unkind thought, or the first suggestion of unloving criticism.

The Cleansing Stream

    "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye" (Mt. 7:5). That is the first thing we must do. We must see that our unloving reaction is a sin! On our knees we must go with it to the Fountain filled with the Blood of our Redeemer. At His feet We must repent of it and be broken afresh, and trust the Lord to cleanse it away in His precious Blood, and to fill our hearts with His love one for the other.

    With love and concern in our hearts, let us humbly tell an erring one of their sin. Let us not press the point but continue to make it a matter of prayer. It takes time to be willing to bend the "proud, stiff-necked I."

    When in turn we are challenged, let us not defend ourselves. Let us take it in silence, thanking the other, and if he is right let us praise the Lord together. We need each other desperately in maintaining our Lord’s victory in our own lives and in our churches.

    There are blind spots in our lives that God uses others to reveal to us. "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God" ( 1 Jn. 4:7).