Log and speck

FROM A GUEST BLOGGER 
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“Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is 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
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It’s so much easier to apply the truth of God’s Word to someone else.  As I read the Bible or listen to sermons I can clearly see where that person is going wrong, or what this person needs to put right.  Or where this church has strayed and that one has the wrong emphasis.

While there is a great need in the Church today for discernment and a commitment to upholding truth and recognising and turning away from error, my love for the truth must always lead to a transformation of my own heart.  If I only apply God’s truth to the church I may become complacent because I attend one that has a high view of God’s Word and tries to obey it in its structure, government and worship.   My ability to spot doctrinal error may protect me from being led astray, but it will not in itself make me more like Christ. 

If I only use God’s word to analyse the specks in other people’s eyes my own blind spots will become blinder. If I’m unaware of the deceitfulness of my own heart and never allow God’s Word to deal with my own sin, then even an apparent love for truth may lead to a belligerent, argumentative or pedantic spirit that is proud and self-righteous and glories in always being right.

My love for truth ought to be inseparable from my love for the Truth; the Lord Jesus.  My reading and hearing of God’s Word must be a matter of the heart as much as of the head, and my application of it must always be to my own heart first.